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* ForWantOfANail: ''Murder Against the Grain'' features a plot to embezzle nearly a million dollars from the Sloan. The plan unexpectedly leads to murder (which plays a big role in Thatcher solving the mystery) when one of the parties involved in the business deal sends his chauffeur to deliver a check while he's on hand rather than wait for a messenger. The chauffeur served in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar with the man the thief is impersonating, causing him to recognize the deception and follow the thief home.
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* ForWantOfANail: ForWantOfANail:
** ''Murder Against the Grain'' features a plot to embezzle nearly a million dollars from the Sloan. The plan unexpectedly leads to murder (which plays a big role in Thatcher solving the mystery) when one of the parties involved in the business deal sends his chauffeur to deliver a check while he's on hand rather than wait for a messenger. The chauffeur served in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar with the man the thief is impersonating, causing him to recognize the deception and follow the thiefhome.home.
** In ''Going for the Gold,'' a plan to distribute forged Eurocheques during the Winter Olympics is derailed when one of the criminals accidentally uses one of the forged checks to make a purchase instead of one of his actual checks. This attracts the attention of the authorities much earlier than anticipated.
** ''Murder Against the Grain'' features a plot to embezzle nearly a million dollars from the Sloan. The plan unexpectedly leads to murder (which plays a big role in Thatcher solving the mystery) when one of the parties involved in the business deal sends his chauffeur to deliver a check while he's on hand rather than wait for a messenger. The chauffeur served in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar with the man the thief is impersonating, causing him to recognize the deception and follow the thief
** In ''Going for the Gold,'' a plan to distribute forged Eurocheques during the Winter Olympics is derailed when one of the criminals accidentally uses one of the forged checks to make a purchase instead of one of his actual checks. This attracts the attention of the authorities much earlier than anticipated.
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* CommonalityConnection: In ''Murder Without Icing,'' Thatcher (and later one of his banking subordinates) befriend a hockey player after discovering that the man is interested in business principles and owns several skating clubs.
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* MouthOfSauron: In the BackStory of ''By Hook or by Crook,'' Barney Olender was a benevolent version of this, buying rugs and handling business transactions for Paul Parajian while Paul worked a second job and then served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. [[spoiler: Paul hired Barney, a man with no contacts or experience in the rug trade, because he was using an assumed identity and couldn't risk being identified by any of the many rug merchants who knew the real Paul.]]
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* MouthOfSauron: MouthOfSauron:
** In the BackStory of ''By Hook or by Crook,'' Barney Olender was a benevolent version of this, buying rugs and handling business transactions for Paul Parajian while Paul worked a second job and then served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. [[spoiler: Paul hired Barney, a man with no contacts or experience in the rug trade, because he was using an assumed identity and couldn't risk being identified by any of the many rug merchants who knew the real Paul.]]]]
** ''Murder Without Icing'' features another relatively mundane example. Victor Jowdy is a lawyer representing several unseen creditors of sports team co-owner Winthrop Holland. Jowdy's employers have tasked him with determining whether or not the sports team will make a good investment in place of Holland's debt. [[spoiler: Because Jowdy is a representative and not an actual creditor, he avoids being murdered like another man Holland owes money to. Killing Jowdy would merely cause his employers to send another agent.]]
** In the BackStory of ''By Hook or by Crook,'' Barney Olender was a benevolent version of this, buying rugs and handling business transactions for Paul Parajian while Paul worked a second job and then served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. [[spoiler: Paul hired Barney, a man with no contacts or experience in the rug trade, because he was using an assumed identity and couldn't risk being identified by any of the many rug merchants who knew the real Paul.
** ''Murder Without Icing'' features another relatively mundane example. Victor Jowdy is a lawyer representing several unseen creditors of sports team co-owner Winthrop Holland. Jowdy's employers have tasked him with determining whether or not the sports team will make a good investment in place of Holland's debt. [[spoiler: Because Jowdy is a representative and not an actual creditor, he avoids being murdered like another man Holland owes money to. Killing Jowdy would merely cause his employers to send another agent.]]
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* SheepInSheepsClothing: In ''Murder Without Icing,'' Franklin Moore is introduced as an amiable HonestCorporateExecutive. Then, an associate of Moore's reveals that his planned acquisition of a hockey team will involve upheaving all of the players and staff's lives by relocating the franchise to his hometown of Nashville. He's also rumored to be planning to try and push out a co-owner who lives for controlling the team. However, once the deal falls through, Moore is quite mellow about it. After his murder, it transpires that no one outside of the hockey franchise has any reason to hate him, as he was NiceToTheWaiter and treated his ex-wife and kids decently. [[spoiler: It also turns out that Moore wasn't going to relocate the team or push out his co-owner. The person who claimed that was lying to give everyone else motives for wanting Moore dead.]]
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* ClashingCousins: The first book involves a trust an industrialist set up for his four grandchildren. Three of the cousins squabble over how to run the family business and about their respective lifestyles, but do love each other. The fourth cousin has been estranged from the others for decades [[and is murdered by one of them in a fit of rage for having a LackOfEmpathy about how his rival company was threatening to bankrupt his cousins' business.]]
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* ClashingCousins: The first book involves a trust an industrialist set up for his four grandchildren. Three of the cousins squabble over how to run the family business and about their respective lifestyles, but do love each other. The fourth cousin has been estranged from the others for decades [[and [[spoiler:and is murdered by one of them in a fit of rage for having a LackOfEmpathy about how his rival company was threatening to bankrupt his cousins' business.]]
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* TheMeddlingKidsAreUseless: Downplayed in ''Murder to Go.'' Thatcher ''does'' expose the killer, but the ending reveals that the police would have almost certainly closed the case without his help. They secretly zeroed in on the culprit several chapters before Thatcher due to a combination of opportunity and an INeverSaidItWasPoison slip-up.
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* WhatYouAreInTheDark: This plays a major role in the BackStory of ''[[spoiler:By Hook or by Crook]].'' [[spoiler:Shortly before Useful/NotesWorldWarII Haig Parajian [[DeadPersonImpersonation assumed the identity of his recently deceased brother Paul]] to save their business from going under (everything was in Paul's name). The rest of their family was trapped in Europe by the war and then spent years living in extreme poverty in a refugee camp. He could have easily left them for dead. Doing so would have reduced the risk that they'd recognize him as their uncle and not their father. Abandoning them would have also ensured that if his deception, the children, as Paul's legal heirs, would never take away the millions of dollars Haig made from his deception. Instead, Haig tracked them down at no small expense and then spent the next 30 years raising them as a loving father. His youngest nephew Greg (who feels that [[BecomingTheMask Haig truly became Paul]]) returns the favor in the denouement of the novel, destroying evidence of Haig's true identity when he could have used it to sue Haig's wife and (actual) son for their share of the family fortune.]]
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* WhatYouAreInTheDark: This plays a major role in the BackStory of ''[[spoiler:By Hook or by Crook]].'' [[spoiler:Shortly before Useful/NotesWorldWarII UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Haig Parajian [[DeadPersonImpersonation assumed the identity of his recently deceased brother Paul]] to save their business from going under (everything was in Paul's name). The rest of their family was trapped in Europe by the war and then spent years living in extreme poverty in a refugee camp. He could have easily left them for dead. Doing so would have reduced the risk that they'd recognize him as their uncle and not their father. Abandoning them would have also ensured that if his deception, the children, as Paul's legal heirs, would never take away the millions of dollars Haig made from his deception. Instead, Haig tracked them down at no small expense and then spent the next 30 years raising them as a loving father. His youngest nephew Greg (who feels that [[BecomingTheMask Haig truly became Paul]]) returns the favor in the denouement of the novel, destroying evidence of Haig's true identity when he could have used it to sue Haig's wife and (actual) son for their share of the family fortune.]]
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* ForWantOfANail: ''Murder Against the Grain'' features a plot to embezzle nearly a million dollars from the Sloan. The plan unexpectedly leads to murder (which plays a big role in Thatcher solving the mystery) when one of the parties involved in the business deal sends his chauffeur to deliver a check while he's on hand rather than wait for a messenger. The chauffeur served in UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar with the man the thief is impersonating, causing him to recognize the deception and follow the thief home.
* GloryDays: In ''By Hook or by Crook,'' Barney Olender has a good job and is an HonoraryUncle to his boss's kids, but he clearly misses the lost musical career of his youth.
--> '''Barney:''' Those were the days. Every one of us was going to have the biggest band the country had ever seen, with full houses, and people coming for miles ... But the war came and closed the roadhouses. That's why I was out of work when Paul needed someone. So I went into Oriental rugs, and I made a bundle. But you can't ever say that it's been the same for me as it was for Paul.
* GoodStepmother: In "By Hook or by Crook,'' Harriet Parajian helped her husband seek for the missing children from his first marriage and was very kind and welcoming to them afterward. Decades later, she's still on good terms with all three kids and can talk sense into them when things are going badly. [[spoiler:Although it turns out her husband is actually their uncle and not their father.]]
* GloryDays: In ''By Hook or by Crook,'' Barney Olender has a good job and is an HonoraryUncle to his boss's kids, but he clearly misses the lost musical career of his youth.
--> '''Barney:''' Those were the days. Every one of us was going to have the biggest band the country had ever seen, with full houses, and people coming for miles ... But the war came and closed the roadhouses. That's why I was out of work when Paul needed someone. So I went into Oriental rugs, and I made a bundle. But you can't ever say that it's been the same for me as it was for Paul.
* GoodStepmother: In "By Hook or by Crook,'' Harriet Parajian helped her husband seek for the missing children from his first marriage and was very kind and welcoming to them afterward. Decades later, she's still on good terms with all three kids and can talk sense into them when things are going badly. [[spoiler:Although it turns out her husband is actually their uncle and not their father.]]
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* MouthOfSauron: In the BackStory of ''By Hook or by Crook,'' Barney Olender was a benevolent version of this, buying rugs and handling business transactions for Paul Parajian while Paul worked a second job and then served in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII. [[spoiler: Paul hired Barney, a man with no contacts or experience in the rug trade, because he was using an assumed identity and couldn't risk being identified by any of the many rug merchants who knew the real Paul.]]
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* UnluckilyLucky: In the BackStory of "By Hook or by Crook,'' Mark Parajian was horribly injured in a construction accident and took months to recover. However, the hospital records from this accident allowed a LongLostRelative to track down Mark and his siblings (who were living miserably in a refugee camp) and give them a prosperous, happy life in America.
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* WhatYouAreInTheDark: This plays a major role in the BackStory of ''[[spoiler:By Hook or by Crook]].'' [[spoiler:Shortly before Useful/NotesWorldWarII Haig Parajian [[DeadPersonImpersonation assumed the identity of his recently deceased brother Paul]] to save their business from going under (everything was in Paul's name). The rest of their family was trapped in Europe by the war and then spent years living in extreme poverty in a refugee camp. He could have easily left them for dead. Doing so would have reduced the risk that they'd recognize him as their uncle and not their father. Abandoning them would have also ensured that if his deception, the children, as Paul's legal heirs, would never take away the millions of dollars Haig made from his deception. Instead, Haig tracked them down at no small expense and then spent the next 30 years raising them as a loving father. His youngest nephew Greg (who feels that [[BecomingTheMask Haig truly became Paul]]) returns the favor in the denouement of the novel, destroying evidence of Haig's true identity when he could have used it to sue Haig's wife and (actual) son for their share of the family fortune.]]
--> '''[[spoiler:Greg Parajian]]''': I don't know how I'd face up to murder, but I'm sure of one thing. If I'd been in his shoes, I would have done exactly what [[spoiler:Paul]] did in 19[[spoiler:39]]. And I can only hope to God that I'd have acted the same in 19[[spoiler:48]].
--> '''[[spoiler:Greg Parajian]]''': I don't know how I'd face up to murder, but I'm sure of one thing. If I'd been in his shoes, I would have done exactly what [[spoiler:Paul]] did in 19[[spoiler:39]]. And I can only hope to God that I'd have acted the same in 19[[spoiler:48]].
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* StealingTheCredit: Withers spends a lot of the second book complaining about how the police confiscated the majestic stuffed head of a deer he supposedly shot. The book ends with Ken mentioning this in passing to Mrs. Withers, who angrily reveals that ''she'' was the one who shot the stag (after a four-hour hunt) and storms off to confront her husband about that lie.
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* ClashingCousins: The first book involves a trust an industrialist set up for his four grandchildren. Three of the cousins squabble over how to run the family business and about their respective lifestyles, but do love each other. The fourth cousin has been estranged from the others for decades [[and is murdered by one of them in a fit of rage for having a LackOfEmpathy about how his rival company was threatening to bankrupt his cousins' business.]]
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* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: ''[[spoiler:When in Greece]]'' has the heroes do this. Since they lack the evidence to see the killer convicted of murder in court, they settle for using what evidence they do have to blackmail him into honestly facilitating the business deal that he's been trying to sabotage. As soon as that deal is finalized, the murderer is killed by a friend of the victim who's been helping Thatcher. Thatcher hadn't known she would do that, but he isn't broken up over it.
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* PersonaNonGrata: After the first murder in ''East is East'', the police come across evidence that the victim might have uncovered bribery of a Japanese official. In a failed attempt to brush everything under the rug, a representative of the Japanese government hints to the American embassy that it might be nice if American businessman (and suspect) Carl Kruger leave the country before a formal ''persona non grata'' declaration can be made.
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[[quoteright:285:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/murder_without_icing.jpg]]
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* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe example: His grandson received a puzzle box for Christmas; the two of them enjoyed spending the day trying to solve it. That was enough of puzzle boxes for Thatcher, but his relatives thought he was obsessed with them.
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* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: His grandson received a puzzle box for Christmas; the two of them enjoyed spending the day trying to solve it. That was enough of puzzle boxes for Thatcher, but his relatives thought he was obsessed with them.
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* UnsportsmanlikeGloating: The killer in ''A Shark Out of Water'' tried to use the crowds of [[UsefulNotes/AssociationFootball soccer]] fans leaving a match to cover his escape. Unfortunately for him, the winning team's fans indulged in enough of this trope to set off a riot. Between the ensuing security cordon at the train station and the killer getting trampled in the riot, the police didn't need to worry about extradition hearings -- they just picked him off the pavement and arrested him.
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* AbsenceOfEvidence: During the audit in ''Something in the Air'', it's discovered that the murder victim had an established track record of paying cash for things but never cashed a check to ''get'' that cash. (The novel was written before [=ATMs=] became common.) The police and Sloan take a closer look at his finances, [[spoiler:and learn the murder victim was a blackmailer]].
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* ComicallySmallBribe: In-universe examples in both ''Murder To Go'' and ''Green Grow The Dollars''. In both novels, the cops can't believe that a character accepted such a small payout for an illegal act. (The payers in both novels were trying to hit a balance between "not enough to get the job done" and "so much they'll know something's up". The payees eventually figure out Something's Up and find themselves murdered.)
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!!The series provdes examples of:
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!!The series provdes provides examples of:
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* CarFu: The second murder in ''East is East'' is done by running over the victim with an older Harley-Davidson motorcycle. This probably wouldn't have worked if the victim had had time/room to dodge, but since he was in a narrow alley at the time ....
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* InsanityDefense: At one point in ''Death Shall Overcome'', a character is arrested for trying to shoot up a [=NAACP=] fundraiser. His TrophyWife and his estranged son promptly come up with the idea that he should plead insanity to "beat the rap". Being a loudmouth racist does ''not'' qualify, but since neither of them was a lawyer it's an understandable mistake ... and really, this was as much to grab control of the family money as anything else. The character's actual lawyer was pushing for a PleaBargain instead. [[note]]We never find out what the outcome was; the character was being pushed offpage so Thatcher could concentrate on the actual murder.[[/note]]
* MedicationTampering: The second murder in ''Murder Without Icing'' was performed by substituting cyanide tablets for the victim's cold medicine.
* MedicationTampering: The second murder in ''Murder Without Icing'' was performed by substituting cyanide tablets for the victim's cold medicine.
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* DivorceAssetsConflict: In ''A Place for Murder'', Thatcher is dragooned by Bradford Withers into trying to settle an argument over the valuation of a country estate so the owners' divorce can go through. In a variant, the fight is between the two women involved (the current wife and the woman her husband wants to marry), with the husband staying out of the mess. [[spoiler:Becomes the murder motive once the second woman realizes ''neither'' her intended spouse nor First Wife have the slightest clue how valuable the dog-breeding kennel based at that estate is. The kennel operator was stealing all the profits.]]
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* FinaleTitleDrop: In ''By Hook or by Crook''.
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* BriefcaseFullOfMoney: ''Double, Double, Oil and Trouble'' opens with Thatcher and Charlie Trinkam delivering four briefcases full of unmarked small-denomination bills for a ransom payout. Even in 1978 there were better ways to transfer $1.5 million from New York to a Swiss bank, but the terrorist group behind the kidnapping wanted publicity as much as the cash.
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* TooDumbToFool: One victim in ''East is East'' qualifies. [[spoiler: The founder of Midlands Research has set up an elaborate bookkeeping scheme to hide the money he's stealing from the company. The victim isn't smart enough to read the financial reports, looks only at the bottom line, and [[TooDumbToLive asks the founder to explain where the money went]].]]
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* SuspiciousSpending: Turns up fairly frequently, as one would expect given the frequency of impromptu ForensicAccounting audits.
** Played with in ''East is East''. At one point, the police inspector investigating the murder asks Thatcher if he was aware that one of his underlings had just gotten a house worth over $1 million. Thatcher tells the inspector that his records are off — the house might have been ''built'' recently, but the underling in question bought the land decades previously, well before Maui oceanfront property values skyrocketed.
** Played with in ''East is East''. At one point, the police inspector investigating the murder asks Thatcher if he was aware that one of his underlings had just gotten a house worth over $1 million. Thatcher tells the inspector that his records are off — the house might have been ''built'' recently, but the underling in question bought the land decades previously, well before Maui oceanfront property values skyrocketed.
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* MurderByMistake: In ''Death Shall Overcome'', the murderer thought he was poisoning his intended victim's Bloody Mary. The poison actually got into a glass of tomato juice ordered by another character, who had recently been diagnosed with an ulcer and quit drinking as a result. [[note]] The bartender had poured the tomato juice into the same type of glass used for a Bloody Mary, standard procedure for "virgin" versions of drinks.[[/note]]
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* ForensicAccounting: It's very common for a business connected to the current murder to get an impromptu audit from the Sloan.
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The novels in the series are:
* ''Banking on Death'' (1961)
* ''A Place for Murder'' (1963)
* ''Accounting for Murder'' (1964)
* ''Murder Makes the Wheels Go Round'' (1966)
* ''Death Shall Overcome'' (1966)
* ''Murder Against the Grain'' (1967)
* ''A Stitch in Time'' (1968)
* ''Come to Dust'' (1968)
* ''When in Greece'' (1969)
* ''Murder to Go'' (1969)
* ''Pick Up Sticks'' (1970)
* ''Ashes to Ashes'' (1971)
* ''The Longer the Thread'' (1971)
* ''Murder Without Icing'' (1972)
* ''Sweet and Low'' (1974)
* ''By Hook or by Crook'' (1975)
* ''Double, Double, Oil and Trouble'' (1978)
* ''Going for the Gold'' (1981)
* ''Green Grow the Dollars'' (1982)
* ''Something in the Air'' (1988)
* ''East is East'' (1991)
* ''Right on the Money'' (1993)
* ''Brewing Up a Storm'' (1996)
* ''A Shark Out of Water'' (1997)
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* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: In ''Murder to Go'', the seasoning mix for a fast-food chicken dish is poisoned before it goes out to the franchises.
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* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: Played with in-universe in ''Brewing Up a Storm''. One of the suspects says he has an alibi, but refuses to tell the cops what it is. [[spoiler:He went out of town to get an HIV test, after learning a woman he'd dated had turned up positive.]] At the end of the novel, another character points out that [[spoiler:the woman in question]] had been blabbing the news all over town for ''months'' to get sympathy.
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* AuthorExistenceFailure: The death of Latsis in 1997 brought both the partnership and the series to an end.
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* DryCrusader: Madeline Underwood from ''Brewing Up a Storm'' (until she gets killed).
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* NiceToTheWaiter: A variant -- Thatcher thinks (in an early novel) that he gets good service because waiters recognize him as a powerful man. It's really because they recognize him as a good tipper.
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* RealLifeSuperpowers: Thatcher has intelligence, some political influence, and of course money. In his first novel he gets answers from a reluctant airline employee because he's on the airline's board of directors.
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* RealLifeSuperpowers: Thatcher has intelligence, some political influence, and of course money. In his first novel he gets answers from a reluctant airline employee because he's on the airline's board of directors. [[note]]At least, he ''claims'' to be on the board. It's implied that he may have been fibbing.[[/note]]
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* RealLifeSuperpowers: Thatcher has intelligence, some political influence, and of course money. In his first novel he gets answers from a reluctant airline employee because he's on the airline's board of directors.
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Namespacing
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A long running mystery series about an investment banker/amateur detective, written by Emma Lathen (a pseudonym for co-authors Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Hennisart).
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!!The series provdes examples of:
* AlwaysMurder: Whatever irregularities the business of the book has, it produces a corpse at some point.
* AmateurSleuth: Thatcher must solve the mystery before the Sloan can move on.
* AuthorExistenceFailure: The death of Latsis in 1997 brought both the partnership and the series to an end.
* ComicBookTime: Thatcher is "a youthful sixty" in all books, from 1961 to 1997.
* EurekaMoment: Once per novel.
* FairPlayWhodunnit: The reader might not have all the solid evidence until after the fact, but does have all the clues that tipped Thatcher off.
* MysteryMagnet: The Sloan Guaranty Trust, "the third largest bank in the world", gets involved with a business, and some person involved with it ends up dead.
* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe example: His grandson received a puzzle box for Christmas; the two of them enjoyed spending the day trying to solve it. That was enough of puzzle boxes for Thatcher, but his relatives thought he was obsessed with them.
* OstentatiousSecret: Miss Corsa's tin box.
* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Averted for Thatcher himself. He is a hard worker, and expects the same of his subordinates. Played straight for bank president Bradford Withers, who appears to see his job as a collection of social contacts. On the rare occasion when Withers takes an active role, something goes wrong.
* TheSummation: The books normally end between the murderer's arrest or suicide and his eventual trial, so this is how Thatcher gets the other characters (and the reader) up to date on just what was going on.
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!!The series provdes examples of:
* AlwaysMurder: Whatever irregularities the business of the book has, it produces a corpse at some point.
* AmateurSleuth: Thatcher must solve the mystery before the Sloan can move on.
* AuthorExistenceFailure: The death of Latsis in 1997 brought both the partnership and the series to an end.
* ComicBookTime: Thatcher is "a youthful sixty" in all books, from 1961 to 1997.
* EurekaMoment: Once per novel.
* FairPlayWhodunnit: The reader might not have all the solid evidence until after the fact, but does have all the clues that tipped Thatcher off.
* MysteryMagnet: The Sloan Guaranty Trust, "the third largest bank in the world", gets involved with a business, and some person involved with it ends up dead.
* NeverLiveItDown: In-universe example: His grandson received a puzzle box for Christmas; the two of them enjoyed spending the day trying to solve it. That was enough of puzzle boxes for Thatcher, but his relatives thought he was obsessed with them.
* OstentatiousSecret: Miss Corsa's tin box.
* RichIdiotWithNoDayJob: Averted for Thatcher himself. He is a hard worker, and expects the same of his subordinates. Played straight for bank president Bradford Withers, who appears to see his job as a collection of social contacts. On the rare occasion when Withers takes an active role, something goes wrong.
* TheSummation: The books normally end between the murderer's arrest or suicide and his eventual trial, so this is how Thatcher gets the other characters (and the reader) up to date on just what was going on.
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