Book (Series) Review - The Leonidas Witherall Mysteries

Every once in a while, it's fun to read something that has no deep inner meaning whatsoever.
You know.
Fun.
And NOTHING ELSE.
When that feeling comes over me, like as not I'll reach for one of Alice Tilton's LEONIDAS WITHERALL mysteries.
I've never found anything to match them for good writing by somebody who wasn't taking herself seriously at all.
Alice Tilton was a pen name used by Phoebe Atwood Taylor, a mystery writer of the 30's and 40's who was better known (at the time) for her ASEY MAYO mysteries set in Cape Cod.
I like them, too--but they were a bit more, um, sensible, most of the time.
(Only a bit--her style was very like Charlotte McLeod's a few decades later.
) As Alice Tilton, busily tearing off the odd novel to make an extra buck or two, she didn't take herself quite as seriously.
Leonidas Witherall is a retired schoolmaster who came back from a round-the-world cruise to learn about the stock market crash.
When we first meet him (in BEGINNING WITH A BASH) he is a janitor who does odd jobs to make ends meet.
A young man accused of murder stumbles into the bookstore where he "janits," and is utterly confused when the kindly old man takes him in hand and blandly leads him in a wild scavenger hunt for clues to the real killer.
Silliness reigns, virtue triumphs, and a good time is had by all.
The first two books are a reasonably lighthearted look at late-Depression-era Boston and its suburbs.
By the third book, though, Mr.
Witherall has come into an inheritance and built a house in the suburbs.
In the fourth, he becomes the owner and headmaster of his old school.
From then on, Ms.
Tilton can bear down on the silliness of nouveau riche suburban life and (later) the silly side of civilian life during World War II.
Like many people who write for a living, Ms.
Tilton wrote the Witherall novels to a formula.
It was a bit hazy in the first book, but well established in the second (THE CUT DIRECT).
By the third (COLD STEAL) she had it down to a science, with all the bits in place and the plot running on (roller coaster) rails.
If you're looking for great literature you may have a problem, but if you think it's fun you'll start looking for the twists and cheering when you hit the classic bits.

• The inevitable play on Witherall's appearance.
  Except for the pince nez glasses (a classic bit in themselves), he is a dead ringer for William Shakespeare.
  One of his janitor-period "odd jobs" was a few hours a week sitting in a bookstore smoking a pipe, to give the place a little class.
  Everyone except the narrator calls him "Bill.
  "
• The romantic subplots.
  Like any Shakespeare comedy (and you just know she stole the idea on purpose), there are always two romances--one upper-class (or at least middle-class) and one lower-class, and both played for laughs.
  
• The inevitable flight from the authorities, usually involving the old "there you are, are you ready to make your speech?" gag somewhere in the middle of it.
  
• The constant references to Lieutenant Haseltine ("HAZ-EL-TINE TO THE RESCUE! Oh, come on, Bill--I know you wouldn't read the books, but surely you've heard him on the radio.
  ").
  Usually Witherall's the only one in the room who knows he WRITES the silly things.
  (Gotta make a living somehow...
  )
• And so on.
  

A fun read about a very unlikely pulp hero.
Lots of fun.
If that's what you're looking for, hunt these up!

• Beginning with a Bash - 1937
• The Cut Direct - 1938
• Cold Steal - 1939
• The Left Leg - 1940
• The Hollow Chest - 1941
• File for Record - 1943
• Dead Ernest - 1944
• The Iron Clew - 1947