Murder Trouble

by Louis Trimble

Murder Trouble, first published in 1945, is an entertaining, fast-paced mystery centering on a young man named Tom Hallam. Hallam, leaving the big city upon doctor’s orders, arrives in the small town of Vinson where he has accepted a job on the town’s newspaper. However, his peaceful sojourn is soon ended as he is enmeshed in a maze of mysteries, including a haunted house, a corpse in his bedroom, and a woman who claims to be his wife. Author Louis Trimble (1917-1988) was the author of a number of science-fiction and western books, in addition to mysteries.

230 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1945

About the author

Louis Preston Trimble (2 March 1917 - 1988) was an American writer and academic. His published work included science fiction, westerns, and mysteries, as well as academic non-fiction. He generally wrote as Louis Trimble, but used the pseudonym "Stuart Brock" for some of his work.

Reviews

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

Trimble begins this story with a reporter, Tom Hallam, on the loose after two years in a sanitarium, off to take a job with a small town newspaper. The story then gets far more complicated from there with a rude chauffeur, a headstrong hitchhiker who seems to know Hallam's business, a one-legged hotel caretaker, and an all but deserted and haunted town.

But that's only the beginning with the plot thickening as a woman shows up claiming to be Tom Hallam's wife with a marriage certificate and everything, Hallam falls for another woman, and a headless corpse is traipsed all over the county. It is a rather odd and fantastic tale that at times feels dreamlike or as if the narrator hasn't quite got all his marbles.

The haunted town in the country and all the mysterious characters turning up are puzzling and lends a rather bizarre touch to this pulp mystery. In the end, I found the plotting to be hopelessly complex and like running through an endless maze. Not Trimble's best work, but still interesting at points.

[Chris Stephens · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think he might have been drunk or something while writing this one.