Normally an author of sci-fi and supernatural fiction, Thorne Smith’s Did She Fall was the only time he turned his acclaimed typewriter to crime. It’s too bad, because this book is excellent, taking a stab at the device of murder, but adding the twist of whether or when that murder improves the world. Smith began his career way back in 1918 and died in 1943, but his creative influence rippled through the years. His posthumously published novel The Passionate Witch was even the inspiration for the television show Bewitched.
The character at the center of Did She Fall, both before and after death, is beautiful Emily-Jane Seabrook, who is thought by most to be loving and kind, but is really an amoral, grasping, extortionate gold-digger. She plans to marry into a rich Long Island family, but the groom’s brother, the brother’s wife, the brother’s best friend, and others intend to prevent the wedding. With all that hate bouncing around, when Emily-Jane ends up a stain at the bottom of a cliff, detective Scott Munson has his work cut out for him.
In terms of setting up the murder, Smith arranges for five (or maybe six) people to be at the top of that cliff at the fatal moment, yet the identity of the murderer is still in doubt. How does he manage that unrealistic feat? Darkness, confusion, certain persons protecting others, etc. It doesn’t really work as a spatial event, but we suspended disbelief and really enjoyed the book, particularly its surprising conclusion. It was originally published in 1930, with this Paperback Library edition and its Robert McGinnis cover art coming in 1962.
