This is a collection of five novels, written by Canadian author Margaret Miller in the 1940s. The last two were Inspector Sands novels, but I’m afraid he is rather bland, although the second one, The Iron Gates, was a nifty puzzle. But the first three, the Paul Prye Mysteries, were some good stuff.
Let’s let Prye explain his vocation. “I’m a kind of cosmopolitan quack. If a lady in San Francisco wants to know why her husband has taken to eating paper bags, she might call on me. Then I simply go to the lady’s house, ostensibly as a guest, and observe her husband in his natural environment.”
. . . You’re a psychiatrist?
A consulting psychiatrist.
Well, now. Doesn’t that have a familiar ring?
Millar has a knack of introducing her characters. Meet Mrs. Harriet Alphonse.
“I didn’t know Miss Bonner had a nurse,” Prye said. “What’s she like, bloodthirsty?”
“Miss Alfonse is a perfect lady and she’ll cut the throat of the first guy that says she’s not.”
…At thirty-one, she passed as a well-preserved forty.
Not to worry, Miss Alfonse is well able to take care of herself.
The banter was top drawer, the cocktail scene totally on point, and there are Nick and Nora Charles vibes galore. Quite literally, on the Nora point. Giving it full points for the first three were smashing. Unfortunately, that’s all the Paul Prye there was, but might need to check into some of her later stuff.