“It begins on New Year’s Day, 1933 and the Great Depression has wears on. A lot of people are suffering, including Susan Bright whose family has lost their fortune, leaving her to scrap by in an apartment she barley can afford while singing in speakeasy’s (probation is near it’s end, along with FDR becoming president). Into her life comes Harmon Dodge, the son of a rich (and dead) lawyer of Rhinelander, Rhinelander, and Dodge, along with Marcellus Rhinelander’s daughter, the (hilariously) bitch-to-the-core Barbara Beaumont and her husband Jack (who works for his father-in-law). Harmon is your stereotypical playboy, who spends money like water, and has multitude of affairs with women. But Susan is different and soon enough, Harmon and she are married. As it goes, things get complicated, as the elder Rhinelander understands his daughter ambitions and knows Harmon is a cad. At The Quarry, his country house (his chauffer is a communist named Richard Grace and his wife, the cook, is Grace Grace –they’re a hoot. And so is Louise, the sharpshooter), he professes his love for Susan and demands she divorce Harmon. One thing after another eventually leads Marcellus’ driving his car off a cliff and into the Hudson River. Guess who gets accused of murder?”
As mentioned before, McDowell’s crowning achievement in his short forty-nine years as a prolific writer (who apparently wrote 19 novels between 1980 and 1987) was his Southern Gothic horror tales. But he also wrote books, mostly crime stories and other thrillers which were released under a few pseudonyms like Axel Young, Nathan Aldyne, Mike McCray and Preston MacAdam, as well as these three romantic murder mysteries featuring Jack and Susan.
As with the first two, both Susan and Jack are always, impossibly noble, kindhearted New Yorker's. Jack and Susan in 1933 is perhaps my favorite of the three (the one set in 1913 is great as well). It’s a more straight-forward tale (though a movie version would cut a lot of the first half out) that would’ve been something the studio system of the 1930’s could’ve done. It’s more expansive than others, though, starting in New York and ending in the deserts north of Reno. It shines when Barbara Beaumont ("Jack, you remember Susan, don't you?" Barbara managed to suggest that Susan was the sort of person you forget unless you were daily reminded of her existence and shown photographs of her face.) is present, the bitchest woman I’ve seen in a long time. Here, I think, McDowell was able to channel what a lot of gay men have: a deep sarcasm and the love for strong women. Barbara may not be the strongest, but makes it up with cutting lines and great fashion sense. She is a scumbag, like Harmon, so she’s fun to hate.
As noted, the climax occurs in Pyramid City, (a real life ghost town) Nevada. As these books works, the land is owned by Susan, via a long-dead uncle who bought the land in search of silver (and now run as a fat farm, which is managed by a cousin of Susan who is obviously a lesbian). It’s here, as well, where Jack makes a fateful discovery in the bowels of an abandoned mineshaft. That’s with the help of the obligatory mutt, of course, although there are two dogs here, Scottish Terriers named Scotty and Zelda.
It’s clear that McDowell once again did his research and the attention to detail is great. I will probably start searching for his other books, both the horror ones and his other thrillers. But in the meantime, other books call and I need to get to them.
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