Phoebe Atwood Taylor

• Born: May 18, 1909
• Birthplace: Boston, Massachusetts
• Died: January 9, 1976
• Place of death: Boston, Massachusetts

Types of Plot: Amateur sleuth; cozy

Principal Series: Asey Mayo, 1931-1951; Leonidas Witherall, 1937-1944

Contribution

Phoebe Atwood Taylor wrote some thirty detective novels, which have been praised for their historical verisimilitude. Her books about detective Asey Mayo demonstrate her intimate knowledge of the charm and liveliness of Cape Cod communities such as Quanomet, Weesit, and Wellfleet. Taylor does not depict her setting as the famed summer resort it is but rather reveals the Yankee charm of the people of Cape Cod, who live there after the tourists are gone. The dialogue and glimpses of daily life are distinctively Yankee.

Many of Taylor’s works move at a brisk pace; there are chases on foot and by motor vehicles, and the detective solves the case in only a day or two. Humor is also a notable element of many of Taylor’s mysteries, especially in the stories featuring Leonidas Witherall, the detective-hero of the novels that Taylor wrote under the pseudonym Alice Tilton. The pace of Taylor’s novels, combined with a variety of farcical situations, places her mysteries in both the Golden Age of mystery writers, of which Agatha Christie and Ngaio Marsh were a part, and the 1930’s era of screwball film comedies.

Biography

Phoebe Atwood Taylor was born in Boston on May 18, 1909. Her parents were natives of Cape Cod and descendants of the Mayflower Pilgrims; her father was a physician. Taylor attended Barnard College, was graduated in 1930, and immediately returned to Boston to live and write. She married a Boston surgeon, also named Taylor, and lived in the Boston surburbs of Newton Highlands and Weston. The Taylors also maintained a summer home in Wellfleet, Cape Cod.

Taylor’s literary debut was in 1931, with the publication of The Cape Cod Mystery. It sold more than five thousand copies, a huge number of sales for a first mystery. Over the next twenty years, Taylor was to write and publish roughly thirty detective novels, quite an accomplishment considering her harried schedule. She wrote between twelve midnight and three in the morning, “after housekeeping all day.” She claims to have written all of her novels “beginning three weeks before the deadline for the novel to be delivered to the New York publishers.” Her Leonidas Witherall novels appear to describe the author’s own life, as the detective endures a barrage of telegrams from his publisher and struggles to meet his deadlines.

Although Taylor’s last detective novel was published in 1951, her popularity with readers did not diminish, and many of her books have been reprinted in both hardback and paperback editions. Taylor died of a heart attack in Boston on January 9, 1976.

Analysis

Phoebe Atwood Taylor has been described as the “essential New England mystery writer,” and from her first novel, The Cape Cod Mystery, she earned such acclaim. Taylor’s novels betray her New England roots in numerous ways. Many of the settings are in Cape Cod towns, usually described as resort areas, such as Wellfleet and Weesit. In the Asey Mayo novels, tourists must constantly be kept away from the scene of the crime. Yet the principal characters are not tourists at all: They are genuine New Englanders, who populate the towns beyond the tourist season. Taylor does not delve intimately into the lives of these individuals; instead, she reveals an intimate knowledge of general life on the Cape. Her characters all speak with a broad a (a point she endlessly emphasizes), and they often have Pilgrim or Puritan ancestors. Yet few of her characters boast of “old money”—most either have just managed to survive the Depression or have ingeniously grown rich despite the odds of the time.

The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players

The Depression is but one of the historical interests in Taylor’s mystery novels. While she never mentions the Depression directly, she candidly reveals its consequences. In The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players (1933), Taylor writes of a troupe composed of actors, a magician, and a puppeteer. This group of rather odd characters have chosen their current roles only because they lost their previous jobs. Taylor never directly mentions the Depression as the cause of their hard luck, but the many intimations of the current difficulties allow the reader to link the poor state of these strolling players to the Depression. In the same novel, a wealthy widow is also affected by the near collapse of the company that her husband left her. The company was all that remained of what must have been a much greater fortune.

Taylor never seems to leave any of her characters untouched by the current state of the country. The best example of this is with the work of her favorite detective, Asa Alden “Asey” Mayo. Asey was involved in both world wars. Although he often says that he spent World War I peeling potatoes on a ship, it is revealed that Asey worked on secret tank plans for the Porter Motors Company. Although the tanks never went into production during World War I, they were later produced during World War II. When Asey was not solving a case during World War II, he spent all of his time living at the Porter plant, developing the tanks. Taylor ultimately reveals to her readers that Asey won a medal for his work on the Porter miracle tank, the Mark XX. Other characters in Taylor’s novels contribute to the war effort as well. For example, in The Perennial Boarder (1941), Jennie Mayo, the wife of Asey’s cousin Sylvanus “Syl” Mayo, busied herself with jujitsu, a commando training course, and target practice with the Women’s Defense Corps. Also, Syl joins the navy during World War II.

The narrow focus of many of Taylor’s novels heightens their geographic and historical verisimilitude. Xenophobia is a common element throughout Taylor’s works, as many of the Cape natives sorely distrust outsiders. In The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players, an old hermit, Harm, welcomes to his house only those whom he knows and trusts. When Asey and Syl drive up to Harm’s shack, Harm allows only Asey to get out of the car, and he speaks only to him. Syl notes, “Harm’d have made for me if I’d stepped out of this car, but he likes Asey.”

The Crimson Patch

The Crimson Patch (1936) focuses on a problem with outsiders. The natives of Skaket do their best to run a new family out of town by accusing them of being immoral. For the natives, the word “immoral” takes on an unmistakable Puritanical connotation. Taylor’s novels also tell of Yankees’ occasional racism.

Of all the New England elements in Taylor’s novels the most significant are the characterizations of her detectives. Asey Mayo is described through the eyes of an outsider in The Crimson Patch as “tall, lean faced, blue eyed, he looked exactly as Myles had fondly imagined all Cape Codders would look, and as, to his intense disappointment, they had not.” Indeed, Asey Mayo is the consummate Cape native, with his broad a and his New England r (pronounced “ah”). Although it is not mentioned in the earlier novels, Asey owns a two-story house on the beach, with its own wharf. His knowledge of the sea is remarkable, and he had spent many years as a sailor before he began his business of solving mysteries.

Asey Mayo is originally introduced by Taylor as what the critics dubbed “the hayseed Sherlock.” In the first few novels, Asey is simply Bill Porter’s hired hand, a man who can, seemingly, do anything. By Death Lights a Candle (1932), Taylor reveals that Porter has left Asey a large sum of money, even though his appearance speaks otherwise (he was known for his corduroys, flannel shirt, and Stetson hat cocked sideways on his head). By Taylor’s last novel, Diplomatic Corpse (1951), Asey is chairman of the Board of Porter Motors and sports a business suit and a yachting cap. Yet Asey’s wealth never keeps him from doing what he enjoys. He often works odd jobs, as a carpenter, as a cook, and—above all else—as an excellent mechanic. His roadster, given to him by Bill Porter, is the fastest, sleekest car on the Cape. Many times that car is instrumental in solving a mystery. Although Asey may appear as a hayseed detective, it is exactly that quality that enables him to gather so many clues and fit them together to discover the murderer.

Cold Steal

Taylor’s other detective, Leonidas Witherall, takes on a totally different New England appearance. He is not at all the small-town Cape Cod native; his home is Boston and its suburbs. His appearance and personality are not at all as charming and comfortable as Asey Mayo’s; instead, he is a proper, quaint, and witty old gentleman. Taylor describes Witherall as an odd sort who is first a teacher, then later headmaster and owner of Meredith Academy, a private boys’ school. In Cold Steal (1939), Taylor tells the reader that Witherall’s looks—he is “an elderly man with a small pointed beard”—have earned for him the nickname “Bill Shakespeare,” for he resembles Shakespeare so closely “that it seemed as if some library bust or engraved frontispiece had come suddenly to life.” Witherall also has a keen mind, never missing the slightest oddity or clue.

Leonidas Witherall was significant for Taylor not so much as a detective—the novels involving him are not as good as those about Asey Mayo—but rather for his transparent character: He was the picture of Taylor in her own stories. Witherall writes detective novels, but he can never measure up to the feats of his heroes. He is often harried by his publishers to meet demands and deadlines. In Cold Steal, Witherall notes that “he had written three Haseltine books a year for so many years that he automatically wrote about the daring lieutenant whether he meant to or not.” Certainly from 1931 to 1951 Taylor’s life paralleled that of her creation, Witherall.

Humor and Women

One might consider Taylor’s works to be detective comedies, as each novel has numerous farcical aspects. In The Cape Cod Mystery, Asey Mayo identifies the murderer of a popular novelist as the three-hundred-pound widow of a Boston minister; she delivered a deathblow to the writer with an advance copy of his own latest book, a sensational account of her husband’s life. Often Asey points to the humor in his fellow New Englanders’ behavior and thoughts. No one seems to think logically but Asey, adding much to the fun of Taylor’s novels. The escapades of Leonidas Witherall are even more ludicrous. He deals with unlikely murder weapons, unlikely murderers, and many friends and family who try to play detective along with him but prove to be of little help. It has been said that Taylor’s novels require “a massive suspension of disbelief.”

The women in Taylor’s novels often appear as strong characters, well able both to witness a murder and to help solve it. Women in Taylor’s novels own their own businesses and are successful in a variety of fields. They are sometimes as strong as men physically, and more often than not they are much smarter. Several of Taylor’s early novels are narrated by elderly women who help to solve the mysteries they recount. One must credit Taylor for the confidence she demonstrated in the ability of women throughout her novels.

Asey Mayo

Asey Mayo, like many other detectives (excepting the hard-boiled variety), has his share of helpers in solving his mysteries. Besides the variety of bright women who lend their aid, two men in particular stand out as important characters in several novels. In Death Lights a Candle, Asey mentions his cousin, but he does not appear until Taylor’s next novel, The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players, and then he is introduced as Sylvanus Mayo. Syl is a short man with a walrus mustache who always runs and is constantly out of breath. Inevitably, he finds the clue that Asey sends to him to discover, and he claims that any item can be found if one can put oneself in its place and figure out what it would do next. Asey never pretends to understand Syl’s style of retrieval, but he attributes Syl’s ability to his addiction to detective stories. Syl plays his largest role in Deathblow Hill (1935), and from there his character fades until he is only mentioned in the World War II novels as being in the navy.

The other prominent aide to Asey is Doc Cummings, who first appears in The Tinkling Symbol (1935). In the early novels, Doc’s main tasks are examining the body and attending to fainting women. Later, however, he is given more significant duties by Asey. Doc thoroughly enjoys stalling and leading on Lieutenant Hanson of the state police, and Asey utilizes Doc not only in this way but also to deter others. Occasionally Doc is asked to check out someone’s story or to offer his opinion about any possible suspects. Doc’s assessment of the suspects, however, is never correct.

Even with all the available help, only Taylor’s detectives are capable of piecing together the clues (“clews,” as Taylor always writes) and revealing the culprit. They engage in all possible tactics, most of which are common to detective stories, to catch the murderer. The detectives usually find themselves involved in high-speed car or boat chases, mysterious escapades on trains, and chases on foot through backwoods, suburban streets, parking lots, and snow-covered fields. Both detectives have remarkable physical stamina, but Asey is by far the most astounding in physical abilities. As Taylor reveals more and more about Asey throughout her many novels about him, he comes to be somewhat of a superman. He is a superb mechanic and driver, an excellent cook, an expert with guns and knives, a fleet runner, and an able fighter. Although Asey Mayo is endowed with near-superhuman qualities, Leonidas Witherall should not be slighted. He, too, has great stamina for an elderly gentleman, and his endurance through all the circumstances of his investigations is worthy of note.

The style of Taylor’s writing matches the breathless style of her detectives. She takes her readers on a race through the one or two days necessary for her detectives to solve the mystery. She rarely leaves time for long descriptions or involved intimate details, and her detectives can summarize events and circumstances usually in less than five minutes. Although Taylor’s work has been criticized as mechanical, she is perhaps better described as efficient, even thrifty. She writes what needs to be known and sums up the facts in a tidy manner at the end. Even so, Taylor’s novels do not lack the suspense and daring of any good detective novel. Admittedly, the Witherall novels lack the style of the Asey Mayo novels and sometimes seem to gloss over the details necessary for the solution of the mystery, yet even in these books Taylor always manages to maintain the reader’s interest. Writers such as Charlotte MacLeod, Lucille Kallen, and Jane Langton trace their roots to Taylor, the quintessential New England mystery writer.

Principal Series Characters:

• Asey Mayo , an amateur sleuth, is a Cape Cod native and an all-around handyman. Of indeterminate age, between thirty-five and seventy years old, he evolves from a handyman in corduroys and a Stetson to the chairman of Porter Motors Company. Known for his physical and mental prowess, Asey charms everyone involved in his cases.
• Leonidas Witherall , an amateur sleuth, is a teacher and later a headmaster and the owner of Meredith Academy, a private boys’ school. He is a scholarly, witty, and proper old gentleman whose looks earn for him the name “Bill Shakespeare.” An author of detective novels, he prefers to be left alone but is always getting involved in the zany escapades of his family and friends.

Bibliography

Dueren, Fred. “Asey Mayo: ’The Hayseed Sherlock.’” The Armchair Detective (January, 1977): 21-24, 83. Discussion of the class and seeming lack of sophistication of Taylor’s most famous sleuth.

Klein, Kathleen Gregory, ed. Great Women Mystery Writers: Classic to Contemporary. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1994. Contains an essay on the life and works of Taylor.

Kneeland, Paul F. “Obituary.” Boston Globe, January 14, 1976, p. 43. Tribute to the author and summary of her career and literary output.

Panek, LeRoy Lad. The Origins of the American Detective Story. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2006. Study of the beginnings and establishment of American detective-fiction conventions that focuses on the replacement of the police by the private detective and the place of forensic science in the genre; provides perspective on Taylor’s works.

Pepper, Andrew. The Contemporary American Crime Novel: Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Class. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2000. Examination of the representation and importance of various categories of identity in mainstream American crime fiction; sheds light on Taylor’s works.