Do Not Murder Before Christmas by Jack Iams

The bells pealed murder!

This is not a festive offering, rather a hard-boiled mystery from 1949 where a seasoned reporter acts detective over the holidays.

'Rocky' Rockwell is the city editor of the Record, a small town newspaper and rival to the Eagle, owned by the powerful Malloy family. The Malloys run the city, some say into the ground. The wealthy Derwent family was their rival, until the Malloys bankrupted them, leaving old Mrs. Derwent a recluse, and son Wetherby a drunk who frequents the bars and strip clubs of Gay Street.

Down near the docks the Malloys have opened a community center, and writing a story about their Christmas party Rocky meets the new social worker Jane Hewes. As beautiful and blonde as she can be, she turns on all of Rocky's lights. The Malloy party competes with the annual party held by beloved "Uncle Poot", a Dutch toymaker who for 40 years opened his doors for children to pick a toy on Christmas Day. A charming tradition thousands of people grew up with. He even keeps a ledger with all their names in it, and throughout the year kids report how good they have been.

Rocky and Jane attend a grand Christmas Eve party with Mrs. Pickett (aka Debbie Mayfair, society reporter), unknowing someone has struck Uncle Poot over the head and stolen his cash. The suspects are a mentally challenged youth, or drunken Wetherby Derwent, who spends his money on nude dancers at the Caravan Club. Homicide Lieutenant Bill Hammer treats Rocky as a trusted partner, and with the help of Mrs. Pickett and Jane, they design to get to the bottom of it all, even if they all lose their jobs.

This was entertaining and more serious than you would expect. Taking place over three days at Christmas, there isn't much merriment. Rocky plays detective more than newsman, and there is an interesting sideline where the Malloy community party is only for white children, and Rocky opens the toy shop as planned for the coloured children. An all around good guy. Jane is an equal character, engaged to Malloy before she met Rocky, herself no push around. How she ends up to everyone's surprise as a tassel wearing nude dancer on Christmas Day I'll let you discover for yourself.

Jack Iams (Samuel H. Iams, Jr.) has written several other great mysteries - Rocky and Jane continue in the mysteries What Rhymes With Murder? and A Shot of Murder (both 1950). Mrs. Pickett continues in two more mysteries Into Thin Air (1952) and A Corpse of the Old School (1955).

1949 / Paperback / 224 pages