A Client Is Canceled

Captain Heimrich #4

by Frances Lockridge, Richard Lockridge

A pair of inexperienced sleuths attempts to best Captain Heimrich in this mystery from the authors of the “excellent” Mr. and Mrs. North series (The New Yorker).
 
Capt. M. L. Heimrich of the New York State Police may not have the flash of hard-boiled city detectives, but there’s no lead the intrepid investigator won’t follow until his every hunch is satisfied . . .
 
A cocktail party at which no one is particularly fond of one another can be quite a bore. But when two partygoers decide to liven things up by skinny-dipping in the Townsends’ pool, they stumble across a body and dive into a whole lot of trouble.
 
Paul J. Barlow was a man of means, and now that he’s been shot in the back his wealth will go to his relatives—a fact that doesn’t bode well for the couple who found the body: Barlow’s niece and her husband, Winifred and Orson Otis.
 
The state police are summoned to the Townsend home, and Captain Heimrich intends to sort out the case right quick. But when the Otises decide to become amateur sleuths to clear their own names, they’re soon in over their heads—and it’s Heimrich to the rescue.
 
A Client Is Canceled is the 4th book in the Captain Heimrich Mysteries, but you may enjoy reading the series in any order. 

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

185 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1951

About the author

Frances Louise (Davis) Lockridge wrote popular mysteries and children's books with husband Richard Lockridge. They also published under the shared pseudonym Francis Richards.

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh-Oh (Orson Otis) and his wife, the Pooh (Winifred who doesn't like to be called Winnie), are invited to a cocktail party at their neighbor's one hot summer afternoon. Oh-Oh can't really see why they should have to put on more clothes (suitable for visiting) to be even hotter on the Townsends' terrace than they already are on their own back porch. Besides, Pooh's Uncle Paul (also known as Uncle Tarzan) may be liable to challenge Oh-Oh to a tennis match or something much too exhausting in the heat. But Pooh says, "One can never tell; a chance is always worth taking." Why, if they hadn't gone, they would have missed out on one of the biggest murders in their area of the New York countryside. And...they would have missed out on being suspects. (But I get ahead of myself.)

So, the Otises duly dress and make their way to the Townsend place up on the hill. The Townsends are much better off than the Otises--lots of land, everything all shiny and fashionable, and a lovely swimming pool (that will be important later). Pooh's uncle is there but he seems far too distracted by business matters to think about athletic endeavors. Something is brewing in tobacco advertising arena. George Townsend has the advertising campaign for Paul Barlow's tobacco company and there seems to be a stale odor surrounding it. In fact, Oh-Oh senses a great deal of animosity swirling around Uncle Tarzan. Nothing he can describe definitely when he's asked later, but something, all the same.

After the cocktail party breaks up, the Otises wander off to the local inn for more (!) drinks and some dinner, run into Dwight Craig and Ann Dean whom they met at the party, decide to go home but then run into some other people they know and wind up even more hot and tired than before. They decide it would be fine idea to take George Townsend up on his offer to "use the pool any time" and have a midnight swim. Which all goes..swimmingly... until the Pooh takes one final, deep dive and sees something on the bottom of the pool that doesn't belong there. Uncle Tarzan--quite dead, but not drowned. He's been shot. They quickly dress and raise the alarm up at the Townsend house (where half the household seems to still be up). Captain Heimrich and Sergeant Forniss arrive and we're off and running in another State Trooper murder case.

The Otises come under suspicion, especially after it is discovered that Uncle Tarzan very generously left his niece fifty thousand dollars in his will and Oh-Oh's service revolver has managed to go missing. Knowing the Lockridge's light touch, we feel fairly certain that Oh-Oh (our narrator) isn't guilty and there are plenty of other motives hanging around. There's the farmer with a grudge against Barlow--for supposedly running his family out of the tobacco business. There's Townsend and Craig who may have been facing the loss of their biggest advertising campaign. There's Barlow's daughter who may have resented her father's meddling in her romantic affairs. But then Oh-Oh and Pooh are found standing over another dead body.

So...this isn't the all-time greatest Lockridge plot. Honestly, I thought it pretty obvious and Heimrich's methods of detection weren't quite as appealing to me in this one. He keeps pushing pieces around trying to get the players to reveal themselves and then spends a really long time building up suspense in the final scene. But despite all that, I do really like Oh-Oh and Pooh--the characters themselves. I'm not enamored of their nicknames, but I wouldn't mind them quite so much if they weren't used all the time. I do enjoy watching them interact with each other and with other characters. They remind me of younger versions of Mr. & Mrs. North. ★★★ and a half for a decent, light mystery. [rounded up here]

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

[Rick Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Major characters:

Orson Otis, "Oh-Oh", our narrator
Winifred Otis, "Pooh", his wife
Paul J. Barlow, Pooh's uncle, VP of a cigarette company
Pauline Barlow, his daughter
Francis Eldredge, a cow farmer
George Townsend, a neighbor, head of an ad agency
Faye Townsend, his wife, a decorator
Ann Dean
Dwight Craig, Ann's ex
Captain Heimrich

Locale: New York state

Synopsis: Oh-Oh (narrator) and Pooh are invited to a cocktail party at the home of their neighbors, George and Faye Townsend. They really don't want to go, but it's really hot and they have a nice pool. The party has a lot of tension. Wealthy Paul J. Barlow, VP of Blends cigarette company, had bought out Francis Eldredge's tobacco business, and Eldredge doesn't like the way he runs things. George Townsend has an ad agency, a contract with Barlow, and hints that he may pull of the contract. Ann Dean is surprised when her ex, Dwight Craig, shows up; and spends her time being snarky with him.

Oh-Oh and Pooh head out after putting in an appearance, and drinking a lot of the cocktails. They stop on the way home for more drinks, and decide to return to the Townsends to use their pool (in a remote area of the property), which is OK as they have a standing invitation to do so. As they swim, they find Barlow's body - shot. Captain Heimrich and the rest of the police arrive. Oh-Oh mentions that oh, by the way, he has a gun at home which is similar to the one used in the shooting, and when he gets home he finds it is missing.

Things get worse. The Otis' head over to Francis Eldredge's farm, and wind up getting shot at, and finding him dead. No gun, so it wasn't him doing the shooting. Now the Otis' have been the first to discover two bodies. And the are named for a $50k inheritance in Barlow's will!

Review: Oh, the 1950's cocktail scene. Have drinks after work, drinks at the cocktail party, and drinks on the way home. Everyone smoking at the same time. Too much. One beer is my limit.

The character I focused upon is Faye Townsend. She will eventually marry Capt. Heimrich later in the series, and this book reveals her backstory. She seems a bit Karen-ish here compared to later appearances.

Capt. Heimrich has an annoying manner of repeating everything he says, which got a bit old.

Readers who are younger than I should have some technical knowledge in order to understand this book, thus:

1. Cars did not always have backup lights
2. Cars used to have manual chokes which had to be set properly in order to start the engine
3. Rural telephones used to be shared on party lines. Wikipedia describes them: Party lines provided no privacy in communication. They were frequently used as a source of entertainment and gossip. Sort of the internet of their day.

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[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another mystery where Heimrich is mostly in the periphery. The story is told mostly through the character Oh-Oh. The leading couple, Oh-Oh and The Pooh, are a pretty fun couple (similar to a Mr. & Mrs. North but younger.) A real puzzler, though I did figure it out when I got one last clue! Was pleased with that, don't always find a way to figure it all out.

The lead couples real names are: Orson Otis (hence Oh-Oh) and Winifred Otis (The Pooh doesn't like the name Winnie.)

The couple also had wonderful names for people and places. They had nicknamed the murder victim - Uncle Tarzan (real name Uncle P.J. Barlow.)

Got to see a little more to Heimrich, am still hoping that at some point we get to see an investigation through his eyes at some point. Sigh.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking for a good candidate for the First Line game which would also be a quick read when I picked up this very old mystery that looked a tad worse for wear (at least the dust jacket). The first line was lightly amusing and seemed rife with implications and I figured it was what I was looking for. And it is short, so why not?

This book was not as easy to read as I was anticipating, although it was quick. I am not sure if some of it is the era in which it was written or merely the style of the authors, but likely both. The whole tone of the book is lightly amusing -- like a 50s rom com -- and rife with implications and half-finished sentences where everyone is expecting the other people (in this case, including the reader) to understand the unspoken meanings. Most of the characters in the book seem quite adept at figuring out what is not being said, but I struggled to fill in the blanks because it was too far outside my experience. Luckily the first person narrator is also a trifle dense and some things are explained to him -- but then he seems to understand a lot of things that are not explicitly addressed because it was expected that everyone would understand them. This young couple shortly after WWII are struggling to get by as writers and happen to be skinny-dipping in a neighbor's pool when they find the body of her wealthy uncle with a bullet hole in him. This makes them clear suspects. The whole thing is very relaxed and hip and casual in many ways but the timeline in the story is very short. Not all of it made sense to me and things that I am sure were hilarious or at least droll at the time of writing are completely baffling now. But still I enjoyed the weird Gatsby-esque world these folks seemed to inhabit, despite driving in a decrepit borrowed car which they called It and which is a secondary character in the entire plot. Not a bad choice for a quick read.

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early Bird Book Deal | My concentration is shot during the pandemic, this might be better than three stars | So far I like this series, but I miss the Norths. We'll see if it ever settles into being as good as that series, or if it's always slightly poorer. I appreciate the small touches, like the Otis' nicknames for each other. Just, having a hard time settling to a book right now, so I read this during my workout.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this Kindle edition as my library was unable to get a copy through Interlibrary loan and I am attempting to read the whole series. A light mystery following the pattern of Heinrich letting the suspects and murderer do most of the work—which so far seems to cause another secondary death. This one was told in first person by one of the suspects which I found a bit jarring at first.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Once again Captain Heinrich was a minor character in this book narrated by one of the characters who is not mentioned in another book. This book was slow to read, murder did not happened till you were 1/4 in the book as they were describing the narrator and his wife and their life. This book is so unlike the Heinrich books from book 5 or 6 to 21, where he becomes the main character.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read, but... I thought that Mr. and Mrs. North drank a lot, but the protagonists in this book drink them under the table! Were the Lockridges such boozers? lol That aside, the story is well-crafted and the characters are interesting.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

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