The Judge Is Reversed by Richard and Frances Lockridge

New York couple Pam and Jerry North return to solve their 24th mystery, combining cats, tennis, and murder.

Over breakfast, reading their favorite columnists in the New York Herald Tribune, Pam suggests there will never be another Pete or Ruffy, but it is time for another cat. They banter in the half sentences understood by a long-married couple..."You cross your fingers... There'll never be another... All the same, it's true... A Siamese, not too pointed."

At the cat show, Pam meets Madeline Somers, owner of a Madison Avenue cat store, who recognizes Pam as a noted criminologist. "Once, we found a body in the bathtub; that's all there was to it, really." The show judge, John Blanchard, once wrote a book on cats. Floyd Ackerman chairs an animal cruelty committee, and everyone is aware of his shrill hysteria when he thinks Blanchard is against him. Later, when the Norths attend a Forest Hills tennis championship, Pam is surprised to see the umpire is the same John Blanchard. Doug Mears was looking for a win to enter the pro-division, but when called out on a technicality, his anger is directed at Blanchard. With vocal enemies, it is no surprise when he is found bludgeoned to death. Sergeant Mullins and Captain Bill Weigand investigate, with the help of friends the Norths, looking into Blanchard's young redheaded 'niece' Hilda Latham who stands to inherit, her father Grant Latham who is quite short of money, her fiancé Doug Mears, angry Ackerman, and even Madeline Somers who is on the cruelty committee - all of them with cat hair on their clothes. One of them is about to disappear, and another to be found hanged, no note left.

Like Nick and Nora Charles, the Norths become wrapped in mystery as part of everyday life. This entry has a distinctly feminine touch; a very light, cozy mystery centered on this typical American couple detecting with series regulars Weigand and Mullins. Even the lead of another Lockridge series, Detective Nathan Shapiro, makes a cameo.

The Lockridges wrote fifty novels together, with Frances producing the plots and Richard the writing. In 1960, they were co-presidents of the Mystery Writers of America.

1960 / Hardcover / 192 pages