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IF THE SHROUD FITS
by Kelley Roos
Rue Morgue Press, May 2006
160 pages
$14.95
ISBN: 0915230925


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

IF THE SHROUD FITS is the second comic mystery by husband and wife writing team Kelley Roos to feature Jeff and Haila Troy in New York. It was originally published in 1941 when the story takes place.

Jeff and Haila have only been married a month, and Jeff is out looking for a new job one day when resting actress Haila opens the door to a distraught friend, Julie Taylor. In her modelling days, Haila often used to drop by the old Photo Arts studio, where Julie worked as a stylist, to look for an assignment, and to enjoy relaxing and joking with the photographers and owners, Mac and Kirk.

Since then they have all moved to a much swankier studio, and are currently working on a advertising project for an upmarket silver cutlery range that they hope will catapult them into the big time. But shortly after the photo shoot Julie is trapped in the dark room with someone and is convinced that she stumbled into a potential murder scene.

When Julie is recalled to studio because the negatives from the shoot have gone missing, Haila hurries after her to try to ensure that nothing sinister happens, but by the end of the evening one of the dozen or so models is dead, stabbed with the carving knife from the service being photographed.

The police arrive and take control but extensive questioning produces no clear result, although things start to look rather bad for Mac. It's at this point that Mac asks Jeff to help uncover the murderer, and of course there is no way Haila is going to be left out.

My enjoyment of the story came from being immersed in the time period in which it is set – it was wonderful to imagine the glamorous dinner party set, the model agency and bars they visit, and the more modest and well described apartments of many of the protagonists they question.

The humour helps too. It is quite light and bantering, but perhaps slightly less evident than in the other Rue Morgue reprints of this series, MADE UP TO KILL and THE FRIGHTENED STIFF. The plot, however, is more formulaic and traditional than in those episodes, more of a locked room mystery, and a little disappointing for that. Indeed the resolution, which should have felt very dramatic as one of our intrepid duo faced deadly peril, somehow fell a little flat too despite its complexity. Overall this was an enjoyable read, but not as strong as the other republished books in the series.

Reviewed by Bridget Bolton, February 2007

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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


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