The Black Honeymoon by Constance and Gwenyth Little - 12/20 Books of Summer

Miriel Mason has been supporting the war effort as a nurse and has been assigned to a difficult yet affluent patient, Richard Lang. Distracted by his attractive nephew, Ian, a lieutenant on furlough, Miriel has just married Ian on the strength of five days’ acquaintance. In the taxi after the civil ceremony, he explains he has no money so they need to spend their honeymoon at Richard’s house – but not to worry, it will be private because Richard is in the hospital and his elderly sister Violet never leaves the house. 

Unbeknownst to Ian, several other relatives have moved in due to dire financial straits: his uncle, Dr. Benson Lang, Benson’s wife Mabel, their son Dr. John Lang, John’s wife Sara, and their daughter, Leslie. When Ian announces he and Miriel are married, Mabel reveals the family had been afraid Richard had fallen in love with Miriel and Ian was recruited to lure her away so as to safeguard their now urgently-needed inheritance.

“Oh, Ian – you fool! You didn’t need to go so far as to marry the girl.”

Furious, Miriel declines to share a room with her new husband, and there is no time for a rapprochement. Soon Uncle Richard has died from an allergic reaction to feathers – and feathers turn up in the pocket of Miriel, still his nurse. With Ian looking at her askance, Miriel worries she will be blamed for Richard’s death and installs a family friend, private investigator Montgomery Kelly, as butler in the Lang house to find out what really happened to Richard as it seems his family is involved. But Kelly has a drinking problem so it is unclear if he can clear Miriel’s name and solve the mystery before more people die.

The Little sisters wrote 21 mysteries between 1938 and 1953, which were known for their zany plots and outspoken, independent heroines. All books but one had “Black” in the title, although they are standalones. According to Tom and Enid Schantz, who wrote the introduction to this edition, Constance came up with the plots and detailed outlines and Gwenyth provided detailed rewrites added the humor. The sisters were born in Australia but spent most of their lives in New Jersey.

The story is told in the first person, and reveals that Miriel definitely has a mind of her own. She spends most of the book helping Kelly investigate her new in-laws, while keeping the peace between Ian and Kelly, who are jealous of each other. I was a little distracted from the mystery by questions the authors never answered: did Miriel marry Ian in the belief he had money or did he really sweep her off her feet? Did he fall for her while trying to protect his inheritance or get carried away by his assignment? Ian is suspicious of Miriel when he finds feathers in her uniform pocket (the fact that this hurts her feelings is an indicator she does love him) but wants to protect her from the police investigation. He does not seem sufficiently wary of his own dubious family:

Ian said, “Quiet. You shouldn’t pull my relatives to pieces. It’s not a good foundation for marriage.”

“I think you must be wrong,” I replied astounded. “Everyone does it, and despite that there are many happy marriages.”

Tom and Enid Schantz, both now deceased, founded Rue Morgue Press to bring back into print classic detective novels of the Golden Age by lesser-known authors like the Little sisters. They had started in 1970 with a mail order business selling out of print mysteries, then moved to Boulder, where they operated out of their home, then opened a bookstore, which they ran for 30 years. They retained the name (a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe) for their small publishing company. I bought this in 2002, presumably out of curiosity about the authors and possibly because one had my name!

This is book 12 of my 20 Books of Summer and it’s my twenty-second book for the Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge.

Title: The Black Honeymoon
Author: Constance and Gwenyth Little
Publication: The Rue Morgue Press, paperback, 1998 (originally published in 1944)
Genre: Mystery
Setting: WWII America
Source: Personal copy