Order of Frances Crane Books
Frances Crane (1890-1981) was an American author of mystery novels. Her series is the Pat & Jean Abbott series. Frances graduated from the University of Illinois and did her graduate studies at the University of Chicago. She was an outspoken liberal, who spent time in Nazi Germany, and would mock Hitler’s speeches, and try convincing restaurant staff she was Jewish. Unsurprisingly, she was later expelled from Germany. She returned home as a divorcée, and in need of money, began writing detective fiction.
Frances Crane made her debut as a novelist in 1941 with the novel The Turquoise Shop, beginning her Pat & Jean Abbott series. She wrote 26 in the series, plus four standalone novels. Below is a list of Frances Crane’s books in order of when they were originally released:
Publication Order of Pat and Jean Abbott Mystery Books
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| The Reluctant Sleuth | (1961) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Three Days in Hong Kong | (1965) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| A Very Quiet Murder | (1966) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
| Worse Than a Crime | (1968) | Description / Buy at Amazon.com |
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Frances Crane Synopses: The Turquoise Shop is the first Pat & Jean Abbott Mystery by Frances Crane. The arrival of a wealthy stranger from the East is enough to spark conversation in a small, artistic town in New Mexico. Even though Mona Brandon moved to Santa Maria a few years ago, there are still rumors about her money, her influence, and — when a corpse that may or may not be her husband is found in the nearby desert — her secret and suspicious past.
Jean Holly has a front-row seat to all of this gossip from the counter of her local jewelry and art shop after her relationship with Pat Abbott, the detective who is looking into the alleged murder, turns romantic. They have everything they need to solve the mystery thanks to his deductive reasoning and her local knowledge. But will they be able to put the pieces together and figure out what happened before the killer comes back?
The third installment in the Pat and Jean Abbott series is The Yellow Violet by Frances Crane. It takes place in the early weeks of World War II, when women wore girdles and everyone smoked. When a fellow private detective is murdered in his office, the only clue is a yellow violet, private detective Pat is back home in San Francisco, just hours from marrying Jean Holly. It just so happens that a gorgeous Spanish entertainer who fled the Spanish Civil War and is known for her signature yellow violet is on tour in town with her mother, her manager, and a dachshund named Pancho. When you add in a few Italian fascists (Pat says, “They don’t fight very well, but they know how to spy”), you have enough trouble to stop any wedding.
The Pink Umbrella by Frances Crane is the fifth book in the Pat and Jean Abbott series. Pat Abbott has put his career as a private detective on hold to serve his country in World War II as a marine. Currently, however, he is sneaking in a brief honeymoon in New York with his adored brand-new wife, Jean. However, as a result of the war, many of his old friends are reluctantly returning from Paris, and one of them is currently under suspicion of murder.
Although neither Pat nor Jean is particularly fond of the expatriate community as a whole—Jean has a particular dislike for a divorcée whom Pat appears to admire—Pat believes the accused to be a decent individual and plans to contribute to the investigation into the real perpetrator.