The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan

"(1905-68) was, in his heyday, a very successful writer of mystery fiction. In this novel, first published in 1941, his popular series character, schoolteacher and amateur sleuth Hildegarde Withers, is hired as a technical advisor on a movie about the Lizzie Borden murders, which took place almost 50 years earlier. Withers barely has time to get settled in her office before a screenwriter turns up dead. The cops say it was an accident; Withers says it was murder. The Withers novels are not quite comedies, but they're full of wit, always mixed with an engaging mystery. In this case, Palmer's experiences as a screenwriter lend an agreeable air of realism to the proceedings. Rediscovering lost writers can be a hit-or-miss thing: sometimes you come across an author who fell off the map for perfectly obvious reasons, and other times, as with Palmer, you can't figure out why he's so little remembered nowadays. His inclusion in the first round of welcome publications in Otto Penzler's American Mystery Classics series should help change that. Welcome back, Mr. Palmer."--