Golden Age of Detective Fiction

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Plot Synopsis

The Wrong Way Down is the eleventh book in the long-running Henry Gamadge series. In this mystery, Henry Gamadge, a charming and astute investigator, visits the elderly Miss Julia Paxton at the Ashbury estate as a favor to his wife, who is friends with Miss Paxton but is out of town.

Miss Paxton has moved into the empty, eerie house and is packing up its contents to be shipped or sold as a favor to the Ashbury family after a relative’s death. She is being paid handsomely and inherits quite a sum under the provisions of the deceased Ashbury’s will.

While inventorying the house, Miss Paxton stumbles upon a miniature painting, a supposed likeness of another Ashbury relative. However, her attention is drawn to an unexpected detail- an engraving seemingly appearing out of nowhere. This discovery and her visit to Iris Vance, a distant relative of the Ashburys who had been disinherited over a mysterious incident at the house fifteen years before, sparks a wave of questions. Did Miss Vance, a reputed professional medium, have a hand in this? And if so, what could be her motive?

Henry Gamadge promises to visit Miss Vance to ease Miss Paxton’s anxiety about the mysterious writing. However, after a meeting with Miss Vance and her enigmatic companions, Gamadge finds himself in a state of uncertainty. The situation is more complex than he initially thought, and he’s still determining what to make of it.

Only hours after visiting Miss Vance, Julia Paxton is found dead, supposedly having fallen over a rickety railing on a balcony. The police think Miss Paxton’s death is just an unfortunate accident. Henry Gamadge knows it’s murder.

The Review

The Wrong Way Down, like many of Elizabeth Daly’s other works in the Henry Gamadge series with a spooky and somewhat fantastical hook, did Iris Vance, a reputed medium, get the spirits to write an inscription on a favored family heirloom?

The flavor of spiritualism and mediums is quickly eschewed in favor of a more intriguing mystery: Who are Miss Vance’s friends going under assumed names and running around the city in the dead of night-changing hotels?

Before Gamadge can dig too much into the mystery, he is almost fatally shot. Sticking close to home and working with the police, he helps tail the various players in this cat-and-mouse game. Before he works out the details of what is going on, one of the players is shot outside his house on her way to give him vital information.

Now, Gamadge and the New York police department are up against a ruthless killer who is half-mad and willing to kill and kill again to secure their freedom. Gamadge and his adversaries race around the city to catch a killer hiding under various aliases in plain sight.

The tension in The Wrong Way Down is palpable, with Daly’s skillful writing creating a sense of suspense that keeps the reader engaged. Something evil is lurking in the Ashbury house, but where and who? Daly manages to write several scenes where Gamadge is trapped like a rat with various foes and even the killer on multiple occasions, and he doesn’t know what or who the danger is- but the reader can feel it make the hair on the back of their neck prickle.

All of the heightened emotions, a form of emotional manipulation, are a performance on Daly’s part. She uses many of the tricks Miss Vance needed to master to become a successful medium, such as knowing how to distract, manipulate emotionally, and create a successful show to razzle-dazzle the client or, in her case, the reader.

There’s a tone of distraction. The spiritualism and spooky atmosphere are all smoke and mirrors laid out to fascinate and distract the reader from the real purpose of Miss Paxton’s death and the repeated attempts on Gamadge’s life. They saw something real they didn’t even know wasn’t part of the show. Maybe you’ll see it, too. I didn’t and was shocked when the killer was revealed.

The plot’s cluing in The Wrong Way Down is cleverly done, providing an intellectual challenge for the reader. However, upon reflection, it may be too complex. As I think about the mystery, I feel Gamadge could not have verified his suspicions about the killer’s identity. He may have suspected it, but Daly never gave Gamadge and the reader enough evidence to know who the killer was.

Most of the characters know who the killer is the whole time—unlike Gamadge and the reader—and are trying to catch this person with as little fanfare as possible to avoid scandal. Does this track for the wealthy upper East side Park Avenue crowd of the 1940s that the book is emulating? Sure. Does it feel like a cop-out for why every person’s behavior is so antithetical to solving the mystery? Also, yes.

The killer, who has very effectively wormed in and out of the story like a chameleon, also tries to put on a show for Gamadge and the reader, challenging our understanding of the motive by saying they killed for the noble cause of freedom. Still, Daly wants us to know the real reason is greed. The family accepts the bogus reasoning with little fanfare- the fake reason better bolsters their position and means that this family member can be dealt with quietly outside of the legal system. This resolution, while not the typical ‘absolute justice’ of mystery stories, is intriguing and thought-provoking.

The Wrong Way Down is a fun, captivating mystery with a somewhat spotty plot and relatively light clueing upon reflection. I’m glad Gamadge solved the case because I don’t know if the reader can get off the information in the story. I lenjoyed the show Elizabeth Daly put on in The Wrong Way Down, but am not totally sure it’s a good mystery.

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Henry Gamadge Series Reviews

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20 Books of Summer 24 Reviews