Graveyard Watch

In underworld parlance, the period between midnight and four in the morning. 

“A little blarney is the lubricant of life.”

Patrick Connelly, a rookie cop with an irreverent attitude and a swell Irish brogue, gets a tough assignment to get the goods on a big dope ring in spite of a doubting chief who believes he's giving the case to an ignoramus with no self-control. Connelly's orders land him on the estate of Bertrand Trenis, where he finds himself surrounded by a slew of suspicious characters, a corpse gone AWOL, and Mrs. Trenis, a seductress with a glad eye, who almost succeeds in making poor Connelly forget his true sweetheart. Connelly doesn't know what it's all about, and neither will you, but he makes every effort to bag the crooks and prove his old wolf of a boss wrong. 

Published in 1938, Graveyard Watch is loaded with stereotypes. However, since characters from many cultures play major roles in the story and the pages are filled with cop and mobster slang of the 1930's, the presence of cultural typecasting is not surprising.  Readers may still appreciate Graveyard Watch for its witty quips and sallies and as a mystery representative of the era.