When I downloaded an ARC of "Dance of Death" from netgalley, I didn't realize that it had been written in the 1930s. That was a pleasant surprise, as I has been difficult for me to locate historical fiction that I actually enjoy reading; too often, such books are riddled with racism and sexism. Such is not the case with "Dance of Death." This is an engaging mystery filled with fun characters and plenty of twists. The resolution was very much an "a-ha" moment, as all of the clues were there all along. My only complaint is that there were a number of formatting errors, such as missing paragraph breaks; hopefully, these were corrected before the book went to press. Definitely recommended to fans of Golden Age mysteries, and mysteries with strong psychological elements.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this Golden Age mystery. I am rarely a fan of psychological mysteries and the idea of a psychiatrist (Dr. Basil Willing), as part of a detective team wasn’t very appealing to me. I could not have been more wrong. I really liked this novel.

The plot of this novel is quite complex, and the psychology that is used by Dr. Willing is certainly simplistic by modern standards, maybe even a little superstitious. However, this book was originally published in the I’m not going to elaborate much on the plot, it is a complex one with unforeseen twists and turns. We have a debutante ball, an unwilling impersonator, a body found in a snow bank, but that body is not cold. . However, the body is hot! And it keeps going. There’s enough going on to keep your attention although the author can be a bit wordy and somewhat repetitive at times.

I liked this novel well enough to be keeping an eye out for others by the same author. Thanks to NetGalley and Agora Books for giving me the opportunity to read and review this enjoyable mystery.

The body of a young woman lies dead in the snow – a woman who has died, apparently, of heat stroke. Moreover, the woman, Kitty Jocelyn was seen the previous evening at her coming-out party looking hale and hearty.

Enter Dr Basil Willing, psychiatric advisor to the D.A.’s office, but he soon finds a perplexing puzzle. While it seems that everybody had the opportunity to kill Kitty, there seems to be no motive. With no physical clues, it falls to Willing to seek more psychological clues…

McCloy wrote almost thirty mystery and suspense novel, many of them featuring Dr Basil Willing. I’ve read two of them – Cue For Murder, which I enjoyed a lot and The Goblin Market, which I didn’t enjoy at all. This is her first book, recently re-released by Agora Books in paperback and ebook, and it’s an impressively strong debut.

It does start a bit oddly, with a plan to try and brainwash someone into thinking she’s Kitty – the notion of doppelgangers is something McCloy would return to – but after that aspect sorts itself out, the mystery develops nicely.

McCloy is a good writer and has a clever hook at the centre of the story. I did think the middle third sagged a tad, as the motive does expose the killer, hence the need to avoid addressing it for the most part. The motive is one that I’ve not seen before in books of this era – indeed, it almost seems to come from a modern day situation – but that does help misdirect the reader nicely.

Agora Books have been doing sterling work reprinting “lost” authors – Hilda Lawrence, George Bellairs, Margaret Newman, Henrietta Hamilton, Nicholas Blake, Richard Hull… and McCloy is an excellent choice to add to this stable. I’m looking forward to reading more of McCloy’s work.

Death Of A Socialite....
Hugely enjoyable entry into the excellent Agora Books’ Uncrowned Queens of Crime series. The first Dr Basil Willing mystery finds the credible psychologist with the death of a socialite to investigate. The plot is complex and rather unique, the characters colourful and well drawn and the suspects numerous. A pleasure to read and thoroughly entertaining.

This book truly deserves the title of Crime Classic. The story is unusual and very different and the plot is intriguingly clever - just my type of book. The front of the book gives a list of other Dr. Basil Willing books by this author - perhaps more will be republished. That would be a treat indeed.

Dance of Death by Helen McCloy

I received this e-book from Crime Classics via NetGalley. It is published in the series from Agora Books called Uncrowned Queens of Crime.
It’s very nice to get to know other writers who have written classic crimes, and I have thus been inspired to read authors unknown to me before.

In this novel a young debutante is found dead buried in snow. Although she is covered in snow her body temperature is high and the cause of death resembles a heat stroke.
It is not a heat stroke but she has been poisoned with an overdose of a diet drug.
In charge of the investigation is Inspector Foyle with the help of psychiatrist Dr Basil Willing.
Foyle and Willing have different ways of solving cases, and Willing tries to convince Foyle about the value of psychology in criminal investigation. He states that a blunder is the one form of clue a criminal can neither remove, conceal nor destroy - the one clue that is entirely beyond his conscious control.
So when trying to find out who the killer is you will have to look for blunders. Alas I did not succeed, but was well entertained trying to.

This is the first of 14 novels featuring Psychiatrist- detective Basil Willing - so I will hopefully be able to get hold of some of the others.

What I also like about this book is the list in the beginning : "Persons of interest in this mystery". Makes it so much easier if you forget a name. Each person is also shortly described.

I read the e-book on NetGalleys new app: NetGalley Shelf and it was fine.

In New York, Debutante Kitty Jocelyn is found dead one morning, in a snow bank, killed by heat stroke. But how is that possible when she was seen at her own party until early in the morning and has not been reported missing, and in winter. Assistant Chief Inspector Patrick Foyle investigates with the help of psychologist Dr. Basil Willing.
An entertaining well-written golden age mystery. A good start to a new series with a likeable main character.
Originally written in 1938.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Dance of Death by Helen McCloy has been reissued by Agora Books and was an ‘extra’ for the Crime Classics Review Club. It was her first novel and the first appearance of Dr Willing, who featured in twelve more mysteries. The story is set in New York. A girl is found dead under frozen snow but the body is hot! The preliminary autopsy suggests that she died from heatstroke. How? Once the poor girl is identified, it seems to be a case about high society or at least rich people. An unpleasant lot they are, too, but what on earth is the motive for her killing? Dr Willing is not a policeman but a psychiatrist and tackles every case from that angle, so his solution is more about perception than about evidence. I enjoyed the book but both science and psychiatry have moved on since 1933 and I found that a slight problem.

.This was a find. I am a fan of Golden Age Crime fiction and Agora’s diligent reprinting of some of the long neglected books of that era inevitably produce some that disappoint. They also, however, produce some that excite and this, for me, was one of those.

Just as the science of fingerprinting and photography applied to policing and detection gave writers from the late nineteenth century a tool to engage readers in the quest of ‘who dunnit?’ via detective novels, so the emerging science of psychology provides Helen McCloy with a similar opportunity.

Dr Willing, practising psychiatrist, applies his psychiatric knowledge to the behaviour of those involved in a specific murder, helping Inspector Foyle, experienced, intelligent detective prepared to listen, learn and use science to solve a case. The science being used is not chemical, but McCloy and her lead characters treat it with respect and use it to their advantage.

This makes, in my view, for detective fiction at its best. In its time it must have been new and exciting. McCloy knows how to use it to create tension, explore options and connect the reader to the minds of the detectives. She creates characters who are more than stereotypes. Whether they are empathetic or unattractive, they remain understandable and believable.

It is a book of its time, but one in which the writer’s skill gives readers eighty years later both insight into New York in the 1930s and a detective puzzle to engage the mind.
Thanks to Agora Books and NetGalley for the review copy

I may have read another in this series but it would have been later in the series. I really did enjoy this book. There were many little twists in the in the plotting and in the characters involved around the victim. But the continuing characters who will continue to be developed are interesting and I will enjoy getting to know them. I did not suss out the "perp" which I often do. Odd because there was a clue given early on which should have helped me but I ignored. Overall, I want to go on and read more in this series. The author writes well and although as another reviewer noted, there were some small errors, I think due to e formatting and not original with author. Good read!!

Men shoveling snow in New York City discover the body of a hot woman in a snowbank! Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist attached to the DA's office hears about the dead woman who died from a heat stroke from General Archer, the Police Commissioner. Basil goes to the man who did the autopsy, and sees a picture of a woman he remembers seeing someone. He goes to the library and finally finds the picture in a magazine. She is Miss Catherine Jocelyn (Kitty), a beautiful debutante who is pictured in an advertisement for Sveltis, an over the counter expensive medicine for keeping thin.

It is soon apparent that there is another woman who looks just like Catherine; that is Ann Jocelyn Claude, who is Kitty's cousin. It turns out that Kitty became sick on the afternoon of her debutante party with what the family thought was from her malaria. The mother asked Ann (a poor relative who was acting as her secretary) to take Kitty's place at the party. Kitty was brought to Ann's room and put to bed. The next morning, Kitty had disappeared. Once Basil notifies the police of the dead woman's name, he becomes very involved in the case. The police soon realize Kitty was poisoned with Sveltis.

Dr. Willing uses psychology to sort through all the possible killers, figure out who is guilty, and to prevent another murder. This book is very clever and I was surprised when he finally uncovered the murderer.

Kitty Jocelyn, a beautiful debutante, is found dead in a snow bank in New York City dressed in cheap clothing. Why wasn't she reported missing by her family and why was she dressed poorly? Also strangely, Kitty's face had turned yellow and, despite being dead in a snow bank for hours, her body was still warm. What could have caused this? Enter Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist attached to the District Attorney's office, who assists the police in its investigation of this suspicious death. First published in 1938, "Dance of Death" was Helen McCloy's first book. In 1938, Sigmund Freud was still alive so perhaps his theories were new and fascinating then; but I found Dr. Willing's lengthy Freudian discussions distracting. Overall, however, it's an interesting book and there are many red herrings to keep mystery lovers guessing. This electronic version of the book appears to have been OCR scanned and not proofread. It contains numerous typos which are annoying so I am deducting a star from its overall rating.

Dance of Death is Helen McCloy’s first novel, originally published in 1938. It features her series detective, Dr Basil Willing. For us readers in 2020, the first line is so evocative of that pre-war time, “The snow began to fall Tuesday, about cocktail time…”.

A line of dialogue that epitomises the upper class attitudes of the time is “… I naturally didn’t want Kitty involved in a public scandal. Good Lord, if I’d been firmer, I might have […] avoided the worse scandal of murder!” Good Lord, yes: being involved in a murder must be *so* embarrassing!

By morning, that cocktail-time snow contains the dead body of a young woman. It takes a while to establish her identity and then to be sure how she died. The plot, pacing, motivation, etc. is really good - all the likely suspects needed the girl alive rather than dead. and the question of whodunnit is only answered at the end of the book. However, although I’m very grateful that NetGalley and Agora Books gave me the opportunity to read this book before its re-issue, based upon this one, I’m not sure I will go hunting out any more of Helen McCloy’s books.

There were a few things that grated on me:
a) The dialogue. In response to “Suppose you take the events of the day in order?”, we get “[…] Kitty didn’t look worried at all. Indeed I never saw her look brighter or gayer. Usually she was pale, but that evening there was a pink flush in her cheeks and her eyes sparkled.” And “She seemed to know something was wrong the minute she saw me. I suppose it was in my face.” There are several further examples. Whilst the sentences are descriptive, they are just too unrealistic as natural speech. People don’t really talk like that.

b) Dr Willing’s statements about psychology. He insists that “To ‘lose’ a thing is merely to forget where you put it.” That is, the unconscious mind is deliberately trying to get rid of an item. What if you have a hole in your pocket and you weren’t aware of? How about “[…] a criminal shows the tendency to repeat his crime in the same way indefinitely.” Really? A murderer keeps murdering through force of habit? There are several other examples where I muttered “Rubbish!”

c) There’s at least one example of a clue which features in the solution but is news to us. It’s a accepted convention of detective fiction that the reader should be shown everything the detective sees. That breach of convention irritated me!
#DanceofDeath #NetGalley

A very welcome addition to the Uncrowned Queens of Crime series published by Agora Books. This was the first in a series of thirteen novels and two short-story collections featuring Dr. Basil Willing, a Freudian psychiatrist and advisor to the NYPD.

Having previously read one of McCloy's mysteries and found it underwhelming, I was more than pleasantly surprised by this debut from 1938 about the murder of a debutante and socialite by means of a slimming drug. The plot is fairly complex, but full of interesting characters and red herring. The reader does feel at one point as if anyone could have done it, but that no-one has a viable motive. The author does not really play fair although there are a few not too obvious clues and the solution certainly comes as a surprise.

This was very readable and well-written, with insights into the social life of the rich in 1930s US society and the advertising ethics of the period. The emphasis on Freudian interpretations of behaviour is not too obtrusive and Willing is a genial and believable detective. The plot is cleverly- constructed and the writing never seems dated.

Highly enjoyable reading and eminently recommendable.

Thank you to NetGalley and Agora Books for the digital review copy.

Dance of Death or Design For Dying as it is also published as is the first book from Helen McCloy to introduce us to Dr Basil Willing and Inspector Foyle. Dr Willing is a psychologist that is always looking to see what a suspects subconscious is trying to tell him.
A New York socialite is found dead of heatstroke in a snowbank the day after her coming out party. Her family claim Kitty Jocelyn is alive and well in their townhouse and even go so far as having her sighted at the opera. That is until a woman looking remarkably like Kitty comes to the police station claiming she is Kitty's cousin Ann Claude and she has been imprisoned and made to impersonate Kitty since the night of the coming out party. The family and Kitty's maid have also been calling her Kitty and telling her she is just tired from the dance and so putting doubt in her mind whether she is sane. Basil believes her story and so the police need to try to infiltrate the Jocelyn house and make sense of it all.
The list of characters is small but at times I got confused with the male characters but that may because I read the book over a few days. There is a handy guide to all the suspects at the start of the book which is useful.
Kitty used to advertise a slimming product called Sveltis which is discovered to be the cause of her death but as Kitty never actually used the product then the hunt is on to find out how she came to take it and who is responsible.
Although there are several unsavoury characters there seems no real motive for the death and it was in Rhoda Jocelyns' (step mother) interest to have Kitty alive and married off to a wealthy man as she is secretly broke. Her boyfriend Luis Pasquale is leaching off her and has a drug habit he needs money to maintain. Nicholas Danine is the director of a German explosives company and the man Rhoda insists was keen on Kitty. Phillip Leach is the writer of a gossip column that has disappeared and Mrs Jowett is the social secretary responsible for Kitty's coming out party. A few servants act a bit funny and are added to the suspects list but few knew Kitty more than a few weeks as she and Rhoda had lived in Paris for years so motive is absent.
Overall I found this to be very well written book and was fascinated with Dr Willings methods of detection. I did not suspect the real killer until close to the end so the sleight of hand was well done.
I love Golden Age mysteries and am delighted to have found a new author to add to my reading lists as I will definitely look out for more books with Dr Willing in them.

This is the novel that introduced Dr Basil Willing, a psychiatrist working out of the district attorney's office in New York. He's a character who reappeared in a whole series of novels by Helen McCloy, offering a very different approach to golden age detecting ad he searched for psychic clues rather than physical clues.
Written in 1938 it has aged. well and has a clever plot, and a solution to the mystery that won't disappoint.
Helen McCloy and Basil Willing are almost forgotten today but the ever-pioneering Agora books are championing a revival of her novels. Once you have read one of them, I am sure, like me, you will be hooked.

3.5 stars

This vintage mystery would have made a great 40s movie. Originally published in 1938, it was the series debut of Dr. Basil Willing, a psychiatrist working with the NYPD. It was early days then for the science of psychiatry, so there is much skepticism present from some police and members of the public.

Willing is a solid character. In this outing, a bizarre crime occurs. The body of a young woman is found buried in the snow. But the body is burning hot. Then, another young woman, who could be a twin of the body, comes to the police with an incredible story. She claims the body is a relative of hers, a prominent socialite. She then tells them she had been impersonating the victim for the last couple days, at the request of the victim's stepmother. The stepmother and her boyfriend had even attempted to gaslight her into believing she actually was the stepdaughter.

So unfolds a tale of greed, glamor, family dysfunction, and chilling manipulation. Willing's skills help to unravel the whole mess.

Quite readable, although sometimes a bit heavy on mental health jargon, and a bonus for classic mystery fans. Thanks to the publisher and to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is the first of the Dr. Basil Willing series. It was first published in 1938. It is now being reprinted by Agora Books and will be released on 29th October.
After a severe snowstorm during the night, the streets and pavements of New York are deep in snow. When in the early morning, the workers with shovels try to clear off the snow, one of them comes across the dead body of a girl buried in the snow. The body feels hot and an autopsy reveals that the conditions of the internal organs are the same as in the case of a heat stroke !
The body, after some doubts due to misleading details, is identified as that of Katherine Jocelyn, an eighteen year old beautiful debutante. She has been poisoned with an overdose of a diet drug named Sveltis which she endorsed in advertisements for reducing weight but never took it herself. It seems that the overdose was put in her cocktail during her coming-out party which took place on the night preceding the discovery of her dead body.
The case is investigated by Dr. Basil Willing, psychiatrist attached to the District Attorney’s office and Inspector Foyle of New York police.
The main suspects who attended the party are her stepmother Rhoda Jocelyn, her look-alike cousin Ann Claude, her uncle Edgar Jocelyn, Luis Pasquale, an artist, Mrs Jowett, social secretary for coming-out parties, Nicholas Danine, a rich director of a German explosives company, Philip Leach, a gossip column writer, Rhoda’s maid Victorine, and a gate-crasher.
Basil Wiling’s method of working is different from that of other detectives. His emphasis is on psychology and what he calls “psychic fingerprints”. He observes the subconscious behavior and blunders of the suspects to make deductions.
The plot is intriguing and entertaining. The characterisation is good. There is a lot of forensic details which may interest readers. The mystery is rather intricate with several twists and red herrings. However, the middle section often tends to drag. Hence I rate it as 3 stars, otherwise I would have rated it as 4 stars.
Thanks to NetGalley and Agora Cooks for a free review copy.

I would like to thank Netgalley and Agora Books for an advance copy of Dance of Death, the first novel to feature New York based psychiatrist Dr Basil Willing, originally published in 1938 under the title Design for Dying.

When a young woman is found dead from heatstroke in the snow Dr Basil Willing is asked to assist Inspector Foyle in establishing what happened but there are only more questions when she is identified as debutante Kitty Jocelyn, killed on the night of her coming out ball.

I enjoyed Dance of Death, which, as expected from the era, has a puzzling mystery at its heart, not least who would want want to kill a young woman recently arrived in New York from Europe and quite unknown? No one it would appear, but several people had the opportunity so it’s a question of finding a motive and a killer.

This is an interesting read as a product of its era. The psychology is rather naive and unnuanced in comparison with our modern understanding and can be, at times, a slog but the effort is there and I imagine that the novel was quite modern in its approach at the time. What I noticed more, however, was the class of the novel. The majority of the characters are well heeled, if not so well bred and the inference is that the Police should leave them alone. Maybe not so different from nowadays, on reflection. It’s also a remarkably homogeneous society with an emphasis on European roots, the only non white has a minor role as gullible and deceived.

Despite the old fashioned nature of the narrative I enjoyed the whodunnit nature of the novel and have no hesitation in recommending it as a good read.

‘The snow began to fall Tuesday, about cocktail time—huge flakes whirling spirally in a north wind.’

And the following day, there are three cases of death by exposure. One of those bodies belongs to an unidentified girl who apparently died of heat exposure, a detail which has been kept from the papers. Her body was discovered by men shovelling snow. Who is she, and how did she die?

So begins the mystery the local police dub ‘The Red Hot Momma Case’.

Dr Basil Willing is a psychiatrist attached to the district attorney’s office in New York. He and Inspector Foyle investigate what becomes an intricate and involved case, full of mysteries, secrets, and red herrings. The identity of the girl is quickly discovered, but not before some misleading details are introduced.

“Mrs Jocelyn,” said Basil, evenly, “the most disillusioning thing about being a psychiatrist is discovering how many kind relatives wish that other members of their family could be declared insane.”

The main puzzle is who wanted Kitty Jocelyn dead? Most of the people involved had good reason for wanting her alive. But the autopsy reveals that her death was a consequence of poisoning, by a diet drug she endorsed but did not take. Dr Willing uses his knowledge of psychology to try to get into the murderer’s mind. Intriguing, because there were several people with opportunity, several secrets which could explain motivation.

The story moves at a rapid pace, and while I worked out who I thought was responsible just before the end, I needed confirmation.

‘The answer came in a flash of illumination as sudden as lightening.’

This novel was first published in 1938 and is being republished in 2020. It is the first of a series of fourteen novels by Helen McCloy (1904-1994) to feature Dr Basil Willing, and I have added the others to my reading list.

A great ‘Golden Era’ mystery.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Agora Books for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith