This image is the cover for the book Black Cypress, The Pat and Jean Abbott Mysteries

Black Cypress, The Pat and Jean Abbott Mysteries

A family gathering and a body on the beach keep the sleuthing couple busy in this tale of “ample suspense, and breathless conclusion” (Saturday Review).

Pat and Jean Abbott are in lovely Laguna Beach, invited to visit some distant relatives at the Black Cypress estate. But the invitation is more professional than personal, since Pat is a PI and family member Enid Ponsonby appears to be targeted by a killer. Whether her disagreeable personality has anything to do with it remains to be seen—but in the meanwhile, the Abbotts will have to untangle multiple mysteries involving a knife thrower, a dead New Orleans gangster, and a tidal wave of potential suspects . . .

“Skilled and sometimes scary.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“One of the more interesting married teams of detectives . . . A sort of globetrotting Nick and Nora.” —Thrilling Detective

Frances Crane

Frances Crane (1890–1981) was an American author and former writer for the New Yorker. She was invited to leave Nazi Germany in the late 1930s after writing a number of unfavorable articles about Hitler. After settling in Taos, New Mexico, Crane introduced private investigator Pat Abbott and his future wife Jean in her first novel, The Turquoise Shop (1941). The Abbotts investigated crimes in a total of twenty-six volumes, each with a color in the title, with settings around the country and globe.

Hodder and Stoughton