Phoebe Atwood Taylor

Phoebe Atwood Taylor (1909 –1976) was an American mystery author.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor wrote mystery novels under her own name, and as Freeman Dana and Alice Tilton. Her first novel, "The Cape Cod Mystery", introduced the "Codfish Sherlock", Asey Mayo, who became a series character appearing in 24 novels. Taylor's work was light in tone, a bit more serious than screwball comedy, but fun and easy to read. According to critic Dilys Winn, "Mrs. Taylor is the mystery equivalent to Buster Keaton."Taylor, Phoebe Atwood (writing as Freeman Dana), "Murder at the New York World's Fair", 1938. New York: Random House. From the Introduction to the 1987 trade paperback edition by Dilys Winn, p. ii.] She borrowed heavily on her own background (being born in Boston, and very familiar with Cape Cod) to produce books full of local color. Taylor adopted the pseudonyms of Freeman Dana and Alice Tilton for her other books because her publisher did not want her known as a writer of potboilers. Like many who lived through the Great Depression, she was in constant need of money, and one of her letters to her publisher was printed in a recent edition of one of her books as an explanation of why she adopted the pen name of Alice Tilton for the popular Leonidas Witherall novel series.

Asey Mayo

Asey (a nickname for his given name, Asa) Mayo is a down-to-earth Cape Cod resident who has had numerous adventures around the world during his former sailing career, but now works as a kind of general assistant to the head of "Porter Motors". He has an immense amount of local knowledge of local geography and the doings of the inhabitants of Cape Cod, and uses his knowledge, his physical stamina, his very fast car and a great deal of intelligence to solve local murders at breakneck speed. His cousin Jennie Mayo, a repository of local gossip, plays a role in many of the novels, and her husband Syl often assists Asey. Jennie's charitable and civic activities in the community often provide the starting point for Asey's cases, but another constant theme is the interference of "folks from away" in local affairs.

The earliest Asey Mayo titles are rather dark, perhaps reflecting the Depression background. As the series went on, the tone lightened and approached the screwball towards the end of the series. All the books have a strong sense of the Cape Cod background, and many have a strong sense of time as well. In the novels written during World War II, for example, Mayo is hindered by fuel and rubber rationing, military maneuvers, Fifth column activity, civilian defense groups, blackouts and First Aid training.

Leonidas Witherall

Leonidas Witherall ("the man who looks like Shakespeare"), once an instructor at a private boys' school, has lost all of his money due to the Wall Street crash of 1929, and takes to anonymously writing books and, later, a radio show about the adventures of "Lieutenant Hazeltine" as a means of survival, while solving murders as a sideline. In the eight novels chronicling his adventures, Witherall is confronted with a corpse under unusual and maximally embarrassing circumstances that suggest his own guilt, requiring him to enlist a motley crew of assistants, use disguise and impersonation to escape discovery, and engage in at least one scavenger-hunt-like chase before solving the crime. Once in every novel, Witherall references the radio program's constant repetition of "Cannae" -- an ancient battle from which Hazeltine draws inspiration so that his smaller force defeats his larger mass of enemies. This mention of Cannae means that Witherall is about to marshal his assistants as part of a clever scheme to deliver the murderer to justice. Hazeltine is also subject to the machinations of the "octopus of fate", by which an incredible coincidence is explained at least once in every Witherall novel. In 1944, the character was adapted into a Mutual radio mystery program, "The Adventures of Leonidas Witherall".

Mystery critic Dilys Winn had this to say about the Witherall novels: "These books don't make all that much sense, but they go a long way in proving that making sense is immaterial -- a guffaw is more vital. Tilton books are so busy, so complicated, so Marx Brothers ... that makes them sound as if they might have a plot, doesn't it? Bad assumption. They drift from incident to incident with the style of the crash 'em cars at a carnival."

Bibliography

Asey Mayo novels

*The Cape Cod Mystery - 1931
*Death Lights a Candle - 1932
*The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players - 1933
*The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern - 1934
*Sandbar Sinister - 1934
*Deathblow Hill - 1935
*The Tinkling Symbol - 1935
*The Crimson Patch - 1936
*Out of Order - 1936
*Figure Away - 1937
*Octagon House - 1937
*The Annulet of Gilt - 1938
*Banbury Bog - 1938
*Spring Harrowing - 1939
*The Criminal C.O.D. - 1940
*The Deadly Sunshade - 1940
*The Perennial Boarder - 1941
*The Six Iron Spiders - 1942
*Three Plots for Asey Mayo (novelets) - 1942
*Going, Going, Gone - 1943
*Proof of the Pudding - 1943
*The Asey Mayo Trio (novelets) - 1946
*Punch with Care - 1946
*Diplomatic Corpse - 1951

Writing as Freeman Dana

*Murder at the New York World's Fair - 1938

Writing as Alice Tilton

*Beginning with a Bash - 1937
*The Cut Direct - 1938
*Cold Steal - 1939
*The Left Leg - 1940
*The Hollow Chest - 1941
*File For Record - 1943
*Dead Ernest - 1944
*The Iron Clew - 1947

References