Hilda Lawrence was an American crime author best known for her series of novels featuring the private investigator Mark East, published during the 1940s. This one from 1947, Death of a Doll, is the third in the series and has been reissued this month by Agora Books. Lawrence is one of several ‘forgotten’ or lesser known crime writers to be brought back into print by various publishers recently; sometimes it’s easy to see why an author’s books have been allowed to fade into obscurity, but I was very pleasantly surprised by this one and am hoping the rest of the Mark East series will be made available again too.

The story is set in and around Hope House, a home for young women in New York City run by Monica Brady and her assistant Angelina Small. The home provides seventy girls with a safe refuge where, for a small fee, they can have a bed, hot water, two meals a day and the opportunity to make new friends. At the beginning of the novel we meet Ruth Miller, a woman in her twenties who works in Blackmans department store and who is excitedly telling her regular customer, Roberta Sutton, that she has been offered a place at Hope House. We don’t know why Ruth has found herself with nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to, but she gives the reader a hint that there has been some sort of trouble in her past. Later that day, we see her arriving at her new home, suitcase in hand, full of optimism for the future.

Two days later, Ruth is dead, having fallen from a window on the seventh floor of Hope House during a party at which all of the girls were dressed in rag doll costumes. Suicide is assumed, but Roberta is not convinced. Why would Ruth have killed herself just as her life was beginning to improve? What the reader knows, but the characters don’t – although some of them suspect – is that during those few days at Hope House, Ruth came face to face with someone from the past…but who was it and how could this have led to her death?

Roberta calls in her private investigator friend, Mark East, who arrives in New York accompanied by two more amateur detectives, the elderly spinsters Miss Beulah and Miss Bessy. It’s going to be difficult to know where to start – there’s so little known about Ruth and her background, and the fact that all of the girls were dressed in identical doll costumes on the night of her death doesn’t help – but surely between the three of them they can solve the mystery?

I really enjoyed this book. Although the story is slow to unfold – a lot of time is spent on exploring the relationships between the various girls and employees at Hope House – I still found it difficult to put down. I didn’t guess the culprit correctly, but felt as though I probably should have done! I did suspect almost all of the ‘dolls’ at one point or another, constantly changing my mind as more information was revealed. The setting is wonderful too; I could vividly picture the interior of Hope House, with Kitty answering the phones on the switchboard, Jewel operating the elevator, and Miss Brady and Miss Small seeing that everything ran smoothly, while making ambitious plans for the future.

My only problem with the book was that I felt there were too many characters and that we saw things from too many different viewpoints. I’m not sure whether we really needed three detectives either. I think Beulah and Bessy were probably included to lighten the mood and provide some comedy, but they didn’t add much to the story in my opinion and I would have preferred to have spent more time following Mark’s investigations instead. Otherwise, this was a great first introduction to Hilda Lawrence’s work and an unusual combination of the cosy and the dark and suspenseful.

This was my Crime Classics Review Club book for February. It’s by an American author and set in a girls’ rooming house. The young women work in shops and offices, are poorly paid and consider themselves well off in Hope House. Everything changes when Ruth Miller arrives, thrilled to find herself in a safe and comfortable place. Yet no sooner has she checked in than she suddenly looks frightened and is constantly wary, looking over her shoulder – for whom? When she’s found dead, the people who run Hope House and the police pass off her death as suicide, a one-off event. The attempt to carry on as if nothing has happened is doomed and soon there is an atmosphere of fear and suspicion; everyone is frightened, no one wants to talk. Tension mounts and the denouement is surprising and shocking. I’d never heard of Hilda Lawrence but on the strength of this novel, Agora Books have done well to rescue her from obscurity.

It's been a few days since I finished this story and although I had a few reservations at the time, I have continued to think about the characters and the setting. This clearly means that it had quite an impression on me!
It's the first Hilda Lawrence book that I have read so I didn't know any of the characters. It is typical of it's time in that we have lots of descriptive dialogue, although I did struggle to keep up with some of the americanisms.
The ending also seemed a little abrupt after such a long book. I think that I will be seeking out more of her work in the future though.

DNF @ 16%

This review is based on an ARC of <i>Death of a Doll</i> which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Agora Books).

I'm really sorry that I couldn't get into this because it sounds (at least a little bit) cool, and I adore the cover (and the author's name!), but the one thing that really turns me away from this story is the writing. The writing is incredibly convoluted, and the points of view seem to switch erratically so that I never know who is talking when. Along with this, I feel nothing but distaste for any of the characters. They simply seem 2D to me, or like the author is forcing personalities on these characters which don't seem natural at all.

I definitely think that, for people who love a good 20s-30s-40s era aesthetic or mystery, this book could really be a hit. For me, I got bored and set the book down and didn't pick it back up again...

A young woman excited to move into a boarding house finds only terror and death. A great many people are anxious to hush it up and move on, but Mark East, with the help of amusing spinsters Beulah and Bessy, is determined to find the truth, hopefully before the body county gets too high. It takes awhile to get to the death and investigation portion of this mystery, and that part was not only rather depressing, but somewhat tedious, and it was difficult to swallow this girl’s inability to escape. Much more enjoyable after Mark East and friends appear - smart and entertaining characters and a mystery with some interesting complications.

This story centres around Hope House, a boarding house for young women in New York City. It was originally published in 1947 and is set during that time. The story tells of Ruth Miller, a store assistant who has just taken a room in Hope House and who has bright hopes for the future. As soon as she arrives she sees someone who terrifies her and the scene is set for her murder.
The first few chapters concern Ruth's arrival at Hope House and we realise that there is a mystery in her past which will come back to haunt her. She is soon found dead and the official verdict is suicide. However Roberta, a wealthy socialite who had befriended Ruth in the shop where she worked is not satisfied and persuades Private Investigator Mark East and a pair of spinster sleuths named Bessy and Belulah to take on the investigation despite a complete closing of ranks by the Hope House staff and residents.
The second part of the story concerns their investigations, initially into whether Ruth jumped or was pushed and then, on to the identity of the criminal.
Mark East, Betty Petty and Belulah Pond are series characters and appear in other novels by Hilda Lawrence. The characters are well drawn and the setting, a snowy, cold New York Christmas, is brought to life through the prose however I found some of the writing to be too whimsical for my taste.
Whilst I found Mark to be a competent investigator I thought that Betty and Belulah were quite irritating and, although they did help in the ultimate resolution of the story they did not, in my opinion anyway, produce any evidence which Mark would not have been able to find on his own,
The atmosphere in Hope House was particularly well imagined as it changed from a happy home to a sinister building in which the residents were terrified to stay but unable to leave even though they came to accept that there was a killer in their midst.
I felt the book was too long and could have been edited to make the story stand out more from the window dressing and the tension as the net closed on the killer much more prominent. I also did not really get on with the style of the prose though I think that it is probably fairly typical of post war American story telling.
There is little chance, I think, of the reader working out who the killer is until the revelation at the end and as such this has to be considered a character piece rather than a 'fair play' detective novel. Personally I think that it could be adapted into an excellent film where the undoubtedly clever and interesting story could be told against a backdrop of a New York winter and all the whimsical and superfluous sections could be removed.
I enjoyed the book and I certainly wanted to know who had committed the crime but I would not be in a rush to read any more of Hilda Lawrence's four novels.
In short this is an interesting story which sets it's scene well but which spends too much time on the trivial which detracts from the excitement of the story.

Initially, based on the title and to some extent the cover, I thought this would be a crime novel in the mould of Raymond Chandler or Mickey Spillane with lots of tough talk and action but I really couldn’t have been much further from the truth. Certainly there are elements of crime or ‘noir’ fiction but this is a lot more nuanced and indeed interesting! The writing is fresh and modern, even seventy years later, with many subtle touches and clever turns of phrase that regularly raise a smile and importantly for this ‘genre’ of fiction, the logic in solving of the case is clear and well constructed. It is a good crime novel but more than that it is a quality piece of writing.

Without rehashing the plot or the blurb, it is the victim we first meet and get to know through a few scenes which deftly explain her background and how she got to be in the situation that lead to her death. But more than this, we learn of her thoughts and fears. The ‘victim’ isn’t simply that; she is not a caricature or stereotype of a ‘doll’ who happens to be the victim around whom the investigation can run. This is a developed character, a real person who believes that her hopes and dreams are destroyed when her past catches up with her. She is much more than just the ‘doll’ of the title and indeed there is so much more to that title!

This story proves to be a real time capsule, exposing a way of life that no longer exists – showing the lives of single women living in New York in the mid-20th century. It is fascinating for that but it is also a great crime story where we really root for the victim and for the detective, and pray that her death will not be for nothing and that the killer will be discovered and that justice will be done. What more could you want from a ‘crime’ novel? First class.

This is the first Hilda Lawrence book I have read but I doubt it will be the last. A slow burner of a mystery that builds and builds till it fairly zips along.A young woman who has just moved into a hostel/home for young ladies in New York dies after falling from a seventh story window,the death is called suicide and all but forgotten.
However a wealthy customer at the department store where she worked isn't satisfied and calls in P.I Mark Eden.Sceptical to say the least at first he gradually comes to the conclusion that all is not as it seems.
Eden is not the hard boiled PI of Hammett or Chandler but a more thoughtful character who is happy to work wih the police who are not all portrayed as moronic thugs as many were in tales of the time.
There follows an investigation by Eden, questioning staff and residents of the Home ,a strange and varied group ,work colleagues and a picture unfolds and he slowly pieces together the events of the fateful night and the reasons for her death.

A great read well written and well constructed tale.

"Death of a Doll" is a mystery originally published in 1947 and set in New York city. The story begins in the viewpoint of the victim. We get strong hints about who the murderer is, but the murderer is never identified. There were only about 6 to 8 real suspects, and the death was initially dismissed as a suicide. The two old ladies come to visit their private detective friend, and they hear about the death from a rich lady who liked the shopgirl and is upset about the death. The girl had been excited about living at Hope House, so it made no sense that she'd commit suicide.

So the private investigator started to look into the death, and the two ladies somewhat bumblingly also investigated on their own. Soon, the private investigator was given official permission to question people and the police were also called in. At this point, it's a matter of questioning people and comparing their stories. Because we saw events from the viewpoint of the victim, I strongly suspected one character. Things happened that made me waver in my belief, but I kept coming back to that character and was correct in that guess. So whodunit is guessable, but not glaringly obvious.

The characters were interesting, but too many of them were viewpoint characters. The author just slipped from one character to the other, and this frequent change of viewpoint was sometimes confusing. There was occasional use of bad language. There was no sex. Overall, I'd recommend this interesting mystery.

I received a review copy of this. I've never read anything else by this author, and absolutely loved it. The detail about single women's lives in post war New York is fascinating, as it is set in a hostel for impoverished single women, and explores their options for survival in a very unforgiving city. The character studies are very well done, and explore a very unglamorous side of New York, while Hilda Lawrence's detective comes from a more affluent world, and initially treats the situation as a intellectual puzzle and then it becomes more serious.

This is an old american classic as opposed to the other british ones that I have reviewed on this blog, and there is a marked difference in the style of narration. It took me the better part of the first half to get into the story but once I got the hang of the tone of narration, the professional and amateur sleuths started to get interesting. The story centers around a home for working women in New York and Ruth Miller is excited to move in. We are given introductions to a few of the women in the house who will play minor and major roles in the upcoming chaos. The first part of the tale centers only around the suspicious circumstances that Ruth Miller finds herself in after she checks in. A few days later she is no longer alive. A friend of Ruth's takes up arms to find out more and she has two unofficial and one official investigator on the case.

These last few people are what bring the entertainment into the mix. Their styles of investigations wary but the conversations get more entertaining. Once the women in 'Hope House' become familiar it is hard to not keep guessing as to who the culprit could be. The entire book is filled with sketches of people (in words) and a form of character study that gets fun to read once it becomes more familiar. I really enjoyed the experience and would recommend it to those fans of crime classics who have a bit of time on their hands to leisurely peruse this book( do not give up on it till you get to the interesting bits, it will be worth it).

I did not guess the ending which in itself is a pleasure but I wish the book had been shorter and slightly less meandering at times but it was originally released in 1947 so I cannot really expect current length from something written then!

It took me a bit to be involved in this book, at the beginning I found it slow even if interesting.
After the first part it was engaging and entertaining.
It's like the picture of a long past era, even the style of writing seems a bit vintage and dated.
The mystery was good, full of interesting characters and twists.
A very good book, I hope I will be able to read other by this author.
Recommended!
Many thanks to Agora Books and Netgalley for this ARC. I voluntarily read and reviewed this book, all opinions are mine

Wow. If only I had paid more attention to the SMALL things at the beginning of the book, I might have figured it out before the denouement. This story was full of suspects - and any one of them COULD have done it. If you pay attention at the beginning, you should be able to figure out who pushed the doll out the window. If not, you're still in for a good story and a lot of fun. I'm going right off to find my next Hilda Lawrence book. Read this book - you won't regret it.

Hope House is a boarding home for women and Ruth Miller is happy to finally have a room there. So why is she found dead a few days after arriving. But everyone is convinced she committed suicide or it was an accident. But the atmosphere insode the home seems to have changed. Who will come to the dead girls' aid.
First published in 1947, the style of writing did make it a chore to get into the story. I also found the two elderly amateur detectives somewhat annoying. Overall I liked the mystery but did not love it.
A NetGalley Book

All of the action in Death of a Doll takes place in and around a residence for single women of modest means in 1940's New York. It is an epic of telephone switchboards, strict moral standards and social constraints. Arriving in this setting a young woman, Ruth, finds herself in fear for her life. The reader follows Ruth, her fellow residents, the staff and interested outsiders as the plot zig zags toward its conclusion.
The strength of the book lies chiefly in its depiction of panic and claustrophobia in a constricted world, In this world, the smallest personal details reverberate in a way which is both compelling and quite foreign to the modern world.
As for the the characters, some of their motivations and relationships to one another ring true, But the author also throws in a couple of extraneous busybodies, solely it would seem, to advance the plot. While this is certainly a weakness in the book, a more serious drawback is the dialogue. The author has characters, supposedly from the upper echelons of society, speaking as if they were cast in a New York gagster movie of the 1940's.
In conclusion, read the book if you are interested in a world of women with few choices thrown together much too closely.

I first read this book as a young teen and found it dull. Decades later, this still is a plodding read. The dialogue is stilted, the suspense forced. However, the clues are there and the resolution satisfying. Suffice it to say, I've never been tempted to search out the other novels by Hilda Lawrence.

There were some really promising ideas at the heart of this book. The setting - a charitable boarding house for young women in the 1940s - was both historically and dynamically interesting. The intersection with the world of a Department Store was credible. The device of a masked party for which the girls made identical masks from cloth bags was both creepy and suspenseful. Unfortunately, the characters and the plot got out of hand. There were simply too many characters for the reader to keep track of, or distinguish. A few were sketched more fully than others, but very few took on a life of their own. A movie might have been able to create distinctions and visual clues that assisted, but the book left this reader with a sense of institutionalised crowd rather than a set of individuals with motives and opportunities.

Similarly, the plot took too long to lay its trails and relied on too many past histories.

The strength was in some of the scene-setting. The early description of a desperate girl waiting on a staircase to see a doctor lingers in my mind.

It certainly held enough interest for me to finish it, but it fell frustratingly short of what it might have been.

Thanks to Agora Books and Crime Classics for the chance to read and review it.

This was my first book by this author. It moved a little slow at first and the actions of the girls were not always quite believable. In spite of that I enjoyed the book, especially as it went along. The setting is interesting and feels authentic. It definitely has a "creep" factor - something going on that you feel but don't see right away. Recommend.

2.5 stars rounded up.
This book was very slow to start! I struggled to read it, it did pick up. However, it just wasn’t for me, unfortunately.
I love, love, love the cover though!

I wish I had liked this more than I had. When I saw the cover and the title, I was intrigued. And the synopsis sounded interesting.

This book fell pretty flat for me. The language felt dated for probably a good third or so of the book. Since this was published initially in the 1940’s, a chunk of it was bound to be dated.

The pacing felt off, as well, once the murder had happened and Ruth’s friend got involved. It felt like it was happening relatively quickly. It also didn’t seem right that certain people were involved in the investigation.

Once it came out who the murderer was, all I could think was, “Really? Them?”

I don’t have a ton of positives about the book. I like the cover quite a bit. And I was interested just enough to find out who the murderer was. I mostly just wanted to get to the end and find out who did it to be done with the book. But didn’t want to cheat and just go straight to the end. I’m glad that this wasn’t a book that I wanted to throw across the room because it was just so horrifically bad. It was a good one to waste time with if I had a few minutes to kill. (Pun not intended.)