Golden Age of Detective Fiction

Harriet Clayborn Leeder, in a mysterious turn of events, summons amateur sleuth Henry Gamadge to oversee the reopening of a long-sealed room in the Clayborn mansion.

Twenty-two years earlier, the room was a music room built for Nonie Clayborn, Harriet’s aunt, by Harriet’s grandmother, Mrs. Clayborn. However, Nonie’s untimely demise led to a chilling creation of a life-like doll stuffed, painted, and finished with locks of Nonie’s actual hair, positioned at the piano by a grief-stricken Mrs. Clayborn.

The Clayborn family, haunted by the eerie presence of the Nonie doll, found it to be an abomination. In a twist of madness, Mrs. Clayborn, the matriarch, added a peculiar codicil to her will—a decree that everyone must coexist with Nonie’s doll for twenty-two years, until the youngest Clayborn, Graham, turned twenty-five.

After Mrs. Clayborn’s death, her family members exacted their own petty revenge and sealed up the room so they wouldn’t have to see the Nonie doll. However, in their haste, they also locked up the most valuable asset with the doll—a valuable button collection.

Harriet Clayborn Leeder urgently requests Henry Gamadge’s presence to oversee the reopening of the room with the family lawyer Alsop. Their mission: to prevent the theft of the valuable button collection, as someone has been robbing priceless items from the house and selling them for ready cash.

The eerie reopening of the music room takes a chilling turn. The desk, once home to the valuable button collection, is now barren, save for Nonie’s old dance cards and some stationary. However, a horrifying discovery awaits a mummified body, the snoopy companion of Mrs. Clayborn, who vanished on the day of her funeral, brutally murdered twenty-two years ago, hidden by the couch in the room.

The blue blood Clayborn family closes ranks and believes that the murder and stealing spree must be the work of an outsider. Gamadge has to carefully break down the wall of silence and wade through generational secrets before bringing all of the hidden family skeletons to light and a murderer to justice.

The Review

Somewhere in the House is steeped in an eerily gothic atmosphere, with its macabre human doll, a matriarch teetering on the edge of madness, and a family slowly decaying in a house where change is forbidden. The family, reminiscent of the Ushers, chooses to uphold the terms of the will, adding to the sense of impending doom.

Daly gives some reason why the Clayborns are content to while away their lives; the family name was deeply tarnished by Harriet Clayborn Leeder’s husband, Rowe Leeder, who had a scandal with a dancer and a murder. He was convicted of the crime, even with four of his friends giving him an alibi. Rowe Leeder maintains his innocence, but no other person has ever been connected with the murdered dancer. However, attitudes toward Rowe Leeder have softened in the past few years; he has begun a companionable romance with his ex-wife, Harriet, and is devoted to her.

When the body of Mrs. Clayborn’s companion is found dead, old feelings- primarily suspicion that Rowe Leeder was a murderer come home to roost, and the family tries to lay blame on the poorer relations that the companion came from. Still, their hopes of pinning the murder on them are shattered when the Clayborns realize that the poor relations have been housing Rowe Leeder since his prison release and have never needed their money.

The Clayborn clan uncomfortably looks at its members and seems resigned to shielding the killer until the murderer starts killing off Clayborn.

The main allure of this novel lies in the weird, decrepit Clayborn family, with its rumors of madness and murder. Somewhere in the House, a relatively compact book just under two hundred pages, doesn’t waste time with rambling asides or long escapades. The majority of the action unfolds inside the house, and Henry Gamadge skillfully allows the house and its inhabitants to reveal information and lies. His relentless investigation into the truth, when confronted with generational lies, elicits a sense of relief from the Clayborn family as they finally release the burden they’ve been carrying.

My only honest criticism of the story is that the set-up with Nonie, the doll, and the buttons is so good that when the motive is out in the open, it seems sordid and a little dull compared to the fantastical and dark set up.

One element that does stay strong throughout the story is that these people are all darkly twisted, and the murderer has had twenty years to think up a way to obfuscate from being suspected. They use every nook and cranny of the house to their advantage. Creating false alibis and timelines, hiding incriminating evidence in mundane objects and places, and, of course, using the weaknesses of each member of the Clayborn family against them by making them seem suspect while bolstering their evidence.

Somewhere in the House stands out as a darkly rich family drama that culminates in several chilling murders. Elizabeth Daly’s deftly simple prose, fully realized characters brimming with spite and undue grandeur, and powerfully unsettling stories make for a unique reading experience that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Elizabeth Daly Biography

Elizabeth Daly (October 15, 1878 – September 2, 1967) was an American writer known for her mystery novels. Born in New York City, Daly pursued an academic career, earning a degree from Bryn Mawr College and later studying at the Sorbonne in Paris. Her career as an author began later in life, with her first novel, “Unexpected Night,” published in 1940 when she was 62. Daly’s work is characterized by its classical detective fiction style, often drawing comparisons to Agatha Christie. She created the character Henry Gamadge, a gentleman scholar and bibliophile who solves intricate crimes, and featured him in her 16 novels. Daly was recognized for her contribution to the genre by being awarded a special Edgar Award for her body of work in 1961 by the Mystery Writers of America. Despite her relatively small bibliography, Daly’s novels have been praised for their clever plots and richly drawn settings.