Emma Lathen Mystery Novels

When allergies got the best of me earlier this month, I holed up for a few days with a dozen Emma Lathen mystery novels featuring amateur sleuth and banker John Putnam Thatcher and his colleagues at the Sloan Guaranty Trust in NYC. Written in the 1960s, the novels are rather old fashioned, and like Agatha Christie also casually racist, sexist, and ageist. That aside, the novels offer an intriguing portrait of the Wall Street of yesteryear and a memorable roster of characters.

At the time, The New York Times wrote, “Emma Lathen writes permanent classics in the detective field. No superlatives are adequate.” I think that may be an overstatement, but enjoyable, easy reads.

Emma Lathen is the pen name of Harvard roommates Martha Henissart, a lawyer, and the late Mary Jane Latsis, a professor of economics at Wellsley College.