'OBERON: Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania
-- A Midsummer Night's Dream, II.1. 60'

In my opinion, Mrs. Zenith Jones Brown (Leslie Ford) did a smart thing when she created Grace Latham to be the first person narrator for the rest of the Primrose-Latham series. Grace is more effective in letting us learn about the other characters than writing in the third person, as the author did for the first book, The Strangled Witness. Grace doesn't hesitate to give the reader her opinion of those around her.

Grace is in April Harbor for the summer. Her father was one of the two lawyers who drew up the charter for the April Harbor Association 30 years before. Grace is 38 now, so she's been spending summers here for a long time. Her late husband, Dick, died in a plane crash eight years ago, leaving Grace with two boys to bring up. The boys are now old enough that they're not with her this time, which is just as well.

The author is good at sketching out the characters, although the 1930s attitudes about race and social class are grating. Of course the foreign woman that Jim Gould married just isn't as classy as the American girl he was going to marry. (Wait for the village gossip's ideas about what their stillborn child was like...) Then his old love returns to April Harbor with a rich and handsome fiance in tow.

Although beautiful Sandra Gould has improved since her marriage, thanks to her mother-in-law, she's not a real lady, which she loses no time in proving as soon as she meets the also beautiful Rosemary Bishop. (Naturally, Rosemary's brand of beauty makes Sandra's look common.)

Grace is completely out of her depth when murder is committed. How she wishes that she had agreed to take in an aunt and uncle when the Chetwynds -- who had all of their aunts and uncles come uninvited the same weekend they had invited two guests -- asked her to. No, Grace took in the guests. Some people might think it's very handy to have a couple of special inquiry agents around when foul deeds are being committed. Grace doesn't, and neither does the murderer.

This is one of those cases where so many people are busy lying to protect someone else that it's not surprising that Colonel Primrose wishes they'd tell him the truth. I did love the telling off he gave them.
He also wishes that Grace would follow his advice. Not even getting shot at seems to really bring it home to her that the killer isn't just probably someone she knows -- that person might kill again.

The descriptions are good and -- racism, sexism, & society snootiness aside -- the view into the past is interesting. I got a chuckle out of what Grace tells the colonel at the end. I also like the fact that she's not husband-hunting, no matter what some people might think.

I've quoted the book four times: the first and last give an idea what Grace is like. The middle two are the sort of thing potential readers should be prepared to find.

My copy has the cover showing a black haired, bare-chested man with his arms under the shoulders of a blonde in what appears to be a short, dark pink nightgown or slip. They're on a beach. The heels of her bare feet have dug a groove in the sand. It's not accurate. They weren't alone, the woman was not unconscious when she was pulled from the water, her hair was black, and she was wearing a 'filmy sea-green chiffon frock'.

According to this site, http://connection.ebscohost.com/tag/FORD%252C%2BLeslie , Ill Met by Moonlight was serialized in The Saturday Evening Post v.209, numbers 28 though at least 33 (Jan 9 - Feb 13, 1937), although numbers 30 & 32 aren't listed.

If you like old-fashioned society mysteries and can grit your teeth through the displays of unenlightened attitudes, you should find this book fun. ( )