Desire to Kill: A Golden Age Mystery

by Alice Campbell

“The only thing plain to me is that you’re determined to shield that girl—that murderess.” Dodo Quarles liked to live fast. The parties in her Paris apartment were events to be remembered. Dodo, not yet twenty-one, could always be relied upon to supply a new thrill for her jaded guests. On this occasion, she had surpassed herself. Each guest had partaken of a rare dish—an Indian sweet which concealed a drug reputed to induce slumber and evocative dreams. But later that evening it emerged that murder was walking among them . . . and Dodo was stabbed to death. Desire to Kill was originally published in 1934. This new edition features an introduction by crime fiction historian Curtis Evans. “She could not be unexciting if she tried” Times Literary Supplement

Genres: Mystery

253 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Alice Ormond Campbell was an American-born British writer of detective fiction. Originally she came from Atlanta, Georgia, where she was part of the socially prominent Ormond family. Alice moved to New York City at the age of nineteen and quickly became a socialist and women’s suffragist. Later she moved to Paris. There she married the American-born artist and writer James Lawrence Campbell and had a son in 1914. After World War One, the family left France for England, where Campbell continued writing crime fiction until 1950.
She published her first work (The Juggernaut) in 1929. She wrote at least nineteen detective novels during her career.

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Curtis Evans, in his customarily-erudite Introduction to these reissues, quite rightly draws attention to affinities with Mignon Eberhart, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Ethel Linda White and Marie Belloc Lowndes in the plotting and style of Alice Campbell. I can see his point, but readers whose tastes do not run to those authors should not be discouraged.

Set in the loucher echelons. of ex-pat Paris, this semi-inverted mystery does have its thrillerish, heroine/hero-in-peril moments and is certainly soaked in oodles of highly-scented atmosphere. Psychology, often sexual, plays a huge part in the explanation of the crimes detailed here, although, as ever, radix malorum est cupiditas.

Tommy Rostetter, the American journalist who features in three other books, is a likeable, if occasionally naive, amateur detective, and the characterisation is vivid throughout. The portrayal of the French judicial system is startlingly real and is not "guyed" as can be the case in British-written mysteries of the 1930s. Gay men feature, but are not stereotyped. The romance element is well-handled and does have a slight twist.

This was most enjoyable, and I am encouraged to read more. Yet again, thanks to Mr Evans and Dean Street Press for rescuing an interesting and worthwhile writer from decades of neglect.

I am indebted to DSP for the digital review copy.

[Lisa Kucharski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering the time this book was written, it is quite daring in its finale where the criminal is fully revealed to the public.

The mystery takes place in Paris with a group of Americans and some French. A young lady, impetuous and with a reputation as a wild child, decides to have a party at her home. The father of said lady, has asked a "friend" to help chaperon the girl... but even she cannot rise to the occasion and says she is too worn out and in turn - ropes a young man to take over her spot at the part. During the party each person is given a special treat to eat. Is it drugs? It is? It isn't. It is. The party goers continue to party and fall asleep right where were. In the morning- one of them is dead. And one in the party is missing. And so begins the hunt for the murderer.

The first 100 pages you can read and occasionally skim through as I did. There are a lot of romantic bits here and for two chapters I wondered when our lead investigator would finally get around to the person who most likely had reason for murder. Then he does. The cat and mouse quality of chasing down clues and avoiding alerting the "prime-suspect" that the police couldn't believe guilty changes the pace and dynamic of the story all round. Once here you really get pulled in, though the romantic strings are strumming about in this story. You can feel the era in the writing. The author candidly shows subjects that for the time were probably (done) but considered taboo. So I can only imagine that the audience reading these books had their hair standing on ends.

Would I read another of Campbell's books, yes. There is one that is a free download on gutenberg.org- her first book Juggernaut.