Pattern in Black and Red

About the Book

But for the blistering June heat in Frisbie County, Shadwell Dunn's old mansion would not have known its strangest and most sinister adventure. Three men, of widely differing social stations, would have died in their beds instead of in their boots. And little old Professor Ames, with his wistful eyes and his mop of white hair, would never have mooned his way about those ancient rooms, determined to save the fourth man.

Some murder stories blow hot and then cold, but in this one the excitement never diminishes. Besides the continuous action and suspense, it has a deeper probing into character and a keener perception of psychology than most mystery stories possess. Pattern in Black and Red is recommended as an A-1 psychological thriller.

Pattern in Black and Red was first published in 1934. See more classic mystery reprints at CoachwhipBooks.com.

About the Author :
Faraday Keene was the pseudonym of author Cora (Hardy) Jarrett, born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1877. She was educated in Pennsylvania (Bryn Mawr College), at the Sorbonne, and at Oxford University. She married Edwin Jarrett in 1906, and they had three children. Cora Jarrett went on teach English and Greek. She wrote several well-received novels ("Night Over Fitch's Pond," etc.) and numerous short stories. As one newspaper review noted, "Miss Jarret [sic] signs all of her mystery and short stories with her pen name and her authentic novels with her real name" (St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 30, 1934).

Review :
"An old southern mansion, a prodigal son, a taciturn, mysterious bacteriologist, a beautiful woman-all moving against the subtle, insinuating background of negro black magic, and you have the milieu for Faraday Keene's murder-drama 'Pattern in Black and Red.' The old aristocratic Dunn family lived in a rambling house in Frisbie county, at their head young Shadwell who had run away from school and wandered the world before coming home to take over the management of family affairs after the death of his father. "With generations of southern breeding behind them, the Dunns live in care-free laziness, completely sufficient unto themselves. So their lives had gone and would have gone on had it not been for a visit paid them by a casual friend Shadwell had picked up in South Africa. With shattering swiftness the household was thrown into horrified chaos because a week after his arrival this Mr. Voohee's is mysteriously and brutally murdered. "Immediately the reader is plunged into a situation which makes 'Pattern in Black and Red' the sort of mystery story that is impossible to put down until finished. Miss Keene has built up the tension of her story bit by bit to a swift, smashing climax that ought to surprise even the oldest hands at murder sleuthing. And she has obviously deeply studied her characters and her plot, analyzing them with a keen psychological astuteness that places this mystery far above the general run of detective stories." (St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 30, 1934)