Adventures in Time and Space

by Marcia Talley

With the recent discovery of King Richard III’s body, I’ve been thinking a lot about Josephine Tey’s classic mystery, Daughter of Time, in which Tey proves conclusively (to my way of thinking, at least) that the much maligned Richard did not murder his two nephews, the Princes in the Tower.  (Her argument is so convincing that I’m even sending a contribution to help build poor Richard’s tomb!)  Tey’s novel appears on just about everybody’s “Best 100 Mysteries of All Time” list, and if you haven’t yet read it, you must.

Back in 2006, I was asked by Jim Huang to contribute to a collection of essays, Mystery Muses: 100 Classics that Inspire Today’s Mystery Writers. I could have written about Daughter of Time, which remains one of my all-time favorites, but there was another, less well-known novel that had earlier stolen my heart.

As the daughter of a career military man, I hopscotched with my family around the world, never settling anywhere for longer than two or three years. We rarely had extra money to spend on books, so libraries were my salvation, but most of the libraries I had access to were on military bases and geared for young men between the ages of eighteen and twenty-six, i.e. chock-a-block with westerns and science fiction. I never touched the stuff myself, and it rarely took me more than a couple of months to work my way through Margery Allingham, Agatha Christie, F.W. Dixon, Carolyn Keene, Ngaio Marsh, Dorothy L. Sayers and Josephine Tey down to Margaret York before I ran out of things to read.

In 1958 my family was stationed in Taipei, Taiwan, and as I moped around the sadly deficient mystery shelves, the librarian – a handsome young Navy Lieutenant – escorted me to the science fiction section and asked me if I’d ever read Heinlein. I’d never even heard of the man. The lieutenant handed me a copy of a book called Door into Summer and said, “Try this one. I think you’ll like it.” Years later, Door into Summer is one of the few novels – along with Tey’s Daughter of Time – that is packed up last and unpacked first, following me from Taiwan to California to Virginia to Ohio to Maryland, and whenever I lost a copy due to injudicious lending, it was the first to be replaced.

The year is 1970 and Dan, an inventor of ingenious labor-saving robotic devices, has been cheated out of his business by a crooked partner in cohoots with his soon-to-be ex-fiancé. Disheartened, Dan prepares for cryogenic suspended animation, but he won't do it without his best friend, Petronious the Arbiter, his ginger ale-drinking tomcat. So that they don’t fall into the wrong hands as well, Dan leaves the remaining shares in his company to his only other friend in the world, Ricky, his partner’s young daughter. Dan’s only mistake is in confronting his traitorous friends one last time. He gets the Long Sleep all right, but he wakes up dazed and blinking in the year 2000 without any money and without Pete. Following a trail of subtle clues, Dan figures out what happened, goes back in time and with several satisfying plot twists, takes revenge on those who wronged him.

Heinlein wrote this book in 1956, and in it he predicted ATMs, computer aided design, Velcro, Rhoomba's and even the drug Ecstasy.

Science fiction? To be sure. Few science fiction novels have explained the theory of time travel so well that even I as a teenager could understand. Romance? It’s got that, too, with an ending that gets me – right here – every time. But Door Into Summer is pure mystery, too. What else could it be with a cat -- another staple of the mystery, right? -- as a major character? Pete may be my favorite feline in fiction. Each winter, he howls at every door in succession, hoping that behind one of them it will be summer time. Like Dan’s quest for justice, it’s a metaphor for hope.

I’m a hopeful kind of person, too, and like old Pete, I’m looking for that door into summer, too.

So Femmes, what classics inspired you to be a writer?

Comments

[Dana Cameron]

Marcia, I remember when we were listening to Stephen King as MWA Grand Master and both whooped when he mentioned Heinlein--not knowing the other was into him, too!

I wanted to write when I was very young and reading fairy tales. Later, Tolkien rekindled that urge, but I never thought I'd be able to do it, so channelled that instinct into telling stories about real people in my research. Until Emma Fielding and now Zoe Miller. :)

[Hank Phillippi Ryan]

OH, I LOVE Heinlein, but I have not read that! And it sounds terrific.

MY similar inspiration came from Jane Langton's Diamond in the A Window. Magic, love, history, transcendentalism, Thoreau..and that a geeky smart kid could be cool.

I was so wowed by it..and now I give it (along with all the Edward Eager books) to all the kids I know. ANd I was speechless when I got to sign with Jane Langton a few year ago. I could barely express my joy.

[Marcia Talley]

Hi, all! I'm just back into the internet world. We've been down since 8:30 this morning. Life on a small island: I called the cell phone of the internet provider, name of Chris, and he was already on his way, via boat, from the next island over. Just spent the last hour sitting on the porch watching Chris crawl all over the roof of Ralph's house across the harbor -- tallest house, where the antenna is!

[Kate Charles]

Very interesting, Marcia!

'Daughter of Time' was hugely influential in my life. If not for that book, I almost certainly would not be living where I do!

[Donna Andrews]

I am a long-time Ricardian, Marcia. And I had forgotten about The Door Into Summer. I feel a rereading binge coming on!

(And glad you were back on line before I got back to the computer!)

[Marcia Talley]

Donna, I have to say it's very gratifying that when one makes a complaint about the internet being down, the president of the company shows up by boat and clambers about on the roof of a 3-story building!

[Marcia Talley]

@Kate. I feel the same way. I hope there is an English cottage with a charming name in my future!

[Marcia Talley]

@Hank. Jane Langton was one of the speakers at the St Hilda's Crime and Mystery weekend several years ago. She gave a wonderful talk, illustrated with slides of the drawings she does to accompany her novels. Fascinating lady!

[Marcia Talley]

@Dana. Yes! The Stephen King interview was so interesting, and I remember our mutual whoop. One of the things I loved about Jim Huang's book was that I learned that several of my friends were equally nuts about Dorothy Dunnett.

[Mary]

Virtual whoops for Heinlein from me too! How could I have missed Door Into Summer? My first Heinlein remains my fave - I Shall Fear No Evil. I discovered it and Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series at the same time.

Thanks - now I have a great reading list for the next few weeks. :)