Dance of Death by Helen McCloy was painstakingly plotted, but the solution was evident once the correct suspect was interviewed. The main investigator is a psychologist, Dr Willing, attached to the NY City DA's office. There are other stock characters involved in solving the murder, but they clutter up the plot and are mostly irrelevant except as sounding boards for Dr Willing.
The milieu of debutantes and coming-out parties was not convincingly described, and most of the characters are cardboard . There was a great deal of unnecessary psychological and scientific vocabulary dropped into the story, giving the impression that the author was trying to impress an uneducated readership with her grasp of chemical formulas.
Ms McCloy presents the results of all this meticulous research in a grade-school-level style with huge blocks of explanation embedded in unlikely dialogue with characters ever-so willing to reveal themselves because they are being interviewed by a clever psychologist rather than a police officer.
A mystery novel needs more than technical research and timetable plotting to make the characters seem like living humans that the reader could care about rather than chess pieces in an improbable drama.

Private section of the review, only for the publisher.
There are quite a few typos in the copy made available, even on the first page.
("that was help up by the storm" should surely be "that was held up by the storm")
I am happy to provide a list of typos if this would be useful. Send me an email:
<carmelachateau@aol.com>

Public review
An excellent mystery, with an interesting non-detective, Dr Basil Willing (a psychiatrist attached to the DA's office).
Although I had noticed all the clues, which are helpfully listed along with a few red herrings to make things more interesting, I didn't solve the crime till the very end. I would definitely recommend this book, and look forward to reading the other books by this author with the same main character. Apparently, there are thirteen of them, which seems lucky to me.
Thanks to Crime Classics for providing a review copy via NetGalley.

An American-set mystery focusing on the death of a prominent socialite. I didn't love it, but I thought the mystery was quite good and the writing style was fine. I just didn't love the main detective characters.

When I downloaded an ARC of "Dance of Death" from netgalley, I didn't realize that it had been written in the 1930s. That was a pleasant surprise, as I has been difficult for me to locate historical fiction that I actually enjoy reading; too often, such books are riddled with racism and sexism. Such is not the case with "Dance of Death." This is an engaging mystery filled with fun characters and plenty of twists. The resolution was very much an "a-ha" moment, as all of the clues were there all along. My only complaint is that there were a number of formatting errors, such as missing paragraph breaks; hopefully, these were corrected before the book went to press. Definitely recommended to fans of Golden Age mysteries, and mysteries with strong psychological elements.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this Golden Age mystery. I am rarely a fan of psychological mysteries and the idea of a psychiatrist (Dr. Basil Willing), as part of a detective team wasn’t very appealing to me. I could not have been more wrong. I really liked this novel.

The plot of this novel is quite complex, and the psychology that is used by Dr. Willing is certainly simplistic by modern standards, maybe even a little superstitious. However, this book was originally published in the I’m not going to elaborate much on the plot, it is a complex one with unforeseen twists and turns. We have a debutante ball, an unwilling impersonator, a body found in a snow bank, but that body is not cold. . However, the body is hot! And it keeps going. There’s enough going on to keep your attention although the author can be a bit wordy and somewhat repetitive at times.

I liked this novel well enough to be keeping an eye out for others by the same author. Thanks to NetGalley and Agora Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this enjoyable mystery.

The body of a young woman lies dead in the snow – a woman who has died, apparently, of heat stroke. Moreover, the woman, Kitty Jocelyn was seen the previous evening at her coming-out party looking hale and hearty.

Enter Dr Basil Willing, psychiatric advisor to the D.A.’s office, but he soon finds a perplexing puzzle. While it seems that everybody had the opportunity to kill Kitty, there seems to be no motive. With no physical clues, it falls to Willing to seek more psychological clues…

McCloy wrote almost thirty mystery and suspense novel, many of them featuring Dr Basil Willing. I’ve read two of them – Cue For Murder, which I enjoyed a lot and The Goblin Market, which I didn’t enjoy at all. This is her first book, recently re-released by Agora Books in paperback and ebook, and it’s an impressively strong debut.

It does start a bit oddly, with a plan to try and brainwash someone into thinking she’s Kitty – the notion of doppelgangers is something McCloy would return to – but after that aspect sorts itself out, the mystery develops nicely.

McCloy is a good writer and has a clever hook at the centre of the story. I did think the middle third sagged a tad, as the motive does expose the killer, hence the need to avoid addressing it for the most part. The motive is one that I’ve not seen before in books of this era – indeed, it almost seems to come from a modern day situation – but that does help misdirect the reader nicely.

Agora Books have been doing sterling work reprinting “lost” authors – Hilda Lawrence, George Bellairs, Margaret Newman, Henrietta Hamilton, Nicholas Blake, Richard Hull… and McCloy is an excellent choice to add to this stable. I’m looking forward to reading more of McCloy’s work.

A fun 1930’s crime mystery

Though I have always been a fan of Golden Age crime novels I had not heard of this author before a pre-publication copy was offered to me by Agora Books through Netgalley.

Dance of Death introduced a novel type of “detective” in the person of Dr Basil Willing, a psychiatrist attached to the District Attorney’s office. He believes that it is possible to solve a crime by looking for psychological evidence, a theory that is derided by his friend, Assistant Chief Inspector Foyle.

The death that begins the book is that of an unidentified young woman found dead in the street under a deep covering of snow. Impossibly, her body is not frozen, but hot.

There is a richly varied cast of characters, none of whom are as they first appear, and it is entertaining to see the frustrations of the official detective, constrained by law and the political and social aspirations of his Commissioner, contrasted with the cool flouting of the rules that Dr Willing allows himself.

I very much enjoyed the writing style and the inventive plot of Dance of Death and look forward to reading more by Helen McCloy.

I was tempted to deduct a star for the typos (really, OCR errors) but they are not the fault of the author, and were not numerous enough to interfere with my enjoyment.

Death Of A Socialite....
Hugely enjoyable entry into the excellent Agora Books’ Uncrowned Queens of Crime series. The first Dr Basil Willing mystery finds the credible psychologist with the death of a socialite to investigate. The plot is complex and rather unique, the characters colourful and well drawn and the suspects numerous. A pleasure to read and thoroughly entertaining.

This book truly deserves the title of Crime Classic. The story is unusual and very different and the plot is intriguingly clever - just my type of book. The front of the book gives a list of other Dr. Basil Willing books by this author - perhaps more will be republished. That would be a treat indeed.

Dance of Death by Helen McCloy

I received this e-book from Crime Classics via NetGalley. It is published in the series from Agora Books called Uncrowned Queens of Crime.
It’s very nice to get to know other writers who have written classic crimes, and I have thus been inspired to read authors unknown to me before.

In this novel a young debutante is found dead buried in snow. Although she is covered in snow her body temperature is high and the cause of death resembles a heat stroke.
It is not a heat stroke but she has been poisoned with an overdose of a diet drug.
In charge of the investigation is Inspector Foyle with the help of psychiatrist Dr Basil Willing.
Foyle and Willing have different ways of solving cases, and Willing tries to convince Foyle about the value of psychology in criminal investigation. He states that a blunder is the one form of clue a criminal can neither remove, conceal nor destroy - the one clue that is entirely beyond his conscious control.
So when trying to find out who the killer is you will have to look for blunders. Alas I did not succeed, but was well entertained trying to.

This is the first of 14 novels featuring Psychiatrist- detective Basil Willing - so I will hopefully be able to get hold of some of the others.

What I also like about this book is the list in the beginning : "Persons of interest in this mystery". Makes it so much easier if you forget a name. Each person is also shortly described.

I read the e-book on NetGalleys new app: NetGalley Shelf and it was fine.

In New York, Debutante Kitty Jocelyn is found dead one morning, in a snow bank, killed by heat stroke. But how is that possible when she was seen at her own party until early in the morning and has not been reported missing, and in winter. Assistant Chief Inspector Patrick Foyle investigates with the help of psychologist Dr. Basil Willing.
An entertaining well-written golden age mystery. A good start to a new series with a likeable main character.
Originally written in 1938.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dance of Death by Helen McCloy has been reissued by Agora Books and was an ‘extra’ for the Crime Classics Review Club. It was her first novel and the first appearance of Dr Willing, who featured in twelve more mysteries. The story is set in New York. A girl is found dead under frozen snow but the body is hot! The preliminary autopsy suggests that she died from heatstroke. How? Once the poor girl is identified, it seems to be a case about high society or at least rich people. An unpleasant lot they are, too, but what on earth is the motive for her killing? Dr Willing is not a policeman but a psychiatrist and tackles every case from that angle, so his solution is more about perception than about evidence. I enjoyed the book but both science and psychiatry have moved on since 1933 and I found that a slight problem.

.This was a find. I am a fan of Golden Age Crime fiction and Agora’s diligent reprinting of some of the long neglected books of that era inevitably produce some that disappoint. They also, however, produce some that excite and this, for me, was one of those.

Just as the science of fingerprinting and photography applied to policing and detection gave writers from the late nineteenth century a tool to engage readers in the quest of ‘who dunnit?’ via detective novels, so the emerging science of psychology provides Helen McCloy with a similar opportunity.

Dr Willing, practising psychiatrist, applies his psychiatric knowledge to the behaviour of those involved in a specific murder, helping Inspector Foyle, experienced, intelligent detective prepared to listen, learn and use science to solve a case. The science being used is not chemical, but McCloy and her lead characters treat it with respect and use it to their advantage.

This makes, in my view, for detective fiction at its best. In its time it must have been new and exciting. McCloy knows how to use it to create tension, explore options and connect the reader to the minds of the detectives. She creates characters who are more than stereotypes. Whether they are empathetic or unattractive, they remain understandable and believable.

It is a book of its time, but one in which the writer’s skill gives readers eighty years later both insight into New York in the 1930s and a detective puzzle to engage the mind.
Thanks to Agora Books and NetGalley for the review copy

Murder mystery that introduces Dr. Basil Willing, psychiatrist attached to the NY District Attorney’s office in 1930’s as a detective - described as perhaps a little crazy himself, he maintains that no acts are completely accidental and that in so-called blunders, the guilty unconsciously give themselves away. Great characters in a well-written, well-clued, entertaining mystery. The author has a knack for turning the reader’s expectations on their head. I’ll definitely be seeking out other books in this series.

I may have read another in this series but it would have been later in the series. I really did enjoy this book. There were many little twists in the in the plotting and in the characters involved around the victim. But the continuing characters who will continue to be developed are interesting and I will enjoy getting to know them. I did not suss out the "perp" which I often do. Odd because there was a clue given early on which should have helped me but I ignored. Overall, I want to go on and read more in this series. The author writes well and although as another reviewer noted, there were some small errors, I think due to e formatting and not original with author. Good read!!

Men shoveling snow in New York City discover the body of a hot woman in a snowbank! Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist attached to the DA's office hears about the dead woman who died from a heat stroke from General Archer, the Police Commissioner. Basil goes to the man who did the autopsy, and sees a picture of a woman he remembers seeing someone. He goes to the library and finally finds the picture in a magazine. She is Miss Catherine Jocelyn (Kitty), a beautiful debutante who is pictured in an advertisement for Sveltis, an over the counter expensive medicine for keeping thin.

It is soon apparent that there is another woman who looks just like Catherine; that is Ann Jocelyn Claude, who is Kitty's cousin. It turns out that Kitty became sick on the afternoon of her debutante party with what the family thought was from her malaria. The mother asked Ann (a poor relative who was acting as her secretary) to take Kitty's place at the party. Kitty was brought to Ann's room and put to bed. The next morning, Kitty had disappeared. Once Basil notifies the police of the dead woman's name, he becomes very involved in the case. The police soon realize Kitty was poisoned with Sveltis.

Dr. Willing uses psychology to sort through all the possible killers, figure out who is guilty, and to prevent another murder. This book is very clever and I was surprised when he finally uncovered the murderer.

Kitty Jocelyn, a beautiful debutante, is found dead in a snow bank in New York City dressed in cheap clothing. Why wasn't she reported missing by her family and why was she dressed poorly? Also strangely, Kitty's face had turned yellow and, despite being dead in a snow bank for hours, her body was still warm. What could have caused this? Enter Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist attached to the District Attorney's office, who assists the police in its investigation of this suspicious death. First published in 1938, "Dance of Death" was Helen McCloy's first book. In 1938, Sigmund Freud was still alive so perhaps his theories were new and fascinating then; but I found Dr. Willing's lengthy Freudian discussions distracting. Overall, however, it's an interesting book and there are many red herrings to keep mystery lovers guessing. This electronic version of the book appears to have been OCR scanned and not proofread. It contains numerous typos which are annoying so I am deducting a star from its overall rating.

Dance of Death is Helen McCloy’s first novel, originally published in 1938. It features her series detective, Dr Basil Willing. For us readers in 2020, the first line is so evocative of that pre-war time, “The snow began to fall Tuesday, about cocktail time…”.

A line of dialogue that epitomises the upper class attitudes of the time is “… I naturally didn’t want Kitty involved in a public scandal. Good Lord, if I’d been firmer, I might have […] avoided the worse scandal of murder!” Good Lord, yes: being involved in a murder must be *so* embarrassing!

By morning, that cocktail-time snow contains the dead body of a young woman. It takes a while to establish her identity and then to be sure how she died. The plot, pacing, motivation, etc. is really good - all the likely suspects needed the girl alive rather than dead. and the question of whodunnit is only answered at the end of the book. However, although I’m very grateful that NetGalley and Agora Books gave me the opportunity to read this book before its re-issue, based upon this one, I’m not sure I will go hunting out any more of Helen McCloy’s books.

There were a few things that grated on me:
a) The dialogue. In response to “Suppose you take the events of the day in order?”, we get “[…] Kitty didn’t look worried at all. Indeed I never saw her look brighter or gayer. Usually she was pale, but that evening there was a pink flush in her cheeks and her eyes sparkled.” And “She seemed to know something was wrong the minute she saw me. I suppose it was in my face.” There are several further examples. Whilst the sentences are descriptive, they are just too unrealistic as natural speech. People don’t really talk like that.

b) Dr Willing’s statements about psychology. He insists that “To ‘lose’ a thing is merely to forget where you put it.” That is, the unconscious mind is deliberately trying to get rid of an item. What if you have a hole in your pocket and you weren’t aware of? How about “[…] a criminal shows the tendency to repeat his crime in the same way indefinitely.” Really? A murderer keeps murdering through force of habit? There are several other examples where I muttered “Rubbish!”

c) There’s at least one example of a clue which features in the solution but is news to us. It’s a accepted convention of detective fiction that the reader should be shown everything the detective sees. That breach of convention irritated me!
#DanceofDeath #NetGalley

A very welcome addition to the Uncrowned Queens of Crime series published by Agora Books. This was the first in a series of thirteen novels and two short-story collections featuring Dr. Basil Willing, a Freudian psychiatrist and advisor to the NYPD.

Having previously read one of McCloy's mysteries and found it underwhelming, I was more than pleasantly surprised by this debut from 1938 about the murder of a debutante and socialite by means of a slimming drug. The plot is fairly complex, but full of interesting characters and red herring. The reader does feel at one point as if anyone could have done it, but that no-one has a viable motive. The author does not really play fair although there are a few not too obvious clues and the solution certainly comes as a surprise.

This was very readable and well-written, with insights into the social life of the rich in 1930s US society and the advertising ethics of the period. The emphasis on Freudian interpretations of behaviour is not too obtrusive and Willing is a genial and believable detective. The plot is cleverly- constructed and the writing never seems dated.

Highly enjoyable reading and eminently recommendable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for the digital review copy.

Before I ever got past the first page of the first chapter, I almost dismissed Dance of Death, by Helen McCloy, as mere high-society fluff. The character list included such descriptions as “slim, dark-eyed debutante”, “attractive, young-looking, beautifully dressed...with a low, dulcet voice and crisp brown hair”. The first sentence told me that the snow began to fall about cocktail time. Cocktail time – really! Who knows, or cares, about cocktail time??

Well, I was quite mistaken, and I’m glad I kept reading. The discovery of a fever-hot corpse under a blanket of snow at the end of the first chapter – with a canary yellow face, no less! - was sufficiently unusual and startling to ensure my interest. The two men central to the investigation – Inspector Foyle, who had the “alert scepticism of a wire-haired terrier”, and Dr. Basil Willing, the half-Russian psychiatrist attached to the district attorney’s office – are presented as intelligent and humane. The characters connected to the dead young woman, and those connected to the police investigation, are varied and distinctive. Even the cocktail hour turns out to be relevant to the case.

And the book brings out serious themes, predominantly the differences in attitude by both professionals and general public to those who are, or at least are perceived to be, wealthy, and to those who are impoverished. The victim’s death attracts much less concern when she is believed to be an unknown pauper than when she is believed to belong to the social elite. Ann, cousin to the debutante Katherine, correctly observes that no one had noticed her particularly because she was “both shabby and poor”. Inspector Foyle’s attitude towards one of the suspects, Katherine’s Aunt Rhoda who was giving the fabulously costly debutante ball, changes markedly when he learns that Rhoda is actually bankrupt. Even the police commissioner exclaims “It can’t be murder!....[The victim’s uncle] belongs to my club!”

Related to this theme, but more briefly developed, are issues related to dangerous fads, poor body image among young women, and celebrity product endorsements.

Like Holmes with his acute observation of details, and Poirot with his little grey cells, and Father Brown with his understanding of the mind of the murderer, Dr. Willing has his signature method of elucidation. In Dr. Willing’s case, it is his reliance on the tenets of Freudian psychoanalysis. The mysteries in this book are unraveled partly by formal and informal psychological examination of the suspects; but mainly by his interpretation of the subconsciously motivated significance of various mistakes made by various characters.

The reader does not, however, need to believe Freud’s theories in order to enjoy this book. I don’t, and I did. I expect many other readers will enjoy it too.

Thanks to Agora Books for the opportunity to read and review this book.