This - Is Murder

This—Is Murder!, first published in 1941, is a classic murder mystery set aboard a film producer’s yacht cruising near California’s Catalina Island; guests include the cast and crew of a new film. Tragedy strikes when the film’s leading lady drowns while swimming, but the death is no accident. Trapped in a thick fog, it falls to passenger Dean Mallory, author of Crime Fictions and the film’s screenwriter, to investigate and identify the killer.

It started off as a publicity stunt, a short cruise to Catalina Island on the producer’s yacht for some of the cast and crew of his next film, Blue Lagoon. But when the leading lady, the exotic Zara fails to come up after a dive off the yacht, the cause of death is found to be poison. Trapped on the yacht by a thick fog, it’s up to Dean Mallory, mystery author and screen writer to solve the crime, knowing that one of the passengers is the murderer. But which one? Is it the leading man, the rival actress, the mysterious central casting "Rajah," the Russian, or even the producer? And was the motive jealousy, blackmail, or something even more sinister? This-is Murder! is a mystery for all fans of those classic 1930’s movies.

Cortland Fitzsimmons was born in Brooklyn, New York (possibly Queens) on June 19, 1893 and died July 25, 1949 in Los Angeles, California. After attending New York University and The City College of New York, he worked for some time as a salesman for several book distributors and publishers before turning to writing full time in 1934. Most of his works as a writer were mysteries, a number of which were based on sports themes such as 70,000 Witnesses: A Football Mystery, Crimson Ice: A Hockey Mystery, and Death on a Diamond: A Baseball Mystery. A number of his novels were made into films and he moved to Los Angeles to work as a screenwriter. His last book was a cookbook that he co-wrote with his wife Muriel Simpson You Can Cook If You Can Read.