Forgotten Author: BARBARA PAUL

Barbara Paul wrote many mysteries. One of my favorites featured Marian Larch, a police officer in New York City. This seven-book series was published between 1984 and 1997.

THE RENEWABLE VIRGIN (1984)

Kelly Ingram is a rising star who has everything going for her -- great looks, a livewire personality, enough talent to get by on, a new TV series, and a new lover. She also has an agent and a producer who hate each other, but they still manage to work well enough together to keep Kelly's career moving in the right direction.But then a friend is murdered, a harmless scriptwriter who should have been no threat to anyone. The scriptwriter's mother enters Kelly's life, a history professor named Fiona Benedict who dislikes everything the actor stands for. Mediating between them is Sgt. Marian Larch of the NYPD, assigned to investigate the murder. What Marian turns up is a tale of ambition and envy and betrayal going back fifteen years. Kelly, Fiona, and Marian -- three women who have absolutely nothing in common except the act of murder that brings them together -- take turns telling the story, which ultimately demonstrates how friendship can blossom in even the unlikeliest of circumstances.

HE HUFFED AND HE PUFFED (1989)

Financier A. J. Strode is accustomed to getting his own way even if unscrupulous tactics must be employed. He covets ownership of House of Glass, a company which has been stealing industrial jobs from his own firm, Lester Works. The tycoon has quietly acquired House of Glass stock and needs one more block to seize control of his competition. But the three shareholders who own the only available stock, concert violinist Joanna Gillespie, Jack McKinstry of McKinstry Helicopters and Richard Bruce of Bruce Shipping Lines, refuse to sell. Strode, though, is certain someone will eventually capitulate because he has uncovered their darkest secrets: each has literally gotten away with murder. He invites the trio to his Manhattan home for a weekend to decide among themselves who will sell their stock and go free while the other two face prosecution and ruin. There's just one problem with Strode's scenario: he's killed. Sgt. Marian Larch and her partner Ivan Malecki are sent to the scene of the crime.

GOOD KING SAUERKRAUT (1989)

The story is about a robot-designer who is not only clumsy in his personal relationships but physically clumsy as well. In fact, his carelessness causes the deaths of two of his co-workers. It was pure accident both times; but instead of owning up to his part in the mishaps, he ducks his responsibility and claims to know nothing about what happened -- which declaration starts the police looking for a murderer. The second half of the book is a cat-and-mouse game as Marian Larch and her partner Ivan Malecki come closer and closer to the truth.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT (1992)

An unprecedented shortage of sergeants in the NYPD splits up the team of Sgt. Marian Larch and her partner. She and Ivan Malecki are sent to separate precincts -- and Marian, unluckily, is assigned to the Ninth in the Lower East Side, one of the roughest precincts in Manhattan. One day, while Larch is on duty in Manhattan's Lower East Side, four top-level employees of a laser technology firm--all with some level of government security clearance--are found murdered, handcuffed together and shot through the eye. Everyone agrees that their deaths are meant as a warning, but to whom or about what neither the company's president nor anyone else can fathom. Hindered by a partner who resents her and an overly ambitious captain, Larch is coerced into working with two FBI agents brought in because of the victims' classified government connections.

THE APOSTROPHE THIEF (1993)

Beleaguered detective Sergeant Marion Larch, of New York's Ninth Precinct is fed up with her lazy, loutish partner Foley and with her devious, self-serving Captain di Falco. Meanwhile, circumstances bring Marion to the Midtown South precinct to look into a burglary at the Broadhurst theater, where her actress friend Kelly Ingram is starring in The Apostrophe Thief. An odd assortment of objects has been taken--from costumes to scripts--the most valuable of which is a bejeweled jacket once owned by Sarah Bernhardt. Marion finds herself clue hunting in the strange, constricted world of collectibles--among besotted fans and not-too-ethical dealers. One of them--Ernie Nordstrom--is found murdered when Marion finally catches up to him. She's convinced that thief and killer are the same, and that it's someone in the
theater's production, cast or crew.

FARE PLAY (1995)

Marian Larch is promoted to lieutenant in the NYPD's Midtown South Precinct. Standing out from the usual round of crimes is the murder of elderly Oliver Knowles on a crowded bus, the killer escaping unseen, even by the detective agency operative who was trailing him. Larch is surprised to learn that the agency is owned by Curt Holland, her on-again, off-again lover. Knowles was the wealthy, retired head of O.K. Toys, now run by suave David Unger. In addition to Unger, Knowles's son and the family lawyer stand to profit most by the old man's death. Larch senses chicanery behind the urbane, respectable facade. A college student is similarly murdered in a packed subway train, but this time a description of the killer emerges. While working both cases, the new lieutenant grapples with the problems of her actress friend Kelly
Ingram.

FULL FRONTAL MURDER (1997)

A botched kidnapping attempt brings Marian in on an especially ugly child-custody battle. The four-year-old boy who is the only one who saw the kidnapper up close turns out to be the center of more than just a marital dispute. Then people connected with the case start dying. Marian is convinced neither parent is responsible, that a third person is manipulating both of them for some purpose of his own. But as Marian gets closer to identifying the killer, she unknowingly puts her lover Curt Holland into danger. Holland is forced to suffer pain and degradation on her account, and Marian needs all the strength she can summon to cope with this vicious series of events. Her
realization of what she could lose changes her forever.

Barbara Paul's website can be found at http://www.barbarapaul.com/. Bookeemonster rating: 4 out of 5.