‘Let’s Kill George’ By Lucy Cores

Published by Duell, Sloan & Pearce, New York, 1946.

Shelley Ames, an aspiring actress is George Banat’s newest protegee. Shelley, is poor, frightened and insecure, following the death of both her parents in a car accident, and George has taken her under his wing and settled her in his house ‘Heartsease’. To Shelley George is a God. 

If George sometimes got himself confused with God, it was perhaps not altogether his own fault. His second wife Sophie had tolerated for many years certain manifestations of privilege enjoyed by all the deities, from Zeus down. And to girls like Shelley – his sureness, his wit and his compassion were things to lean on without question.

Our story opens with Shelley having invited a young actor Ralph to Heartsease for the weekend.  Ralph is impressed to be staying at the home of the highest paid screenwriter in Hollywood.  Living in a separate part of the house is George’s daughter Monica, married to Carlos. And visiting for the weekend is Jacques Marino, an Austria film director.

And flitting about is see all, hear all, Tessa the housekeeper.

It all looks set for a pleasant weekend until George’s son Mons arrives, still in uniform with Corporal’s stripes. From then on things start to go downhill. Mons doesn’t seem to have the same admiration and regard for his father the rest of the family have. 

The next day was a beautiful June day, but Shelley had a peculiar feeling that the weekend on which she had counted so much was going wrong.  And as the day progresses and George reveals information about her that she would prefer him not to have mentioned, things begin to spiral downwards.

Then George is found dead.

I find books that deal with family murder particularly fascinating, as we first meet and accept the characters at face value, then watch as the writer slowly peals back the facades and reveals the truth beneath. Recommended.
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Reviewer: Lizzie Sirett

Lucy Michaella Cores Kortchmar (14 January 1912 – August 6, 2003) was born in Moscow. She was the daughter of violist Michael Cores and the niece of violinist Alexander Cores. Her family fled the Russian Revolution and arrived in the United States in 1921. She attended the Ethical Culture school and Barnard College. In 1942 she married Emil Korchmar a screw machine parts manufacturer. They had two children, Michael and Daniel a professional guitarist. Cores wrote two mystery novels, Painted for the Kill (1943) and Corpse de Ballet (1944), featuring female protagonist Toni Ney, a former ballet dancer. She also wrote the mystery Let's Kill George (1946). She also wrote a number of romance and historical novels. At the time of her death, at age 91, Cores was writing a novel about Alexander Puskin.