January 26, 2020

Confidential: PULP FICTION Edition

Today, a look at the Murder of the Clergyman's Mistress, a 1931 detective novel wherein Tudor City makes a cameo appearance.

The book opens with the discovery of two dead bodies ‒ 
a clergyman and his mistress ‒ in a dinghy in the East River. [The novel is loosely based on the sensational Hall-Mills murders of 1922, whose principals were known in the tabloids as "the Minister and the Choir Singer."] Enter Thatcher Colt, who is the New York City Police Commissioner and, not incidentally, an excellent amateur sleuth. 

Tudor City is introduced early on when the bodies are found:


Later, Thatcher Colt sniffs around Tudor City for clues: 
The "real estate troubadours singing their most plaintive ballads" is a snarky reference to Tudor City's ubiquitous advertising campaigns at the time.

In the end, Thatcher Colt solves the mystery. The clergyman killed his mistress ‒ and then his other mistress killed the clergyman. 

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