The Golden Box: A Pat & Jean Abbott mystery by Frances Crane

New OCR, formatted, proofed, v1.1. Thanks to an illness in the family, Jean Holly is staying in her hometown of Elm Hill, Illinois, for a bit. Her cousin just happens to live next door to Fabian House, home of Mrs. Lake, the richest and most powerful woman in town. When Mrs. Lake dies suddenly, it’s ascribed to a known heart condition. But Patrick Abbott, passing through Elm Hill on his way to Washington, becomes suspicious when one death is followed by another—this time, the hanging of the Fabian House maid . . . > **A Pat & Jean Abbott mystery set on the eve of Pearl Harbor** >The old tyrant had never been popular, but was canceling a children's Christmas party motive enough for murder? And why bang Jean's cat on the head with a wrench? >Shortly after Thanksgiving 1941, Jean Holly returns to her small southern Illinois home town to be with an ailing aunt, only to find herself caught up in the murder of the town tyrant, old Mrs. Claribel Fabian Lake. Then Jean's boyfriend, San Francisco private detective Pat Abbott, shows up. While Pat snoops for clues and listens to news reports from Washington, D.C., 26-year-old Jean wonders if he's really serious about her. Maybe it's time to resign herself to life as a spinster. >Then the dead woman's maid is found hanged in a room filled with stuffed birds, Jean's cat Toby is knocked unconscious, and an owl is heard in the night. Somehow all these events are linked to a mysterious missing golden box. >Just about everyone in town had reason to want to see Claribel dead. She was a haughty, mean-spirited old woman who ruled her household - and the entire town - with an iron fist, even going so far as to cancel her support for the children's Christmas party at the local church. >Set during the final days leading up to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, this second mystery involving Pat and Jean provides a marvelous portrait of small-town America on the eve of the World War II. First published in 1942, *The Golden Box* is set in a town based on Crane's own home town, Lawrenceville, Illinois. "The old tyrant had never been popular, but was canceling a children's Christmas party motive enough for murder? And why bang Jean's cat on the head with a wrench? Shortly after Thanksgiving 1941, Jean Holly returns to her small southern Illinois home town to be with an ailing aunt only to find herself caught up in the murder of the town tyrant, old Mrs. Claribel Fabian Lake. Then Jean's boyfriend, San Francisco private detective Pat Abbott, shows up ... Then the dead woman's maid is found hanged in a room filled with stuffed birds, Jean's cat Toby is knocked unconscious and an owl is heard in the night. Somehow all these events are linked to a mysterious missing golden box." -- From back cover Wealthy and influential Mrs. Claribel Fabian Lake runs the town of Elm Hill to suit herself – until death comes to claim her.Her estate is to be divided between her three daughters – but only after one of them, Valerie, reaches the age of forty, or in a mere matter of twenty-two years! And the sole administrator is Mrs. Lake’s cousin, Ernest Fabian, who is scheduled to marry Claire Lake.Suddenly one of Mrs. Lake’s maids is murdered – and it’s only a step from that point for wily sleuth Pat Abbott to prove that Mrs. Lake was also a victim of violence! Then a thrilling chase for the killer begins – and once more Pat Abbott scores in a baffling, breath-taking mystery! The second Pat and Jean Abbott mystery, set in a fictionalized version of the author's home town of Lawrenceville, Ill. When Jean Holly (still unmarried)leaves Taos to tend to family matters in her home town, Pat follows and soons become involved in the murder of the town tyrant. First published in 1942.