CHARLES STUART Palmer (1905-1968), a descendent of colonists who settled in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1634, led a picaresque American life before becoming a successful writer, holding such jobs as iceman, sailor, publicity man, apple picker, newspaper reporter, taxi driver, poet, editor, and ghost-writer.

The Penguin Pool Murder (1931) introduced the popular spinstersleuth Hildegarde Withers. Formerly a schoolteacher, the thin, angular, horse-faced snoop devoted her energy to aiding Inspector Oliver Piper of the New York City Police Department, driving him slightly crazy in the process. She is noted for her odd, even eccentric, choice of hats. Palmer stated that she was based on his high school English teacher, Miss Fern Hackett, and on his father.

There were thirteen more novels in the Miss Withers series, the last, Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene (1969), being completed by Fletcher Flora after Palmer died. There also were three short story collections, with the first, The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers (1947), being selected as a Queen’s Quorum title. It was followed by The Monkey Murder and Other Hildegarde Withers Stories (1950), and People vs. Withers and Malone (1963), in conjunction with Craig Rice, which also featured her series character, John J. Malone.

The film version of The Penguin Pool Murder was released in 1932 and spurred five additional comic mystery films, the first three featuring Edna May Oliver in a perfect casting decision, followed by Helen Broderick, and the last, Forty Naughty Girls (1937), with Zasu Pitts. Piper was played by James Gleason in all films.

The success of the series gained Palmer employment as a scriptwriter with thirty-seven mystery screenplays to his credit, mostly for such popular series as Bulldog Drummond, the Lone Wolf, and the Falcon.

“The Monkey Murder” was originally published in the January 1947 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine; it was first collected in The Monkey Murder and Other Hildegarde Withers Stories (New York, Bestseller, 1950).

The Monkey Murder

By Stuart Palmer

AFTER-THEATER CROWDS were flowing sluggishly around Times Square, and then suddenly an eddy was formed by the halting of a pugnacious little Irishman, who stared back over his shoulder. “A fine thing!” observed Inspector Oscar Piper with some bitterness, “when murderers walk the streets and thumb their noses at the skipper of the homicide squad!”

“Oscar!” gasped Miss Hildegarde Withers, clutching her rakish bonnet and peering into the crowd. “Did he really? That nice, neat man?”

“That nice, neat man committed a nice, neat murder, and now he’s going scot-free, and he—well, maybe he didn’t actually thumb his nose but he smiled and tipped his hat. That was George Wayland, the wife-strangler, blast him!”

The old-maid schoolteacher firmly gripped her friend’s arm, steering him down a side street and into a smoky little basement restaurant. She ordered a bottle of chianti and two plates of spaghetti with mushrooms, and then demanded to know what this was all about.