Timothy Brace (1901-1969) was the pseudonym used by regional writer Theodore Pratt (1901-1969) when he wrote a series of four detective stories in the late 1930’s. He was born in the Midwest and later grew up and was educated in the Northeast. He held various writing positions in New York City before becoming the European correspondent for a NYC newspaper. Apparently, he was forced to leave Spain because of a highly inflammatory article he wrote about the people of Mallorca. He moved to Florida in 1934 and lived out most of his remaining 35 years in the Sunshine State. Pratt published over thirty novels, some short stories and plays and many non-fiction works. Pratt traveled extensively throughout Florida researching material for his books, most of which were set in Florida during several different historical periods. Five of his books written in the 1940’s were turned into films, two of the best known were The Barefoot Mailman, starring Robert Cummings, released in 1951 and the partly animated feature starring Don Knotts, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, released in 1964. At the time of his death in 1969 he was considered Florida’s foremost regional writer and an expert in all aspects of Floridian history.
Brace, Timothy – Murder Goes in a Trailer (1937). Pratt, writing as Timothy Brace, wrote four novels featuring wealthy amateur criminologist Anthony Adams. Barzun and Taylor in their COC dismiss him as a writer “without special distinction”. My reading of Murder Goes in a Trailer (the second in the series) causes me to agree with them. His writing style can best be described as workmanlike. He has no great flair for dialogue or for creating memorable characters. The murder method (administering some type of poison gas into a seemingly “locked” trailer) is clever and the final pages wherein amateur sleuth Anthony Adams gathers the suspects and uses deductive reasoning to eliminate all but one of them and solve the puzzle are the highlights of the book. Unfortunately, Pratt/Brace took a short story plot and bloated it into a tedious novel totally lacking in humor and sustainable interest. Perhaps the most glaring error he made in writing this series was the creation of his sleuth. Anthony Adams is a bored rich guy (sort of like Average Jones or Philo Vance) who likes to intrude into murder investigations that capture his interest. The local police kowtow to him in a quite unbelievable manner. The Adams character carries all the unlikable qualities of Jones, Vance, Queen and Wimsey without exhibiting any of their redeeming features. Simply put, he is a boring, pompous, conceited ass who takes himself way too seriously.
Here is a list of the Anthony Adams detective novels:
Murder Goes Fishing (1936)
Murder Goes in a Trailer (1937)
Murder Goes to the Dogs (1938)