3.0
The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan
ByPublisher Description
Hildegarde Withers—schoolteacher and occasional detective—has just finished planning her grand European tour when Germany invades Poland. Not wishing to join the international conflict, she books a ticket to Hollywood, trading the Louvre and the Vatican for the Brown Derby and La Brea tar pits. She has only been in Los Angeles three days when she's offered a job in pictures. Not as a starlet—Miss Withers is no ingénue—but as a technical adviser to a film version of the Lizzie Borden story. The job is perfect, for no one knows murder like Miss Withers.
On her first day at Mammoth Studios, the screenwriter in the next office dies of an apparent broken neck. To understand why, Miss Withers must contend with a film producer who makes her third graders look like grown-ups—and a killer every bit as vicious as Lizzie Borden herself.
is part of the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries series, which also includes
and
.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan Reviews
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Elsa
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Annelise Britten
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April P.
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“<strong>A Good Mystery...</strong>
I actually enjoyed the story, but I don’t think I can get past the racist references. A bathroom attendant is referred to as a “big black mammy” in this one. In the previous tale we were served “darkie” and supposed “darkie” vernacular. I realize that this practice was acceptable to a large majority of society during the time these books were written, but it simply made my stomach turn. I think the mysteries are great, but no thank you to the racism.”
About Stuart Palmer
Stuart Palmer (1905–1968) was an American author of mysteries. Born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, Palmer worked a number of odd jobs—including apple picking, journalism, and copywriting—before publishing his first novel, the crime drama
, in 1931. It was with his second novel, however, that he established his writing career:
introduced Hildegarde Withers, a schoolmarm who, on a field trip to the New York Aquarium, discovers a dead body in the pool. Withers was an immensely popular character, and went on to star in thirteen more novels, including
(1947) and
(1951).
A master of intricate plotting, Palmer found success writing for Hollywood, where several of his books, including
, were filmed by RKO Pictures Inc.
Other books by Stuart Palmer
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