Murder Crossed

Clara Gamadge Mystery #5

by Eleanor Boylan

In her fifth "cozy" mystery, feisty septuagenarian widow Clara Gamadge returns to her alma mater to help an infamous alumna, a glamorous but self-destructive actress, as she faces her most challenging role. 10,000 first printing. $10,000 ad/promo.

Genres: Mystery

150 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Eleanor Daly Boylan was born in New York City in 1916. She began writing mystery fiction in the 1950's. Her short stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock and Ellery Queen mystery magazines and in Yankee Magazine. She was the daughter of Edward (a lawyer) and Kathleen (Ewing) Daly, and married Paul Boylan (a teacher) on September 9, 1944. Her children were: Paul, Jr., Edward, Thomas, Virginia, Eleanor.

She is the niece of Elizabeth Daly, who originally created the Gamadge characters. Eleanor Boylan has also been a professional puppeteer. She raised her family in Newton, Massachusetts and moved to Anna Maria Island in Florida in 1985. She is the creator of ‘Clara Gamadge’, widow of a forgery expert.

Series:
* Clara Gamadge Mystery

Reviews

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Discounted | Reasonably good end to the series, better than book 4 | One thing Boylan never managed to do in this series was to legitimize the choice to keep things from the police. Clara and her menage always decide to keep the police out of it, even when they have an admitted murderer in their own keeping, and the reasons are always ludicrous (and often demonstrate a failure to understand the law, which is something a writer should be careful about when two of her characters are attorneys). Because it's the choice to keep secrets that allows most of the plot to happen, it does make for a less satisfying plot. But in this final entry in the series, we get a brief glimpse at each continuing character and Clara isn't being unhinged like she was in book 4.

[Mare · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed it. Low key characters and good setting.