Panico

by Helen McCloy, Bruno Amato (Translator)

Con l’improvvisa morte dello zio Felix, avvenuta di notte per una violenta crisi cardiaca, la giovane Alison Tracey non solo ha perso il suo unico punto di riferimento nella vita, ma anche la fonte dei suoi redditi e la casa dove vive a New York. Nonostante facesse da segretaria allo zio, non immaginava che la situazione finanziaria della famiglia fosse così critica e, soprattutto, era all’oscuro della sua passione per la decrittazione dei codici. Così quando il colonnello Armstrong dell’Intelligence si presenta a casa per ritirare un fascicolo segreto sostenendo che zio Felix stava elaborando un cifrario militare inattaccabile, Alison non ha idea di come aiutarlo. Ricorda solo di aver visto uno strano foglio, pieno di lettere apparentemente alla rinfusa, e di averlo gettato nel cestino poco prima. Ma ora quel foglio è scomparso. Su consiglio del cugino Ronnie, Alison decide di cambiare aria e trasferirsi per qualche tempo nel vecchio cottage di montagna nel quale era solita passare l’estate. Nella completa solitudine di quel luogo isolato, e con la sola compagnia del suo vecchio cane, la ragazza cerca di riprendersi dal lutto e di riflettere sul futuro. Ma tutt’a un tratto il misterioso foglio ricompare nella tasca della sua vestaglia. E nel silenzio irreale della notte, strani e insistenti rumori si sentono al di là della porta… Panico, pubblicato originariamente nel 1944, è finora inedito in Italia.

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Helen McCloy, born as Helen Worrell Clarkson McCloy (she also published as Helen Clarkson), was an American mystery writer, whose series character Dr. Basil Willing debuted in Dance of Death (1938). Willing believes that "every criminal leaves psychic fingerprints, and he can't wear gloves to hide them." He appeared in 13 of McCloy's novels and in several of her short stories. McCloy often used the theme of doppelganger, but in the end of the story she showed a psychological or realistic explanation for the seemingly supernatural events.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this because it's set in an Onteora cottage, Ard-na-ri. On re-reading it, I loved it even more.
McCloy reminds me of Dorothy Sayers: she is whip-smart; extremely well educated; and I admire her cultural reach. From Ancient Greek gods to the latest trends in psychology, she is informed and informative. And like Milton's Lucifer, her bad guy here is a flawed hottie. And did I say? It's scary as hell!

[Martina Sartor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Atmosfera assolutamente da "Panico": brava l'autrice a crearla con suggestioni derivate dai miti classici. Affascinante l'enigma dei codici e dei cifrari, anche se difficile da capire.
Un ottimo Bassotto d'annata.

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

That's clever. A war of nerves. An attack that is always psychological, never physical. (Colonel Armstrong, p. 155)

The world is at war and someone has declared a private war of nerves on Alison Tracey. When Alison's Uncle Felix Mulholland dies, apparently from heart trouble, she is left without a job and without a home. Her cousin Ronnie, who has inherited the bulk of what little their uncle had to leave, offers her the use of the remote cottage in the Adirondacks while she recovers from her loss and sorts herself out. Alison looks forward to the time alone and says that she will not be nervous on her own four miles from the nearest small town.

But that's before the rustling noises begin outside the cottage. And the mysterious footsteps....when no one seems to be there. And the odd, loping shadow that she glimpses in the moonlight. And the small changes in furniture position that provide evidence that someone searches the cottage whenever she's away.

She's not precisely all alone in the woods. Geoffrey and Yolanda Parrish--one old fried (Geoffrey) and one old rival (Yolanda)--are within walking distance. And Mrs. Phillimore, Alison's nearest neighbor, is a fairly new addition to the mountain community. But should she trust the bizarre woman who walks and talks like a man in disguise? Her cousin Ronnie arrives with Dr. Kurt Anders, a psychologist, in tow. But even Ronnie isn't as assuring as he once wasThen there's Matt who drove her from the train station and delivers her groceries...and who has a voice that is disturbingly familiar even though he says they've never met. And finally there's Colonel Armstrong who claims to be Military Intelligence and is looking for the key to an "unbreakable" cipher which Uncle Felix told him he had developed. Armstrong keeps popping up at the most unexpected times. Is he what he says he is?

Alison isn't sure who she can trust...and when matters come to a crisis one dark and stormy night it will seem that she can't trust anyone. Geoffrey says he'll keep watch on her cottage, but disappears just when he's needed most. Colonel Armstrong appears once more, but dashes out the front door in pursuit of someone that Alison never saw. Even Argos, the faithful family dog who has been keeping Alison company, disappears into the rainy night.

Alison, in true suspense heroine fashion, goes out into the storm to look for Argos. She hears noises over the storm and sees shadows that may or may not be menacing. And then as if on cue, Alison's flashlight loses power. She stumbles over a dead body and then the world goes black. When she awakens, she is safe and warm in a bedroom at the Parrish's cottage--but why are her friends and even Ronnie looking at her with suspicion? It will take another dash into a dark night and a flash of insight into her uncle's method of encryption before Alison will be able to prove her self innocent and find out which of her friends or neighbors were trying to drive her into a Panic....

Helen McCloy consistently entertains in her mystery stories. Here she sets up the suspense novel--frightened heroine in a secluded novel, but she still provides the readers with a fair number of clues to make this a true Golden Age style mystery. Fair play is definitely evident--even though I didn't pick up on the clues she generously displayed for me. My two quibbles with this one are more personal than actual mystery critiques. First--Alison seems to be a very intelligent young woman. Prior to her uncle's death she has had zero interest or knowledge of ciphers and how they work. But--over a period of four days she manages to unravel the code when others with a background in ciphers can't. Okay? So, she's a smart woman. Let's accept that. Given that premise...then why on earth does this smart woman repeatedly leave the cipher papers scattered about where anybody who stops by for a neighborly visit (or not-so-neighborly in the case of the prowler) can see them? The only reason she can come up with for anyone (other than Yolanda who hates anything in a skirt that attracts her brother's interest) to be spying on her is the cipher. And yet...she does nothing to hide it. It irritates me when normally smart people do obviously stupid things. Especially when they do it on a "rinse and repeat" cycle.

Two--the cipher. Okay, it's central to one of the story lines. I got that. But, seriously, did we really have to have pages and pages of explanation about how the darn things work? I thought it was a little yawn-making when Dorothy L. Sayers had Lord Peter give Harriet a lecture on codes in Have His Carcase. I skipped some paragraphs there....but Sayers has nothing on McCloy. Pages of explanation. Tableau after Vigenère tableau. And not just once. We get several installments.

Fortunately, the story is a good one and the characters are interesting and memorable--with Argos, the blind cocker spaniel, nearly stealing the whole show. Throw in a vivid setting and slight shift in the mystery motive tableau (see, I did pay half-ways attention to those code lectures), and we have a ★★★★ outing.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.

[Jason Speck · Rating 4 out of 5]

A neatly plotted World War Two era mystery (published in 1944) involving a plucky heroine, a mysterious death, and an unbreakable code. Alison Treacey wants to recover from both her uncle's sudden death and a lingering illness by summering in his isolated Adirondack cabin. But from the first night she feels watched and threatened. Who roams the woods at night? What do they want with her? And how does this connect to her uncle's work for military intelligence?

A very recommendable vintage mystery.

[Simona Ferrari · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ho iniziato a leggere questo libro un po’ scettica...
Poi mi sono ricreduta subito.
Nonostante l’argomento un po’ ostico, la crittografia, l’ho amato molto.

[Hitomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

すごい！こんな暗号作るなんて。頭いい作家だ。
でも、暗号の説明の部分は読み飛ばしました。理解できません。
古典的な服、家、雰囲気、絵が目に浮かびます。

[Ron Kerrigan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not one of her best efforts. Her best, in my opinion, was Cue For Murder.

[Samantha Glasser · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Allison's uncle dies, she is shocked and saddened. Moments later, a Colonel Armstrong arrives and warns Allison that she is in danger because she was also her uncle's secretary, and he was working on creating an unbreakable cipher for the government before his death. The colonel demands the key, but Allison does not have it.

In order to seclude herself away from possible threats, she goes to a family cottage named Altonrea. It is a quaint place filled with fond memories, but before long, having no electricity becomes unsettling, and having no one but her blind cocker spaniel to protect her is even more frightening.

And to make matters worse, her uncle left clues in the house that make her anxious to break the code he created.

This story is exciting to the very end and is a good example of McCloy's writing style.