Never Walk Alone by Rufus King

"Trouble Trails a Wanton Woman", the cover art, and even the title, have little to do with this humorous mystery of an old dowager who rents rooms to help the war effort.

Carrie Giles is a willowy widow who donates an etching she made in her youth to the war bond fundraiser. She still has the press up in the attic. She tells a society reporter that she wants to do more by letting out rooms in her mansion to defense plant workers for nominal rent. Dugald Smith overhears and is keen to have rooms for himself and his nephew Fergus, both vetted plant workers. Young Effie Ashley, a gun inspector, also takes a room for herself. Carrie now has a full house—with the fourth room going to a night shift worker who sleeps all day. Right away she resents the guests taking over her house (perhaps they are all crooks!) and is very suspicious of Miss Ashley, who looks in every room like a nefarious spy planning a villainous campaign.

Carrie's lieutenant grandson Kent is visiting to local fanfare on his way to Washington to be decorated by Roosevelt. The night before his arrival, she is sure she sees Miss Ashley and Kent whispering in her driveway, and when she investigates, she finds a dead man in the bushes. Thinking to protect Kent, she says nothing and actually tampers with evidence. The next day, the town and mayor greet Kent on his arriving train, but Carrie still feels she is not mistaken. At home, the body has been found, and oddly is that of an international crook. Despite her flights of fantasy about a house filled with spies, vamps, and saboteurs, the seeds of fear are actually sprouting now as Kent confirms her suspicions.

Rufus King always produces an quirky mystery, and this is filled with humor as Carrie works herself up with fantasies of villains all around her. Once Kent enters the scene, the clues fall into place, and you can see clearly where it's going, but that doesn't matter when the writing is so humorous and smooth.

Exciting cover art by Rudolph Belarski, which again, has little to do with anything.

1944 / Paperback / 160 pages