Archived Mystery Review: MELODIE JOHNSON HOWE – The Mother Shadow.

MELODIE JOHNSON HOWE – The Mother Shadow. Claire Conrad & Maggie Hill #1. Viking, hardcover 1878. Penguin, paperback, 1990. I was looking forward to reading this one, mostly because of the Nero Wolfe-Archie Goodwin connection made on the back cover. I can see the connection, but sorry to say this is a book I’m going to have to think about twice before I can even tell you if I’n going to keep it or not. Maggie Hill plays Archie. She’s a secretary whose employer makes out a new will, gives her the only copy of the codicil, then goes upstairs to blow his brains out. Claire Conrad is the Pl who must be moved to start a case, and in this case what gets her going is the fact that she’s supposed to inherit the dead man’s four million dollar coin collection, but the copy of the will that was given to Maggie has somehow disappeared. Blackmail is also involved, as well as the many disgruntled members of the dead man’s family, none of whom are likeable in the least. I couldn’t much follow the…