“She sat quite still, her only movement the folding of hands in her lap. In her great, grave eyes there was a slight darkening, as if a light had been turned down.” — Homicide and Gentlemen

This stylish short mystery by Fletcher Flora introduced Lieutenant Joseph Marcus and Sergeant Bobo Fuller. We learn that Bobo is not the real first name of Fuller, but it’s what people have called him for so long, no one can remember his actual name. Flora sets the tone of their relationship in this one, which continued in subsequent short mystery stories featuring the aloof but very smart Lieutenant Marcus. It is that aloofness which Fuller perceives as smugness and taking on airs, and it’s one of the reasons Bobo, who is always two steps behind Marcus in figuring out the culprit in these fun shorts, dislikes his superior so much.

Ironically, as they make their way across a golf course by a lake, where a man has been murdered at some point between the hours of midnight and dawn, we learn that Lieutenant Marcus, who grew up poor and is still, on a Lieutenant’s salary, relatively poor, hates golf and all the snobbishness surrounding the rich man’s game. What was the young man doing on the golf course long before it was open — perhaps even before daylight? Why is his jacket a few feet away, lying neatly on the grass? More importantly, who put the bullet in him?

As Marcus begins backtracking the young man, he learns that he shared an apartment with another young man. Within the apartment they share, is a photograph of a lovely young woman that has an almost hypnotic effect on Marcus:

“It was a lovely face. A wistful face. Shaped like a small, lean heart. Big eyes with sadness in them. Passion in them? Passion, at least, in the soft lips set in the merest of smiles. In spite of the suggested passion, however, there was — Marcus groped for the word — a kind of mysticism. He was falling, in an instant, half in love.”

The inscription on the aforementioned photograph, three target pistols, and a strange aura which seems at once very logical to Marcus, but also quite insane, leads him to the truth in this short but atmospheric case for Lieutenant Joseph Marcus. First published in the April 1961 issue of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Homicide and Gentlemen has wonderful descriptions by Flora, and an unusual solution which make this Lt. Marcus outing memorable, despite its short length. Perfect for bedtime or a coffee break. Quality stuff. ( )