Midnight - Cohen, Octavus Roy

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Résumé :
A veiled woman enters a taxicab on a freezing December night-but when the cab reaches its destination, she has vanished and a murdered man lies in her place. Young taxi driver Spike Walters picks up an elegant, heavily veiled passenger outside Union Station during a bitter sleet storm. She directs him to an isolated address on the outskirts of the city, but when Spike arrives and looks into the back seat, the woman is gone. Her suitcase remains, along with the body of a man Spike has never seen. With no footprints, no visible escape route, and no explanation for how the corpse entered the cab, the crime appears impossible. Private detective David Carroll is called upon to untangle the mystery. As he follows a trail of concealed relationships, conflicting testimony, suspicious behavior, and carefully constructed deception, Carroll must determine who the dead man was, why he was killed, and how the murderer transformed an ordinary taxi ride into a seemingly supernatural disappearance. The investigation demands patience, psychological insight, and close attention to details others dismiss. Published in 1922, Midnight was the fourth and final novel featuring David Carroll, Cohen's energetic and unconventional private detective. The novel combines an ingenious opening puzzle with brisk dialogue, humor, romantic complications, and the atmosphere of an early twentieth-century urban mystery. Contemporary mystery historian Jon L. Breen has described it as a cleverly constructed and highly readable example of detective fiction from its period....

Biographie:
Octavus Roy Cohen was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1891. He attended Clemson College and worked as an engineer, lawyer, and journalist before establishing himself as a professional writer. Cohen became a prolific contributor to popular magazines and produced novels, short stories, plays, and screen material across several genres.Cohen created several recurring detectives, including David Carroll, Jim Hanvey, and Florian Slappey. David Carroll appeared in four early mystery novels: The Crimson Alibi, Gray Dusk, Six Seconds of Darkness, and Midnight. Jim Hanvey, an observant and unconventional private detective, became another of Cohen's best-known characters and appeared in numerous stories and later film adaptations.Over the course of his career, Cohen wrote dozens of books and became a familiar name to readers of American popular fiction. His work was known for rapid plotting, colorful dialogue, ingenious crimes, and vividly drawn characters. He died in Los Angeles in 1959, leaving behind a substantial body of mystery and detective fiction that reflects the energetic magazine culture of the early twentieth century....

Sommaire:
An affluent woman boards a taxi-cab on a dreary night in the big city. After a harsh drive through sleet, they arrive at her destination. The cab looks back from the weather to discover the woman gone, leaving behind a suitcase and the dead body of a man. Only David Carroll can puzzle through this mystery. First published in 1921....