The Smiling Tiger

Todd & Georgine #3

by Lenore Glen Offord

This is Lenore Glen Offord s third mystery set in Northern California and featuring the amateur sleuthing team of Georgine and Todd McKinnon. It s 1949, and with the War well and truly in the past, Americans are relaxing into the warm bath of suburbia. Even groovy Northern California, even sharp-eyed Georgine and Todd McKinnon (last seen in The Glass Mask and Skeleton Key) have largely succumbed to the lure of comfortable conformity. But the McKinnons pleasant domesticity is shattered by the arrival of a distinctly nonconformist young man, who arrives unannounced one night, tells a wild tale, and dies a short time later. Why did he choose the McKinnons to hear him out? Sure, he hoped Todd would write a check, eager to turn the strange story into one of the thrillers he regularly sells to the pulps. But could there have been another reason? One bizarre phone call, and Georgine is all too ready to believe there might have been "

238 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1949

About the author

Lenore Glen Offord (1905-1991) was a reviewer and author who wrote mysteries set in and around San Francisco, CA. Offord was the mystery book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle for over 30 years, as well as an avid Sherlock Holmes enthusiast.

Reviews

[Alana Cash · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mystery novel set in Berkeley, California in 1940s which interested me. This is a genre book and the characters aren't particularly well developed which troubled me a bit because I didn't really care what happened to anyone. The plot focuses around a cult which adds a bit of noir and it's pretty complicated. The writing is solid and the plot moves forward in twists and turns, but I'm not a fan of mystery novels so I can't really say how it stacks up against other books of the same genre. I would have liked more description of Berkeley in the 40s - not only the place, but the school. I did find it amazing that they were using Windex. I thought that was invented later.

Apparently this book is collectible in first edition hardcover

[Cate · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as the two previous in the series. The banter is lacking, and the plot is too wishy washy--the ending doesn't really make sense at all, but maybe that makes it more like real life. Not my favorite.