The Golden Box

Pat and Jean Abbott Mystery #2

by Frances Crane

The second Pat and Jean Abbott mystery, set in a fictionalized version of the author's home town of Lawrenceville, Ill. When Jean Holly (still unmarried)leaves Taos to tend to family matters in her home town, Pat follows and soons become involved in the murder of the town tyrant. First published in 1942.

Genres: Mystery, Classics

159 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1942

About the author

Frances Kirkwood Crane was an American mystery author, who introduced private investigator Pat Abbott and his future wife Jean in her first novel, 'The Turquoise Shop' (1941). The Abbotts investigated crimes in a total of 26 volumes, each with a colour in the title.

She died in an Albuquerque, New Mexico nursing home, where she had spent the previous few months because of ill-health. Her ashes were scattered across her home town of Lawrenceville.

Frances Crane, author of the colorful Pat and Jean Abbott mystery stories, was born in Lawrenceville, Illinois. After graduating from the University of Illinois, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, she travelled in Europe. While living there in the 1920s she began contributing to magazines, including The New Yorker, in which her satirical "Mrs. Craig-Higgs" pieces from England appeared. Her articles did not prevent her from expanding into mystery fiction, a genre in which she found great success on both sides of the ocean.
Mrs. Crane spent a good part of her life traveling the world, living for extended periods in the places that provided the settings for many of her mysteries. San Francisco was one of her favorite cities and the home of the Abbotts. Her love for that cosmopolitan center was reflected in Thirteen White Tulips, The Amber Eyes, The Man in Gray, and others. Similarly, her fascination with Tangier was evidenced in The Coral Princess Murders (1954), and her love of New Orleans in The Indigo Necklace (1945). Paris, Louisville, Texas, and many other interesting locales were also backgrounds for her mysteries.
From 1941 to 1965, Mrs. Crane completed 26 novels featuring the Abbotts, whose adventures were broadcast in two radio series in the 1940s and 50s, Abbott Mysteries and Adventures of the Abbotts.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jean Holly (not yet Abbott) returns to her home town in Illinois to visit an ailing aunt. She hasn't been back to Elm Heights since she left eight years ago to resettle in the artistic community of Santa Maria. But when her cousin Peg (Margaret McCrea) tells her that Aunt Sue has pneumonia, she decides to head back to her old stomping grounds.

Life hasn't changed much in the small Midwestern town--the wealthy Mrs. Claribel Fabian Lake still holds sway in all the circles that matter and generally gets the last word on everything--from the annual church Christmas party to who is appointed coroner. She makes her daughters' lives miserable--refusing to financially help her eldest, Emma, who defied her in her marriage choice (even though it may cost the life of her grandson), forcing Claire's engagement to the chosen suitor and squelching Valerie's romantic plans. When Mrs. Lake succumbs to an apparent heart attack, everyone believes that the daughters will now have a chance at a life of their own...until the will is read. Sure, they're going to share a large fortune...but not until Val turns forty. And that won't be for another twenty-two years

It's not just the terms of the will that are odd. Somebody up at the Lake's home plays music at the strangest times...stopping in mid-chord. One of the inmates of the house is seen peering up in the trees surrounding the McCrea house. The doctor, who declared Mrs. Lake's death as natural and who has received a $3,000 per year legacy for life, is closing his practice and making plans to leave town. Jean's curiosity is on full and she sends her friend Patrick Abbott a message that says that there are events that might warrant his detective interest. He arrives just in time for the second death. Mrs. Lake's maid is found hanged and the doctor (yes, the legacy fellow) declares it suicide and the coroner is all set to go along when mild-mannered Bill McCrea, husband of Peg and inquest jury member holds out for an autopsy. This gives time for Pat Abbott to start nosing around and before we know it, one of the prime suspects, if murder has happened, has hired him to investigate in earnest. Will he be in time to prevent any more murders?

Another solid entry in the Pat & Jean Abbott series. Crane seems to hover right at or just above the three star rating for me. Generally she provides decent plots with a fair number of suspects and clues. Pat, as the official private investigator, does the heavy lifting in the detective department. Jean tends to misjudge people and jump to conclusions--and jumps around on those conclusions, suspecting first one than another of the Elm Heights residents. I really enjoyed the mid-western setting for this one (being from Indiana myself) and I thought she gave us excellent sketches of most of the characters. I might have rated this one higher but for two things. First, I just don't see that the gold box really has all that much to do with our detective arriving at the solution. Why make it the title and bring it up at all if the solution doesn't really need it? [Even though Jean insists it's important and Pat "explains" how it really was the most important clue. I can see how it might have been used in this way, but it really wasn't] And second, I never really felt that there was any other real suspect other than the real culprit. Jean and her cousin bat around some ideas for motives for others, but none of it seemed strong enough. I just wasn't quite sure how our villain managed to be where then needed to be.

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

[Ian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Going back in time...way back in time to the 1940's, for the second book in the Pat Abbott mysteries.

Jean Holly is called back to Elm Hill, Illinois because her Aunt Sue is ill. Back in the familiar surroundings of her childhood home town and staying with her cousin Peggy and her husband Bill McCrea, who live next door to the famous Fabian House, home to the richest woman in Elm Hill, Mrs Claribel Fabian Lake, who practically runs the town.

But within 24 hours, Mrs Lake dies of a heart attack.

Pat Abbott stops in on the way to DC, and that night the Fabian House maid Ida Raymond, is found hanging in the Bird Room...suicide or murder?

I'm loving rereading this series, as it has been such a long time since I first read them. They are well written and plotted, with a good set of characters.

My copy is the bland standard Penguin green and white cover, but I just love the colourful artwork from Popular Library edition.

If you like the review and would like to read reviews on other books I have read, visit my blog at www.finalchapterreadersgroup.wordpres...... like, comment and follow.

[Giselle Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story was harder for me follow and enjoy but I don't think it was the story, I think it was the format of the book itself. For some reason the type and layout was harder for me to follow and retain. Never the less, I wasn't sure who the "who done it" was till near the very end. I had my suspicions but wasn't sure until the last couple of chapters and that's the way a good mystery should be.

I liked the setting and the fact the author used her actual roots to craft the story there. I also enjoyed Jean's hometown friends and the back story of the town.

If you can find a copy of the book I think most readers will like the book. Remember that this was written in the 1940's when society was not what it is today, especially regarding smoking.

[Eden · Rating 4 out of 5]

2024 bk 126. I had a harder time getting into this - the language used and the objectifying of people, not just stereotyping, was a little hard to take. It was definitely what we once called a psychological mystery - more than a hard boiled detective. Pat does give Jean credit for focusing on what he missed in the end. Will continue the series as the author did mature as she wrote more of the Abbott mysteries (having read 15, 18, and 20 previously. I am glad to read this and learn more of the back story.

[Jonathan Westbrook · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be a huge fan of the Old Timey Radio show of the Adventures of the Abbotts, I was greatly disappointed in this book. None of the characters were memorable or had much of a personality.
I have the first book of the series coming in from the library soon and hope it is better.

[Robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second Abbott mystery delivers on the promise shown in the first. We learn a lot about Jean's early life since the story is set in her home town. We see Pat in action a bit more, though Jean's being the dominant POV limits what we see enough to hide his detection a lot. True to Chekov, the central family is an unhappy one and their story is unique. The characters are all a bit quirky, in a midwestern manner and the banter is lively and pointed. The mystery is solid and spurls out in a satisfactory manner.

[Albert Belcher · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is just okay

[Suzanne Robertson Moutis · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

Good story, and I like the main characters, but lots of racist language and attitudes typical of the time it was written.

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jean Holly is going home. Well, she's visiting her cousin Peg back in Illinois. While she's there, the next-door-neighbor, a tyrant who was threatening to cancel the church's children's party, is killed. The woman ruled her family with an iron fist. When her oldest daughter refused to marry the last male in the family, she forced an engagement on her second daughter. Now the first daughter's son needs help and the tyrant is refusing monetary aid. The youngest daughter in the family wants to marry her sweetheart before he goes to war but her mother doesn't approve of his family. In addition there is a maid cum housekeeper who has never earned a paycheck, one who is fiercely devoted to the girls, especially the youngest. There are more than enough suspects to go around. When Jean's beau, Pat Abbott, shows up, she cajoles him into helping to solve the murders (yes, there is another).
A cute story, can't wait to read the rest in the series.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second in the Pat and Jean Abbott series, a married couple (still courting in this book) consisting of a California detective who meets Jean when he goes to Taos to improve his ability as an artist. She has been operating an art/gift shop for eight years following the deaths of her parents. In this book she returns to her hometown in southern Illinois to visit her seriously ill aunt and becomes embroiled in the strange events in the large house of a highly eccentric family across the street from her cousin Peg. I was fascinated by the context of the story, which occurs a very short time prior to Pearl Harbor. The book was written in 1945, and the edition I read featured a helpful note to explain that what may seem odd or politically incorrect today was the way it was then (everyone smokes, racism is blatant, etc.). I will definitely read more of the 26 books in this series. Frances Crane was an interesting person.

[Shauna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Featuring Crane's regular detective duo Jean and Patrick Abbot.
I really enjoyed this story set in Illinois in the early 1940's. In this novel the Abbots are not yet married and Jean has returned to her home town to visit a sick aunt. A rich but very unpleasant neighbour dies, followed soon after by another member of the household. Lots of suspects, engaging banter and the clue is there for the reader to work out 'whodunnit' for themself. Well worth a read.

[Cyn McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting reading books set and written in the 1940s. Social expectations are so different! Jean Holly is a pretty bright and spunky girl, for all she considers herself an old maid at 26. She's a good partner for the so-far conventional, if well educated, detective Pat Abbot.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I preferred the first book. The romantic relationship between the heroine and the detective is cute and annoying.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

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