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Silence is Golden

by Jeanne M. Dams

Jeanne M. Dams writes about two separate female sleuths – Hilda Johansson, the protagonist of Silence is Golden, and Dorothy Martin. At the publication of this book, Ms. Dams had written ten other mystery novels featuring one or the other of these two women. Though Jeanne M. Dams isn't perhaps as well known as say, Dorothy Sayers, if she keeps on writing this well she probably will be! Silence is Golden is about inhabitants of South Bend, Indiana, in the year 1903. South Bend also happens to be where the author lives, and Ms. Dams has obviously researched her town's history and newspapers of the day to pen a story based on an actual occurrence of that time.

Hilda Johansson, the fictional protagonist, works as a maid in the luxurious residence of Tippecanoe Place, where she has an ongoing but non-verbal feud with the butler, Mr. Williams. Uncommonly strict, Williams gives very little time off to the staff under him, so when she is able to visit her home, Hilda makes the most of it. Her concerns there relate to her beau, Patrick Cavanaugh, an Irish Catholic, whom her Swedish mother despises – her mother being Protestant and Lutheran, like all good Swedes. Hilda's other concern is for her twelve-year-old brother Eric, whom Hilda was always close to, back on the farm in Sweden. Now the family all live in her older brother Sven's house, and it is too crowded – plus her mother is far too strict with Eric, and the jobs he's held do not suit him.

As Silence is Golden progresses, Hilda attends a Ringling Brothers circus performance with Patrick, later reading in the headlines of the local Tribune newspaper that a boy had gone to the circus and disappeared. The boy is Fritz, Eric's best friend. She fears that Eric might also be tempted to run away. The policeman in charge of the case is Sergeant Wright, who seems to be sweet on Hilda. When Fritz is found, he's been 'interfered with' by an older man – a subject not then discussed in the newspapers and especially not mentioned in the presence of unmarried females. Fritz will no longer play with Eric, and keeps to himself instead. Suspicion points to the leader of the trapeze band, the Stupendous Shaws, but no evidence is forthcoming and Fritz will not identify Mr. Shaw as the culprit.

Patrick and Hilda finally are able to take Eric to a smaller circus performance – only to discover after the show that a circus wagon formerly belonging to the Shaws is present. Eric immediately takes off towards it, escaping the protection of his sister and her fireman boyfriend, intent on finding Mr. Shaw and avenging his friend somehow.
By the time Hilda and Patrick reach the wagon, they not only find it empty, but find a murdered boy against one of the wheels – and Eric is nowhere in sight.

Hilda is frantic with worry, and everybody is out searching for Eric. By a lucky chance, Eric is found with a horse he's 'borrowed' – but he refuses at first to tell why he ran away. When it's pried out of him that he actually was a witness to the other boy's murder – and that he thought he knew the murderer – Hilda hides him first in the basement of Tippecanoe Place. Then Eric runs away once more. This time, when Patrick finds him, Hilda and Patrick decide to set a trap for the killer using Eric as bait – with his permission. He acquiesces, and the murderer is caught.

Silence is Golden makes me want to read Jeanne M. Dams other mystery books. Ms. Dams has a definite grasp on immigrant Swedish life at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century, and since I also love England, I want to read her Dorothy Martin novels. Jeanne M. Dams writes with knowledge, flair, and compassion for the underdog – in Silence is Golden she writes about situations all too familiar during that period; situations which would be insupportable today. Ms. Dams won the Agatha Award for her first novel of the Dorothy Martin series. I was glad to discover
Ms. Dams, and will add her to my list of good mystery writers!

Alan Paul Curtis

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