Tie (for Tiberius) Bixby is a former reporter turned press agent in New York who, as this novel opens, is on his way to visit his eccentric family on Long Island. It’s his father’s 70th birthday, and Tie intends to present the old man with a couple of bottles of whiskey to commemorate the occasion. Tie’s father Zeb drinks a considerable amount, you see. In fact, everybody in this novel drinks a lot. They soak up more alcohol than anybody this side of a Jonathan Latimer novel.
Anyway, while riding the Long Island Railroad, Tie spots a good-looking young
woman in a red hat, but she’s with a rather suspicious-looking guy, so Tie
doesn’t make a pass at her. A short time later, she goes into the ladies’ room
on the train car and discovers her companion there, dead with his throat cut.
(The murder weapon turns out to be a miniature Gurkha knife. This will be
important later.)
One of Tie’s old friends from childhood winds up being the police detective in
charge of the case. This does not exempt Tie from suspicion, but eventually he
makes it to his family home where he visits with his father. Then, wouldn’t you
know it, the backyard laboratory belonging to the eccentric scientist next door
goes up in flames, and the scientist dies in the blaze, which turns out to be
arson, making his death the second murder Tie just happens to be close to in a
short period of time. And get this . . . the pretty girl in the red hat may be
involved in this murder, too!
You’re probably getting the idea by now that MURDERS IN SILK is kind of a screwball yarn. Well, yeah, it sure is. Everybody in it is colorful at best, or downright eccentric, usually, and guzzles booze like a fish. There are cops, gangsters, scientists, beautiful dames, and a lady dentist. Tie gets in fights, gets shot at, runs from the cops, steals a cab, and falls in love. People banter between drinks. And while all this is going on, clues are skillfully planted in a plot that approaches Erle Stanley Gardner levels of complexity.
MURDERS IN SILK was published in hardback by Hillman-Curl in 1938 and then reprinted in paperback (a slightly updated and revised edition) in 1951 by Lion Books. The by-line on both editions was the suitably tough-sounding Mike Teagle, but the actual author was reporter and playwright Asa Bordages, who wrote four novels, two as Teagle and two under his real name. I’d never heard of him under either name until Black Gat Books reprinted MURDERS IN SILK. Their edition will be out soon.
I really enjoyed this novel. It’s very funny in places, has plenty of tough action, and I didn’t even come close to figuring out the plot, although all the clues are there and when everything is explained in the end, they fit together very nicely. It’s a fine little forgotten gem, and I’m glad it’s going to be back in print. If you’re a hardboiled mystery fan, MURDERS IN SILK gets a high recommendation from me.
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