Murder at City Hall — Dan Ross

When Vera Lanyon was found strangled to death in a field near Jerome Carter's farmhouse, the people of Eastville immediately decided that Jerome had killer her. The titian-haired Vera had worked at City Hall as secretary to Mayor Claude Marsh, and Jerome had worked at City Hall. It was a well-known fact that Jerome had been in love with the flirtatious Vera. In fact, most of the men in Eastville liked the beautiful Vera--she was known as the town flirt, not in a particularly derogatory way, but because she was girl who loved life and enjoyed making men fall in love with her.

It was up to young Fred Haines--who in a sense was on trial as Eastville's Chief of Police--to solve the murder. Fred, who was almost convinced that Jerome Carter had killed the girl, had already taken Jerome into custody. Helen Clayton, Fred's fiancee and a reporter for the Eastville Weekly News, which her father owned, believed differently--and she was determined to clear Jerome. The fact that Jerome's uncle, old Henry Carter was the millionaire owner of the Drydock and Shipbuilding Company in Eastville had nothing to do with her decision--although Mayor Marsh was acutely aware of Henry Carter's influence on his own political career.

Helen's visit to the mayor's office brought surprising results. Harvey Curtis, town solicitor, came barging in, saying that it was a mistake even to bother giving Jerome a trial, an outburst glossed over by the mayor, who said he believed the murder was committed by some transient.

When mentally retarded Billy Amos, whose great ambition it was to have his picture in the Eastville Weekly News, telephoned Helen that he wished to see her, she didn't think it was anything important. But when Billy was found murdered behind the restaurant where he worked--before he could keep her appointment with Helen--she was convinced that Vera's murderer was not a transient. Billy had somehow stumbled on a clue--and Billy had been killed to silence him.

Politics and murder go hand in hand in this exciting mystery as, first, Jerome Carter, next the mayor, then Harvey Curtis all reveal that they had reasons for the killing the beautiful redhead. Helen almost forfeits her own life before the murderer is apprehended. But Helen is playing for high stakes--the career of the man she loves.