Decades after her death, Sioux Falls author’s murder mysteries are back in print

When Curtis Evans first met Edith Howie, he didn’t particularly like her.

Actually, it was her mystery novel he didn’t particularly like. “Murder for Christmas” was a little too cozy for Evans, with characters that weren’t all that memorable and a plodding plot. In the pantheon of holiday gifts you want to find under the tree, Evans concluded, Howie’s book was socks.

Evans expressed that opinion almost 10 years ago in his blog on the mystery genre, “The Passing Tramp.”

Today, he thinks much more kindly of the Sioux Falls writer, who died in 1979 at the age of 78. Other Howie mysteries have impressed him more, in part because they reflect a familiarity with her surroundings that a death in a country house in “Murder for Christmas” did not.

Howie may call her mythical community Nashiona, Evans said, but she’s drawing on Sioux Falls, where she grew up.

“‘Cry Murder’ takes place in a little theater group, and it’s based on the Orpheum in Sioux Falls,” he said. “Nashiona was obviously a stand-in for Sioux Falls. Her Midwestern locales were like amalgams of Sioux Falls and Sioux City, Iowa. She had moved to Sioux City to live with her sister, Bessie, when her parents died, but she continued to drive to Sioux Falls to take part in plays.”

Evans began researching Howie’s life when a small publishing company, Coachwhip Publications, asked him to write the forewords for the editions of Howie’s books it is reprinting: “Cry Murder,” “No Face to Murder” and “The Band Played Murder.” With his blog on decades-old mysteries, Evans has made a name for himself as a consultant in vintage mystery reprints. Evans has worked with Harper Collins and Mysterious Press and small publishers and micro presses.

An added incentive: Like Howie, Evans is a South Dakota native. His connection to the state was much briefer, however. He was born in Vermillion when his father, John, taught at the University of South Dakota and his mother, Janet, was a teacher at Jolley Elementary. When Evans was 9 months old, his father’s career took the family to Alabama. He now lives in Tennessee with his father, who is 91.

Janet Evans always regretted leaving her home in Vermillion.

“The couple they sold it to, the wife wanted all the midcentury furniture with the house,” he said. “She always talked about that house.”

Evans graduated from law school but learned he didn’t like practicing law. He obtained a degree in American history, developing a particular interest in regional history. That dovetailed nicely into what his research on Howie uncovered.

Howie was born in 1900 in Bradley, a small town in northeast South Dakota grown even smaller in the ensuing 120 years. Her parents, Canadian of Scottish ancestry, endowed their daughter with red hair that frequently is mentioned in articles from the height of her fame. William and Christy Howie moved to Sioux Falls and joined First Lutheran Church. William Howie, a traveling salesman for McCormick farm machinery, served as Sioux Falls’ police chief for nine months. The mayor at the time sought him out because William Howie had experience with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

In his brief tenure as police chief, Howie made an impact.

“They had a Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s, and they were wanting to march in Sioux Falls,” Evans said. “They had an anti-mask ordinance, and he announced that anyone wearing a mask and parading through Sioux Falls would be arrested.”

The police chief also issued a stern edict to pranksters before the Halloween holiday that year, warning them it was OK to play tricks only in a brief time period.

At the same time, Howie also was making a name for herself. She was the organist at First Lutheran for a few months in the 1920s and a librarian in the public system. She had graduated from Washington High School in 1918.

Howie may have traveled East to try to make a name for herself as a concert pianist, Evans thinks. In any case, both music and theater — another passion — play a big role in her books. She started writing short stories in the 1930, and her success received much attention from the media of the day.

She continued to draw from her life in Sioux Falls. During World War II, Howie took note of the impact establishing an air base had on the community.

“In ‘Cry Murder,’ she gets into the wartime situation, how this is leading to all this crowding in the town with the soldiers,” Evans said. “(The main character) plays at impromptu weddings for the soldiers, and she definitely draws on the social conditions in the war.”

Howie also draws on activities at a small-town church, and she does it well, Evans said. At some point, however, the writing stopped.

“She said she liked to write two books at a time, and if she gets stuck on one, she starts on the other. Six of her books were published two a year. Around 1951, they did an interview, and she mentioned she’s working on three books at once. But none of them were ever published, and she never published any mysteries again. I don’t know if there are any manuscripts, any lost manuscripts.”

Evans would like an answer to that question. He is doing a little sleuthing himself, looking for any descendants. Howie’s brother, also named William Howie, had two sons. Evans has verified that one has died, but he doesn’t know if Gary Howie is still alive.

Coachwhip Publications has reprinted the three Howie books that did not have the copyrights renewed. If the first three books sell well, Coachwhip might reprint the others, if it can get permission from Howie’s heirs.

Siouxland Libraries still has Howie’s books in its collection. They are kept behind locked glass doors in the Downtown Branch’s Caille Room.

Alysia Boysen, senior librarian, said the protected collection includes books written by local authors that are not easily replaceable.

“Books don’t last forever, and the library is trying to preserve these,” she said.

At some point, the library hopes to digitize the collection’s books, Boysen said. She thinks there could be a demand for Howie’s works, both from people who remember her mysteries and those who want to introduce themselves to the novels.

The Howie mysteries can be read now. Although they cannot be removed from the library, library patrons can request access to the collection and read them there, Boysen said.

Evans will continue his research into Howie’s life. He contributes to several other mystery outlets such as CrimeReads, recently publishing an in-depth look at Howie’s life. And there’s always the chance he might find Gary Howie. The author died at the age of 78 in 1979 and is buried in Sioux City, sharing a marker with her sister, Bessie. She reviewed locally produced plays for the Argus Leader until three weeks before her death after a brief illness. Her own local roles had included a dithery aunt in “Arsenic and Old Lace” — Bessie played the other aunt — and the spinster Emily Brent in the stage adaption of the Agatha Christie book “And Then There Were None.”

Plus, there is that intriguing South Dakota connection. Evans likes telling people he was born in South Dakota, he said. Several years ago, friends he was visiting in Iowa offered to go with him to Vermillion— before looking at a map and seeing how wide their state was.

Looking back at it, he thinks he was too hard on “Murder for Christmas.” He recognizes that the writers who are less hard-boiled than Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett also have a place and devoted fans.

Plus, he’s still searching for one illusive Howie book, “Murder So Permanent.” He hasn’t been able to find it in a library yet. A first-edition copy of “No Face to Murder,” set in a church with probably Howie’s grisliest murders, goes for $29.50 on AbeBooks.com. A first edition of “Murder So Permanent” is offered for $112.49. A copy of “Cry Murder” goes for $400.

And expect a little romance with your mystery, if it’s coming from the never-married Edith Howie.

“Murders turn out to be a great way to meet people,” Evans said. “She’s good at writing these kind of romance-y, comedy or manners books with this type of bright narration by the heroine.”