Death of an Old Sinner

Having devoured the four-book mystery series by Dorothy Salisbury Davis featuring the neurotic young writer Julie Hayes, I turned to Davis’ other mystery series, which debuts the redoubtable Annie Norris in the mystery novel Death of an Old Sinner. The eponymous sinner in question is one Major General Ransom Jarvis, a retired military man whose career — in his own words — can be summed up as “Five continents. Three wars.” As with so many military men before him, the 72-year-old General Jarvis is penning his memoirs as the novel opens; with his finances in disarray due to his spendthrift ways, Jarvis certainly needs the money.

The Jarvis family is related to an undistinguished, prim president and ambassador to the Court of St. show more James from the early days of the American Republic, described by General Jarvis as “sitting there [in his portrait] like a hand-painted burp, an apt subject for neither gossip nor historian, your back to the wall, not a decade between you and oblivion.” Think an earlier James Buchanan with a particularly unbecoming cravat and scowl. Too bad, thinks Jarvis; a scandal or two in his great-uncle’s history would certainly help sell books! That’s when General Jarvis — a completely profligate reprobate — decides to spice up his ancestor’s letters and journals — and reputation — with a spot of forgery. Never mind how it will hurt his son’s chances in the governor’s race!

However, before long, the poor old boy is dead; the circumstances suggest murder. Jarvis’ employee for the past 40 years, the Scottish and Calvinist-Presbyterian housekeeper Mrs. Norris, teams up with Jasper Tully, chief investigator for the District Attorney's Office, and Jarvis’ son, Jimmie Jarvis, to solve the mystery.

To use a term familiar to Mrs. Norris, she and Julie Hayes are as alike as chalk and cheese — a British expression meaning, “not at all alike.” Whereas Julie is indecisive and clinging, Mrs. Norris makes sure that General Ransom knows his place, doesn’t endanger the family homestead in Nyack, N.Y., with his profligacy, and does no harm to her beloved Master James, Ransom’s delightful son Jimmie Jarvis, who is running for governor of New York. Death of an Old Sinner resembles a Golden Age cozy from the 1930s by Agatha Christie or Stuart Palmer than Davis’ noir-like Julie Hayes series, although it has a sensibility all its own. And I loved it just as much: Highly recommended for those looking for something different. show less

Between 1949 and 2002, Davis published about 20 each of mystery novels and short stories. She served as President of the Mystery Writers of America in the mid-1950s, and was named an MWA Grand Master 30 years later. She served on the steering committee that formed the Sisters in Crime organization in 1986, and her grande dame status gave that group more legitimacy in the eyes of many.

Most of her books were stand-alones, but this 1957 novel is the first of three featuring the housekeeper Mrs. Annie Norris. Mrs. Norris is about sixty and has worked for the Jarvis family for more than forty years. As we open, the family consists of retired Major General Ransom Jarvis, ten years older than Mrs. Norris, and his unmarried son, James, who is show more preparing to run for governor.

The General is supposed to be writing his memoirs, but doesn't have much enthusiasm for the project; he's more intrigued by the idea of faking a salacious, scandal-filled diary for his great-uncle, a former US president, which he thinks will be more lucrative than his own life story. (Davis never specifically identifies the uncle/president, but since we've had only one bachelor president, it's not hard to figure out that the General is related to James Buchanan.)

Could that fake diary have anything to do with the sudden death of the General in a Manhattan hotel room? James is on the case, with the assistance of a former colleague from the New York District Attorney's office, and more help than he might have expected from Mrs. Norris.

I like Mrs. Norris, who is not all the cuddly ball of warmth we often get from crime-solving housekeepers. She's a cranky, judgmental woman, utterly devoted to "Master Jamie," but not terribly fond of the General, who she sees as a womanizing and financially irresponsible scoundrel. (She's not wrong.)

And Davis's prose is often delightful. I loved this bit, from our introduction to Mrs. Norris:

"She had come over from Scotland at twenty, Mrs. Norris had, already a childless widow, and the truth was that over the years, adding a bit now and then to her husband's stature from what she took off that of other men, she probably loved him better now than ever she did in their brief marriage."

That's a sharp, precise bit of description that tells us a lot about her crabbed view of the world.

If there had been even one other character in the book who was as interesting, or as vividly drawn, I might be able to offer at least a mild recommendation for the novel. But alas, the supporting characters -- the women in particular -- blur together rather badly, and the plot is convoluted and hard to follow, entanging the General's mistress with New York gangsters and somehow dragging Mrs. Norris's brother-in-law into the mix.

A few nice details here, but they're not enough to inspire me to explore Davis any further. show less