Pushing Murder

Clara Gamadge Mystery #4

by Eleanor Boylan

A Little Arsenic Goes A Long Way.

In fact, a single arsenic-sprinkled hors d'oeuvre, eaten at her friend Sal's bookstore opening, almost sends Clara Gamadge to her grave a week before Christmas. Luckily she makes it to the hospital instead, thoroughly baffled by the attempt to kill her.

The troops rally 'round her bed -- son Henry, daughter Paula, faithful cousin Sadd -- but are hardly a match for the recklessly bold villain they know is the poisoner...and who almost certainly will strike again.

In this deadly game of cat and mouse, Santa himself seems to have abandoned the good guys, until Clara's tough sleuthing draws reinforcements from a most surprising source.

Genres: Mystery, Christmas

Mass Market Paperback

First published September 1, 1993

About the author

Eleanor Daly Boylan was born in New York City in 1916. She began writing mystery fiction in the 1950's. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines and in Yankee Magazine. She was the daughter of Edward (a lawyer) and Kathleen (Ewing) Daly, and married Paul Boylan (a teacher) on September 9, 1944. Her children were: Paul, Jr., Edward, Thomas, Virginia, Eleanor.

She is the niece of Elizabeth Daly, who originally created the Gamadge characters. Eleanor Boylan has also been a professional puppeteer. She raised her family in Newton, Massachusetts and moved to Anna Maria Island in Florida in 1985. She is the creator of ‘Clara Gamadge’, widow of a forgery expert.

Series:
* Clara Gamadge Mystery

Reviews

[Robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kindle Rewards | Surprisingly terrible | I've been enjoying this series, so it was startling how awful this was. The first 40% of the book was Clara, having survived two attempts on her life, whining about being required to receive needed medical care and demanding that her family stop keeping her company/protecting her. "Go home immediately!" she demands to every human who loves her. No reason, just that it's nearly Christmas and she's less important than them being at home away from her, with the holiday approaching. She insists that no police be told that there's a murderer on the loose, who he is, who is in danger, anything, and the hospital, knowing she was slipped arsenic in their building, don't bother to notify anyone about it. After she goes to a bunch of trouble to sneak down to the murder location while it's full of cops and press--she doesn't have a reason to go, she just tells a bunch of lies in order to be there secretly--and ends up telling the police that she knows who the killer is, where he is, his motive, and his possible next victim, the police make promises to let her figure it out her own way and not tell them anything. Almost everything happens off-page, with people returning to report. Some report in excruciatingly boring unnecessary detail, while others actually don't explain anything, the scene is skipped in favor of Clara waking up groggy after receiving medication she needed because it was all too much for her (again). And in the final "climactic" scene, two of the good guys are in a car together, the bad guy outside of the car, and they just wait patiently for him to walk around the outside, let himself in on the far side, etc. There's weird random alcoholics and bigamy and babies out of wedlock thrown in where they are just cluttering up the narrative, and a potential victim who isn't warned because they decide it's better she learn afterward that her new husband is a bigamist with a secret kid, using a false name, with a long history of theft, fraud, and embezzlement, who murdered one of her friends and his own paid thug, tried to murder another of her friends, and was just using her for his next score, than to tell her upfront before anyone has been killed. And the book just stops with no real wrap up. What even happened here?! I sincerely hope the last book goes back to the gentle plotting of the rest of the series.

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is ok but doesn't really draw the reader in. You know who the culprit is pretty early in the book. I wish there had been more action in the book or more of a mystery. I probably will not read any more of this series.

[Stefan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An elderly lady in a hospital, an old friend who owns a mystery bookstore and has married a con artist (who pushed said elderly lady--Clare Gamadge--down the stairs, causing her to break an ankle), plus a variety of family members are at the heart of this mystery. This is one of those Agatha Christie-type mysteries where there is not as much action as there is character development and a slow reveal of what led to the crime or crimes. I rate it 3 out of 5 stars; it's not a bad book, but I'm not going to try to hunt down the other books with Clare Gamadge as the chief detective.