---

"The Cape Cod Mystery"

(Reviewed by Judi Clark MAR 5, 1998)

Asey Mayo does for Cape Cod what Travis McGee does for Southern Florida.  These books were written in the 40's and it is very surprising the number of issues that the inhabits complained about back then that are similar to today's issues.  These mysteries poke fun at the provincial attitudes of Cape Codders (that hasn't changed) and have a cast of absurd characters. They are a little old fashioned (but don't tell the characters that!), but worth the read if just to give us a chance to visit the Cape when there was more wilderness and it didn't take hours to cross the Bourne bridge.

(back to top)

---

Bibliography: (with links to Amazon.com)

Asey Mayo Mysteries:

• The Cape Cod Mystery (1931)
• Death Lights a Candle (1932)
• The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players (1933)
• The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern (1934)
• Sandbar Sinister (1934)
• Deathblow Hill (1935)
• The Tinkling Symbol (1935)
• Out of Order (1936)
• The Crimson Patch (1936)
• Octagon House (1937)
• Figure Away (1937)
• Banbury Bog (1938)
• The Annulet of Gilt (1938)
• Spring Harrowing (1939)
• The Criminal C.O.D (1940)
• The Deadly Sunshade (1940)
• The Perennial Boarder (1941)
• Six Iron Spiders (1942)
• Going, Going Gone (1943)
• Proof of the Pudding (1945)
• Punch with Care (1946)
• The Diplomatic Corpse (1951)

 

(back to top)

---

Book Marks:

• Wikipedia on Phoebe Atwood Taylor
• Review of The Perennial Border

 

(back to top)

---

About the Author:

Phoebe Atwood Taylor (1909-1976) wrote a lot of pulp mysteries in the 1930s and 1940s. Her detective Asey Mayo was very popular and she wrote many mysteries around this humorous Cape Codder. She also wrote under several pen names including Alice Tilton which she used for her Leonidas Witherall mysteries.