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I haven't been able to discover much about the author -- William Levine aka Will Levinrew -- who wrote a number of murder mysteries mainly in the early 1930s. He also wrote short stories including at least one published in The Phantom Detective pulp (Vol 1 No 1) the same year as this 1933 novel.
In this tale, elderly scientist Professor Herman Brierly is called in to solve the case of the serial murders of octogenarians with his assistant -- rugged blue eyed adopted son John Matthews -- and Jimmy Hale, crack reporter for the (now long defunct but real) New York Eagle newspaper. It's a nice set-up: 200-odd men share a history during the US Civil War. Every 4th of July they have a reunion and many years ago it was agreed that a fund would be created, paid into by the survivng members that would be eventually paid out to the final sole survivor. Now, 65 years have passed since the Civil War and the 17 and 18 year olds are all in their 80s. A mere 14 survive. Mysteriously, one by one, their numbers dwindle during this year's reunion. Is it a sudden rash of suicides? Or are they being stalked? Enter Professor Brierly and his crew.
OK, so it's not literary fiction but it is a fun, breezy read with lots of action. It's very much a male thing -- there is only a single woman in the entire cast and no love interest at all (she's a recent widow, the sister to Jack). But it is charming in its 1933 view of how the world works and is set on a charming lakeside in Quebec (Lake Memphremagog which also borders on Vermont).
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