Last Seen Wearing

December 14, 2020
Originally published in 1952, this entry in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series from MWA Grand Master Waugh (1920–2008) stands as one of the first and best police procedurals. On Mar. 3, 1950, 18-year-old Lowell Mitchell, a freshman at Parker College in Bristol, Mass., vanishes. The police investigation unfolds over five weeks, from Lowell’s disappearance to the case’s resolution. Though there’s not much action, Waugh builds suspense by raising doubts about motive and character. Did Lowell run away? Is she dead? The search for answers to these and other questions will keep readers turning the pages, though some will be put off by the cruelly casual sexism: “girls” only go to college to find a husband, and the “only reasonable explanation” for a teenage girl’s disappearance is her sneaking off to have an illegal abortion. Series editor Leslie Klinger’s annotations offer fascinating insights into the postwar milieu. Those looking for a period mystery where ordinary cops are the good guys will be rewarded.

January 1, 2021
Waugh's pioneering 1952 police procedural has gathered nary a speck of dust over the last 69 years. First-year student Marilyn Lowell Mitchell, 18, stays after class to confer with her history teacher, skips lunch with her roommate because she's not feeling well, and then vanishes from the campus of Massachusetts's fictitious Parker College. Her housemother assumes she's gone off with a boy; when the police fail to find any trace of her, suspicions deepen that she's sneaked off to have an abortion. The reward her father offers--"$5,000 IF FOUND ALIVE. $2,500 IF FOUND DEAD"--fails to turn up any new leads, and the Philadelphia private detective he hires adds nothing substantial. So it's up to the local law to find Lowell. Bristol Police Chief Frank W. Ford and DS Burton K. Cameron track down every man she's dated and drain a local lake without success. When Lowell's body is eventually discovered, DA Dave McNarry uses veiled references from her diary entries to make a case for suicide, but Ford tries a daring experiment that convinces the judge it's murder. What's most remarkable about Waugh's expert handling of a formula that's since become commonplace is its severe economy. As Leslie S. Klinger's Introduction points out, Waugh's not interested in racial, class, or economic conflicts; everyone in Bristol seems cut from the same cloth. It goes further: The suspects are never more than suspects; the detectives have no private lives to speak of; and when Ford quarrels with Cameron or McNarry, it's always about the case, which proceeds methodically to a solution as satisfying as it is unsurprising. Despite its predecessors, Waugh's indispensable novel remains the true progenitor of the modern procedural.

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February 1, 2021

On March 3, 1950, Lowell Mitchell, an 18-year-old student at a women's college, Parker College in Bristol, MA, left her dorm while her roommate was at lunch, and disappeared. At midnight, her roommate and dormmates grow concerned because Lowell missed curfew, and hadn't signed out. Police chief Frank Ford is furious the next morning when the police are called only after the campus police and women from the various dorms had searched the campus. He suspects the missing young woman was pregnant and getting an abortion, but the students say she had no steady young man in her life. The police drain the campus lake, interview every young man who appeared in Lowell's diary, and track men as far away as Ohio. Two weeks later, when they find her body, the DA calls it suicide. But Ford won't give up until he finds the young woman's killer. VERDICT Author Leslie S. Klinger's introduction and notes for this latest Library of Congress Crime Classic note that Waugh (1930-2008) wrote this first acclaimed police procedural, basing it on true crime cases and TV's Dragnet. The methodical story follows the police investigation step by step. Students of the mystery genre will want to read this title, originally published in 1952, which appears on the Mystery Writers of America list of 100 Best Mysteries of All Time.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN

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February 1, 2021
This latest installment in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series was written nearly 70 years ago and served as the prototype for the American police procedurals to follow. Frequently featured on "best 100 ever lists" and penned by MWA Grand Master Waugh, the story was inspired by the success of the radio program Dragnet and based on the real-life disappearance of a Vermont coed. When Lowell Mitchell goes missing from her Massachusetts college, small-town police chief Frank Ford leaves no uncomfortable question unasked as he gathers evidence and scrupulously follows procedure to solve the crime. There are several suspects, and by narrowing down the probable motive and determining who had the means to carry out Lowell's murder, he and his wisecracking sidekick devise a plan to ensnare the killer. Editor Leslie S. Klinger notes that Waugh employs "no cliffhangers, no 'red herrings, ' no sensational developments, no shoot-outs, no gadgets." As Sergeant Joe Friday liked to say, "All we want are the facts, ma'am." Procedural fans interested in the evolution of the genre won't want to miss this one.

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