Murder Wears a Mummer's Mask (later republished as In a Deadly Vein) is a 1943 novel by Brett Halliday, the pen name for Davis Dresser.
It's another installment in the long-running series about tough guy private detective Michael Shayne. In this one, Shayne and his wife Phyllis are not in their home town of Miami, but are vacationing in the gold rush town of Central City, Colorado (a real place
). The town is hosting a "Play Festival" that involves a horde of tourists enjoying mining-themed activities, as well as a play that is running at the local theater.
Shayne would like to relax and enjoy the crisp air and mountain scenery, but he is put on alert when "Two-Deck" Bryant, a gambler and criminal Shayne knows from his New York days, also shows up in Central City. Events take a turn when one Nora Carson, the lead actress in the play that's running at the festival, sees a face appear outside the dining room window. Carson, who is from the area, is shocked to recognize the face as her father Peter Dalcor, a miner who abandon the family when Nora was a child and has been missing ten years. A hysterical Nora races out of the inn after the man, with Michael Shayne the gentleman following. They find Peter Dalcor, minutes later—murdered!
Last appearance of Shayne's wife Phyllis. The studio that was making Michael Shayne B-Movies didn't like Shayne being married, so Phyllis was killed off between this book and the next one, Blood on the Black Market.
Tropes:
- The Alcoholic: Shayne is always described as a Functional Addict who downs cognac constantly while on the job. It's not as prominent here as in some other Shayne books, but he's still drinking cognac at the crack of dawn.
- Busman's Holiday: Shayne is a little miffed about getting mixed up in a murder on his vacation, especially when he isn't even getting paid. He winds up figuring out a way to finagle a payment for his services.
- Contrived Coincidence: Shayne's nearly 2000 miles from New York, but he still runs into Two-Deck Bryant, a hoodlum that Shayne knows from his time as a New York cop.
- Dramatic Drop: Christine Forbes, Nora's understudy, is canoodling with Joe Meade, the writer. Joe says confidently that Nora won't ever come back to the play. Shayne, who has been listening, steps out from behind a wall and demands that Joe be more specific. Christine jumps and drops her glass "to the stone floagging where it shattered loudly."
- Extremely Short Timespan: The formula of the Michael Shayne novels. Shayne runs around town for a busy 24 hours before solving the case.
- Faking the Dead: Faking someone else's death. Frank's convoluted plan involves dressing up as Nora's father and appearing at the window, so Nora thinks her father is in town, then meeting Screwloose Pete, killing him, and mashing his face to goo so his body can be passed off as Peter Dalcor's.
- For Doom the Bell Tolls: As the group contemplates the dead body of Peter Dalcor, a bell rings up the street, "an eerie sound" that helps set the mood.
- Gold Fever: The murder was committed to get a share of a gold mine.
- I Never Said It Was Poison: Shayne speaks of the incriminating photo that Two-Deck Bryant hid under the floorboards of the cabin. Frank then starts talking excitedly about getting a court order to produce the tobacco can, only for Shayne to shoot back "What tobacco can?" Shayne then says that while he said the photo was hidden under the floor he didn't say anything about it being in a tobacco can. He then nails Frank as the killer.
- Inheritance Murder: Frank Carson kills two people so he can get his hands on a 1/3 share of Screwloose Pete's mine.
- Noodle Incident: Shayne walks in and interrupts Pat Casey telling Phyllis about the time he and Shayne found "the nude corpse in the penthouse bathtub.""That story," said Shayne severely, "can stand a lot of interrupting."
- Officer O'Hara: Pat Casey, Shayne's old buddy from the NYPD who is in town tailing Two-Deck Bryant. Casey says stuff like "'Tis not true" and "Faith!" and "By the saints!"
- Riddle for the Ages: Murder victim "Screwloose Pete" turned out to not be Peter Dalcor, so where is Nora's father? Shayne says to Phyllis that he has no idea and for all he knows Peter Dalcor could have died years ago.
- The Show Must Go On: As Nora is staring down at the smashed face of her dead father, Frank reminds her that the play is about to start, and Nora says "I suppose I'll have to go on." Subverted in that Nora is soon after lured out of her dressing room and herself murdered.
- Sexy Backless Outfit: Shayne is preoccupied with finding Nora after Pete's murder, but he still notes the "bevy of bare backs and flowing skirts" as he makes his way backstage.
- A Storm Is Coming: Shayne watches the rain fall "in wind-driven sheets", and "something within him responded to the elemental fury of the mountain storm." This sets the mood for the murder soon to follow, and also proves to be plot relevant, as the mechanics of storm surges flooding the chutes running down the mountain are part of the solution.
- Summation Gathering: Shayne gathers all the participants together before outing Frank Carson as the murderer. He even does the usual misdirection, accusing Joe Meade of being the killer before revealing the real killer.
- Thieves' Cant: And detectives' cant. Shayne's buddy Casey talks about how "Two-Deck was heading west to put the clamps on some bird that fed his joint a handful of rubber markers."Phyllis was amazed to see her husband nod his head, indicating that he understood Casey's gibberish perfectly.
- Trapped by Gambling Debts: Frank Carson's ultimate motivation. Frank killed Screwloose Pete, passed him off as Peter Dalcor, then killed his own wife Nora, so that he, Frank, would inherit a 1/3 share of Screwloose's gold mine. He needed the money to pay off the huge debts he'd racked up at Two-Deck's casino.
- Twitchy Eye: Frank Carson has a twitchy eyelid that comes out at times of stress.
- Vacation Episode: Naturally, poor Michael Shayne can't even take a vacation in Colorado without having to solve a murder.
