Siren in the Night

This detective novel, published in 1943, is set during the Second World War. The plot connects two major events in modern American history: the great fire of San Francisco in 1906, when more than 80 per cent of the city was destroyed, and the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941 (the siren in the title refers to the blackout siren connected with air raids). Two murders take place in the respectable neighbourhood of San Joaquin Terrace. There are formal detectives investigating the crimes, Colonel Primrose and Sergeant Buck, but also Grace Latham, the narrator, who happens to observe aspects of both crimes and pieces together who might have been involved in the murder and why.
 

The author, Zenith Jones (née Brown, born 8 December 1898), wrote under the pseudonyms of Brenda Conrad, Leslie Ford and David Frome. Born in California, where her father was an Anglican missionary to Native Americans, she grew up in the state of Washington. She studied at the University of Washington in Seattle and following her marriage to an academic, she taught English there from 1921 to 1923. Between the publication of Murder of an Old Man in 1929 and Trial by Ambush in 1962, she wrote more than 60 detective novels. Whereas her novels as Leslie Ford were mostly set in large American cities, her novels as David Frome were set in London.

The family at the centre of the plot is that of Loring Kimball. His wife had disappeared during the 1906 fire and her husband had kept a light on in one of the rooms of his house since then, ostensibly to honour her memory. This approach to mourning resembles the respect shown for young men (sons or husbands) who went to war and never came home. The author touches on the impact of the First World War on American society. Of the two detectives investigating the murder case, Colonel Primrose “was wounded in the Argonne” (the American offensive of September-November 1918) and “his iron henchman Sergeant Buck... also 92nd Engineers”.