To Catch a Thief

by Daphne Sanders (Pseudonym), Craig Rice

Thanks to a financial scheme by a small circle of very rich men, countless people have suffered. Now one man intends to make the Wall Street moguls pay. He hovers on the edges of their social events, where their wives and daughters sport priceless jewels even as others in the city struggle just to survive. But our thief's latest escapade has inadvertently turned into a kidnapping. When he tries to release the girl--an unhappy, madcap heiress--she decides she wants in on the action. And when a murderer enters the picture, the thief must defend himself against crimes far more serious than petty theft . . .

288 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1943

About the author

Pseudonym used by Georgiana Craig who also wrote as Craig Rice

Reviews

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Originally published as by Daphne Sanders (the sole book for which Rice used this nom de plume, although she ghostwrote another "Sanders" book, George Sanders's Crime on my Hands, the following year), this is, I think, my favorite Craig Rice book to date. I found it on the Munsey's site (as by "Dapne" Sanders).

A few years ago, a bunch of crooked financiers (plus one honest but gullible millionaire) mounted a quick financial coup that netted them a lot of money but bankrupted lots of the "little people." Now a mysterious character who signs himself just "N" is sending them letters of warning that he plans to steal a treasured item from each of them and, despite their best efforts, is successfully going through with the thefts. The financiers call in a detective called Donovan, who soon deduces that "N" is using the proceeds of the thefts to refund the "little people" -- or their survivors, because suicides were sometimes a consequence of the coup -- for all that they lost.

Then things seem to take a darker turn. Poppy, the daughter of one of the financiers, goes missing, presumed kidnapped or dead. His wife is found murdered in the sleazy room where she had an assignation with her lover. A showgirl who probably knows the identity of the killer goes into hiding but soon she, too, is found murdered. The cops assume "N" must be the killer but Donovan is less sure, especially when he realizes that Poppy, who's still very much alive, has decided she supports "N's" endeavor to right the financiers' wrong and when "N" offers him a form of cooperation in the hunt for the real murderer . . .

The book's short and for the most part taut, and the central character of "N" -- whose true identity we discover only in the final pages -- appeals very strongly to that part of me that has always respected and adored Robin Hood figures, characters whose relative weakness in terms of weapons or power is more than compensated for in their battle with the bad guys by their intelligence, craftiness and integrity.

The whole tale seems to belong in John Dickson Carr Land -- that parallel world in which quite implausibly surreal tales seem to make perfect sense. The tale itself isn't particularly Carr-like (more Ellery Queen, in a way, although not Queen at his most tortuous), but it certainly demands that same joyously granted suspension of disbelief from the reader.

At the end of the novel there's a hint that there are going to be more tales of Donovan and "N" vying with each other, but alas this never came to pass.

A sprightly jeu d'esprit, with a cunning resolution. What more could we ask?

[Bill Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standalone novel written by Craig Rice using the pseudonym, Daphne Sanders.

A mysterious blond man is robbing seven rich men who profited from a stock manipulation that consequently ruined the lives of investors not privy to the finagling. The blond man, who writes notes to the slick financiers signed only as “N”, is distributing the profits—less 10% for expenses—to the original victims. The creator of the stock market sleight of hand hires a detective to capture the wily thief and set the world right for greedy nasties. In due course, “N” enlists the aid of the daughter of the detective’s client, becomes suspected of killing witnesses and attempts to find the actual murderer—who is perhaps an escaped lunatic and perhaps one of the ruined investors.

A lot of moving parts creates two basic mysteries: who is “N” and is he the murderer? For the reader, the murderer’s identity may be easy to work out, but the true identities of “N” and the escaped lunatic and their relationship to two of the original victims is a more complex puzzle and Rice does a nice job with it. The action is well paced; there is very little exposition and plenty of dialogue. The dialogue is for the most part lack luster and contributes to the blandness of the characters. They are certainly thicker than cardboard, but not by much. Rice tells the story, puts the players through their paces and that’s it.

I had an execrable .pdf e-copy that I converted to a word doc and edited it, so I could at least judge the work on its own merits. The e-copy vendor used the Handi-Book digest publication and OCR’d it. Or something. Daphne is spelled Dapne and the text gets worse from there. The Dial Press (1943) first edition seems quite rare. There is a Detective Book Club edition, but I couldn’t find that either. No luck with my Interlibrary Loan request, either.

[Moe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty good 3 1/2

[Daniy ♠ · Rating 5 out of 5]

This kindle edition had some formatting and grammatical errors, still legible enough.


I loves the story, loved N, loved Poppy, so fun.

[hercolanium · Rating 3 out of 5]

I likes this book even if it I was disappointed by the ending, but it was a reasonable ending