The Golden Goose

he Golden Goose (January 1964)
aka

ho Killed the Golden Goose?

Old Slater O'Shea, the golden goose, was ruler of a peculiar roost. A gaggle of free-loading O'Sheas were lazing around the mansion, letting Slater foot the bills, while they waited for him to die and leave them his money. But someone got tired of waiting, and when Slater went upstairs for a little nip before his nap, his bottle of bourbon was labeled Rest in Peace! It was up to Cibola City's finest to find out who'd cooked Uncle Slater's goose, before the charming O'Sheas could play any more gruesome games in their battle for the goose's gold.

Goosey, goosey, gander, whither...

Uncle Slater O'Shea was loaded.
Uncle Slater was supporting the lot of them -- five freeloaders.
And in spite of liberal daily applications of whisky, Uncle Slater had his health.
He intended to keep it, so he had made a new will. So long as he continued to enjoy life, he would continue to maintain them. But the minute he died, his estate would be cut up among them, plus seventeen additional assorted O'Sheas. Cut up into twenty-two pieces, the freeloaders wouldn't get enough from Uncle Slater O'Shea's estate to live in the manner to which they had become accustomed.
Several weeks later, benevolently trailing a fragrant haze of good Irish whisky behind him, Uncle Slater went upstairs for a nip and a nap. He never came down. Which of them had been foolish enough to do the old boy in?

Which of them had killed the golden goose?

The Golden Goose - cover pocket book edition, Pocket Book N° 4705, January 15. 1964.

The Golden Goose - cover pocket book edition, Signet 451-Q5834, 1974

Wife or Death/The Golden Goose - cover pocket book edition, Signet Double Mystery, 451 AE1305, June 1. 1978

Wife or Death/The Golden Goose - cover pocket book edition, Signet Double Mystery, 451 E8087, June 6. 1978

The Spanish Cape Mystery/The Golden Goose - cover pocket book edition, Signet Double Mystery, 451-AE2406, 1983

The Golden Goose - cover pocket book edition, NEL pockets - Four Square Crime, 1967

The Golden Goose - cover audiobook Blackstone Audio, Inc., read by Mark Peckham, January 2015

The Golden Goose - cover MysteriousPress.com/Open Road, August 11, 2015

List of characters included. Written by Fletcher Flora, an average hardboiled writer who in his first ghosted Queen The Golden Goose tried his hand at another type of mystery without much success. The title refers to rascally boozer Slater O’Shea, whose bourbon someone spiked with a lethal dose of insulin substitute despite the fact that the sly old man’s will terminates his freeloading relatives’ mooching privileges on his death. All the relatives are fugitives from the nut factory except for lovely Princess O’Shea, who tries to solve the mystery—an enterprise in which she manages to stay a hundred pages behind the dimmest-witted reader. Except for a few moments that vaguely evoke the wacky-murder farces of Forties writers like Richard Shattuck, this book is, if I may borrow one of its own lines, a cold potato sandwich. (Nevins).

Boucher (May 17, 1964) simultaneously reviewed this book and The Four Johns: although “still a few notches below Queen’s hardcover level they are detective puzzles, with some reasonably adroit misdirection and nicely handled double-twist endings.” A kind verdict.

Η χρυσή κότα - cover Greek edition, βίπερ (Viper) N°489

The Golden Goose
(aka Who killed the Golden Goose?) Translations:
Dutch/Flemish: Suikeroompje R.I.P.
Finnish: Kuoleman kultarahat
German: Schlachte nie den Goldesel
(aka Eine Flasche Bourbon)
Greek: Η χρυσή κότα
Italian: Lo zio buonanima
Mexican: El Ganso de Oro

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