Footsteps Behind Her by Mitchell Wilson

Footsteps Behind Her is a 1941 mystery by Mitchell Wilson, notable as an Inner Sanctum Mystery. I usually enjoy books in this series, and took a chance.

Josephine Lang was a small town Nevada music teacher, who's scandal ran her out of town. It involved her offering a cigarette to a student one day, and gossip turned it into a full blown affair, becoming a national newspaper story of the 'Teachers Turpitude'. On an overnight bus East, she sits next to Dick Stowe and they quickly become friendly, practically falling in love. Dick is relocating to New York and doesn't know he is carrying secret company plans for new aircraft design - it's detailed inside an envelope written in invisible ink! When Dick writes his New York address on the envelope and gives it to her, Josephine becomes the target of a sinister group out to steal the plans - she's followed constantly, drugged, and almost gassed in a phone booth - even though she has by now lost the envelope. Meeting up with Dick, they stumble on a trail of corpses to get it back, and possibly they do, leading to a happy ending.

Written in 1941, this has many interesting features of daily life that no longer exist, such as uniformed elevator boys, Automats, and amusement arcades. Oddly, even in New York people recognize on the street from her scandalous news story as 'the cigarette girl'. Josephine works this to her advantage when trying to meet up with Dick. She goes into a string of music stores and asks to hear a certain record played, not in the listening booth as usual, but broadcast through the speakers on the street. The singer sings of 'cigarettes' and as Dick hears it he can follow her trail from store to store. A nifty trick.

This was a light and breezy mystery as neither Josephine or Dick know what's going on. The writing is good, and filled with corny lines like "You'll tell it to jury if you keep this up...This little caper was murder, pal, and there's laws about that." It suits the time and place of the mystery and adds to the charm. She does get claustrophobically followed everywhere which becomes a little tense, right up to evading her pursuers by taking a test drive in a car, only to have them come along for the ride! She can't catch a break. Not overly complex, but I love a 1940's mystery and had a fun adventure in the big city.

1941 / Hardcover / 314 pages