In and Out — A Reader’s Guide

A Murderer's Cross and a Hidden Woman

By the middle excerpts, the story has shifted from the boxing ring to Fry's apartment, where a tense conversation reveals that Bob Vining, a mutual acquaintance, bears a 'murderer's cross' at the base of his thumb—a mark Boller claims appears on virtually every executed murderer in the state. This detail, presented with hushed gravity, introduces a supernatural or folkloric element into an otherwise realistic narrative. Simultaneously, a woman named Mary emerges from hiding, having apparently disappeared from Vining's life. She sits calmly at Fry's table, sipping coffee and asking, 'Well, have you determined how I'm to leave?' The juxtaposition of the ominous mark and Mary's composed domesticity creates a puzzle: is Vining a killer, and what is Mary's connection to him?

The Amateur Detective Arrives

The tension escalates when Hobart Hitchin, an amateur detective, enters Fry's apartment unannounced, catching Mary at the table. The narrative notes that Hitchin is in 'a high state of nervous tension,' and his arrival forces Fry to improvise. The scene is built on a series of near-misses and whispered conversations, with Fry's servant Wilkins playing a reluctant gatekeeper. Franklin uses the confined setting—a bachelor apartment—to heighten the claustrophobic sense of secrets about to be exposed. The reader, like Fry, must gauge how much Hitchin knows and whether Mary's presence will be discovered. The chapter titles—'The Web,' 'The Other Lady,' 'The Crash'—suggest a plot that thickens through misdirection and sudden revelations.

Voice and Structure: Dialogue as Driver

Franklin relies heavily on dialogue to advance the plot and reveal character. Fry's speech is measured and ironic ('If that little wheeze had the pep of a dead mosquito'), while Boller's is blunt and colloquial. Mary's lines are direct and practical, cutting through Fry's evasions. The narrative voice is third-person but often adopts a wry, observational tone, as when it notes that the trio behind Fry in Box B 'wondered what he was doing at a prize fight anyway.' The structure alternates between action (the boxing match, Hitchin's entrance) and extended conversations that lay out theories and suspicions. This pattern suggests a mystery that unfolds through argument and deduction rather than physical clues.

Recurring Details and Their Implications

Several details recur across the excerpts: Fry's nose-glasses, which he removes when thinking; the 'murderer's cross' as a physical mark; and the motif of watching and being watched. The boxing match is described in terms of missed opportunities—the Tornado fails to land an uppercut—which mirrors the characters' own failures to act decisively. Boller's observation that Vining 'will never take any account of the circumstances; he'll just snatch out the gun and let fly' hints at a violent resolution. The excerpts do not reveal whether the cross is real or imagined, or whether Mary is a victim or a perpetrator. Readers must attend to these recurring motifs as potential keys to the mystery.

Franklin's novel rewards attention to its layered dialogue and the subtle shifts in power between characters. The excerpts offer a cross-section of the book's method: a slow build of suspicion, punctuated by sudden entrances and revelations. Readers should note how each character's speech patterns reflect their role in the unfolding drama, and how the setting—from the boxing ring to the apartment—serves as a stage for psychological maneuvering. The incomplete excerpts leave many questions open, but the patterns established in the opening chapters provide a reliable guide to the novel's concerns.

Thinking back on the boxing match in Franklin’s novel, I was struck by how easily wealth hides a person, even in plain sight—and that same quiet thought followed me to Mrs. Vanderstein's jewels — Themes and Context. There’s a particular loneliness in those guarded rooms, a kind of silence that still lingers with me. Strange, how two old stories can share one shadow.