Meat for Murder

INTRODUCTIONJane Lewis Brandt (1915-2003), who wrote under several pseudonyms, including “Lange Lewis” and “Jane Beynon,” as well as her own name, was a Los Angeles-based writer. She was married Mal Bissell, also an author, who published several fantasy stories. Her series detective was Lieutenant Richard Tuck. The Tuck mysteries include: Murder Among Friends (1942) Juliet Dies Twice (1943) Meat for Murder (1943) The Birthday Murder (1945) The Passionate Victim (1952) As Jane Beynon, she published Cypress Man (1944). Under her own name, she published historical romances in the 1970s and early 1980s, such as Love in the Hot-Eye Country and La Chingada. I suspect there are more romances hidden under more pseudonyms. According to a 1942 review of her first novel in The Metropolitan Pasadena Star-News, she came from an artistic family, and Murder Among Friends was her first novel. (The reviewer called it “a first-rate mystery, plausible and convincing.”) A review of Meat for Murder in the Oakland Tribune (1943) mentions that she lives in Oakland, but offers little more about her life. (It does add about Meat: “There is a verve and zest to the tale which makes you imagine the author grinning to herself and saying, ‘Gee, I’m having a good time with this!’ That spirit is as contagious as the measles, and the reader is sure to catch it.”) A publicity photo shows her in 1942: From the works I have read, I think mystery was her real calling, and had she met more success, she doubtless would have continued in the genre. From the publication dates, I suspect the final Lieutenant Richard Tuck novel—published 7 years after the others in the series—went unsold when she wrote it, so she moved on to another genre and another pseudonym. (That’s what I would have done.) Clearly she met enough success elsewhere to continue her writing career, probably with Harlequin romances or other series-type work. She was talented enough to meet the needs of any genre to which she tried her hand. Enjoy! —John Betancourt Cabin John, Maryland