Ghost of a Chance (23 page)
“Troy,” Jeff said. “Jeff and Haila Troy.”
“Jeff and Haila. How do you do, Jeff and Haila.”
“How do you do,” I said. “We’re awfully pleased to meet you.”
“Yes,” Jeff said, “for a while we were afraid we mightn’t have the pleasure. How are you, Miss Kennedy?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” she said. She took a deep, deep breath. “Thank you very, very much.”
FIN
William and Audrey Kelley Roos met in 1930 when they both took voice training lessons, hoping to make a career on the stage. They first played on a show-boat on the Ohio shore before landing small roles on the New York stage. They married at the time.
During the Second World War, they adopted the pseudonym Kelley Roos to start writing detective novels.
Made Up to Kill
(1940), the first novel in the series featuring the couple Jeff and Troy Haila, took place behind the scenes of a theater and was an immediate hit. Jeff, a photographer, and Haila, a former actress, feature in a dozen novels and short stories mixing screwball comedy with classic Whodunits puzzles. Hollywood took notice of the popularity of the Kelley Roos novels. In 1942 “A Night to Remember” featuring Brian Aherne and Loretta Young was released, followed by a TV show in 1950 featuring Robert Sterling and Virginia Gilmore. The best-known title of the series,
Shadow of a Chance
was retitled “Scent of Mystery” and directed by Jack Cardiff from a screenplay by William Roos in 1960. It was the first movie featuring “Smell-O-Vision”, a system that timed odors to points in the film’s plot and was a box office bomb.
In 1960, Audrey Roos received an Edgar Award for Best Novel in 1960 for her movie adaptation of
The Burning Court
by John Dickson Carr.
William Roos also wrote a number of plays and musicals, some mounted with more or less success on Broadway.
Audrey Kelley Roos died of cancer on Martha’s Vineyard on December 11, 1982. William Roos died four years later on March 13, 1987.
Jeff and Haila Troy novels
- Made Up to Kill (aka Made Up for Murder) (1940)
- If the Shroud Fits (aka Dangerous Blondes) (1941)
- The Frightened Stiff. (1942)
- Sailor, Take Warning (1944)
- There Was a Crooked Man (1945)
- Ghost of a Chance (aka Scent of a Mystery) (1947)
- Triple Threat (aka Beauty Marks the Spot) (1948) (novella)
- Murder in Any Language (1948)
- One False Move (1966)
Non series novels:
- The Blonde Died Dancing (aka She Died Dancing) (1956)
- Speaking of Murder (1957) (adaption of stage play)
- Requiem for a Blonde (1958)
- Murder Noon and Night (aka Requiem for a Blonde) (1959)
- Necessary Evil (1965)
- Grave Danger (1965)
- A Few Days in Madrid (1965)
- Cry in the Night (1966)
- Who Saw Maggie Brown? (1967)
- To Save His Life (1968)
- Suddenly One Night (1970)
- What Did Hattie See (1970)
- Bad Trip (1971)
- Murder on Martha’s Vineyard (1981)
Solo novel by Williams Roos:
- The Hornet’s Longboat (1940)
