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This page lists novels by Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Henissart.

Mary Jane Latsis and Martha Henissart wrote novels together using the pen names Emma Lathen and R.B. Dominic. All novels written by the two are listed below.

Cover images are of the first US edition and a recent paperback or digital edition.

Banking on Death

Emma Lathen

1961

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"The Sloan receives a request for an advance against a trust that does not permit it. John Putnam Thatcher gets involved by one heir, Arthur Schneider, President of Schneider Manufacturing, and grandson of the founder who left a trust for his grandchildren upon the death of all of their parents. The last parent is about to die from natural causes. One heir is missing and Thatcher, Trinkam, and Nicholls work to find the missing heir. Soon they learn a murder is involved and it takes Thatcher to unravel the Gordian knot."

A Place for Murder

Emma Lathen

1963

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

Accounting for Murder

Emma Lathen

1964

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"Was something fishy going on at the National Calculating Company? Was it mere inefficiency - or fraud? Irate stockholders have hired an outside accountant to investigate why all divisions, save one, are losing money. Unfortunately, the accountant is soon found dead, strangled with the cord of his own adding machine! Enter John Putnam Thatcher. Thatcher would like to keep out of the whole affair, but his customary curiosity soon has him investigating just who would be accounting for murder."

Murder Makes the Wheels Go Round

Emma Lathen

1966

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"John Putnam Thatcher was in Detroit to investigate the firm's investment potential. Instead, he was quickly embroiled in the shooting death of an Michigan Motors big wheel, Ray Jensen. Was the murder a crime of private passion, as the police thought - or a clever killing fueled by greed and ambition? Thatcher was soon tinkering under a corporate hood full of antitrust suits, sleek front-office wives - and Jensen's overjoyed widow!"

Death Shall Overcome

Emma Lathen

1966

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"The Dow Jones quivers when the crusty, old brokerage house of Schuyler and Schuyler announces a new partner with a seat on the Stock Exchange - black multimillionaire Edward Parry. Murders, attempted murders, and civil-rights demonstrations bring security on Wall Street to a record low until John Putnam Thatcher brings the matter to a close, right on the inviolable floor of the Exchange."

Murder Against the Grain

Emma Lathen

1967

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"Before John Putnam Thatcher can recover the missing million dollars the Russians have made as a down payment on wheat, he has to answer some rather peculiar questions, What was the Cuban Navy doing in New York harbor? Why was the Leningrad Symphony practicing on a basketball court? How on earth did a performing troupe of Russian otters that drink only vodka, dance the mazurka, and merrily assembled a three-stage rocket get into the picture? And, above all, who is the grim reaper dead set on committing murder against the grain?"

A Stitch in Time

Emma Lathen

1968

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"Hospitals are for dying. At least, that was the case with Pemberton Freebody. The Long Island hospital surgeon testified that Freebody died of a self-inflicted wound. The insurance company was happy not to pay up on his $100,000 policy. But the Sloan Guaranty Trust and John Putnam Thatcher ordered their own autopsy—with damning results. When unnatural death struck again, it was clear that someone was prescribing murder as the best antidote to hospital scandal."

Come to Dust

Emma Lathen

1968

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"In Come to Dust Thatcher is torn, grudgingly, from his Wall Street eyrie to search for a stolen $50,000 bearer bond & to track down the puzzling Elliot Patterson, model suburban husband, father & thief. The bond was slated for the coffers of Brunswick College, Patterson's alma mater, & it is to Brunswick that Thatcher goes, where he is sure both bond & Patterson will emerge. Instead, he is confronted by a callous cover-up murder & the alarming knowledge that Patterson is still on the loose. .... And Thatcher, for all his wry, detached view of the madness inherent in the groves of academe, is after a murderer."

Murder, Sunny Side Up

R.B. Dominic

1968

A Benton Safford novel.

When in Greece

Emma Lathen

1969

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"The Sloan Guaranty Trust has too much invested in an international development venture to alienate Greece's right-wing military leaders. But when the Sloan's representative in Athens suddenly disappears after being linked with a murdered leftist, the bank is embroiled in a full-scale military coup. Then senior bank officer Everett Gabler vanishes. And John Putnam Thatcher must enter a deadly political drama - to outwit a malevolent behind-the-scenes player and prevent a modern tragedy!"

Murder to Go

Emma Lathen

1969

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"Sloan Guaranty Trust has $12 million riding on the Chicken Tonight restaurant chain. Now the discovery that a mass poisoner has tampered with the "Chicken Mexicali" brings John Putnam Thatcher racing. Unless Thatcher can unravel the plot before it's too late, it will mean bankruptcy for Chicken Tonight ... and death for those who have unwittingly ordered murder to go."

Murder in High Place

R.B. Dominic

1969

A Benton Safford novel.

Subsequently published credited to "Emma Lathen as R.B. Dominic.

Pick Up Sticks

Emma Lathen

1970

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"When Wall Street's John Putnam Thatcher and his Down East crony, Henry Morland, started hiking the Appalachian Trail, they hardly expected to stumble over a dead body. Nor did real-estate promoters Eddie Quinlan and Ralph Valenti plan to play hosts to a murderer at their luxurious, new vacation development. Now the Head of the Sloan Guaranty Trust Department must again combine his financial skills and unbounded curiosity to solve the murder of a man nobody seemd to dislike enough to kill."

Ashes to Ashes

Emma Lathen

1971

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"The St. Bernadette's Parents League was formed to save the old, bankrupt parochial school from being replaced by a twenty-story apartment house. The irate protesters had sentiment and Francis P. Omara on their side, Unger Realty had John Putnam Thatcher of Sloan Guaranty Trust, four million dollars, and the Archdiocese of New York behind them. Francis P. Omara was a powerful spokesman for his cause - but so was an unknown killer with a butcher's mallet who was determined to have the last word.... And so John Putnam Thatcher, the Sloan's urbane V.P., finds himself out of Wall Street, in the heart of Queens, and smack in the middle of unholy murder!"

The Longer the Thread

Emma Lathen

1971

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"Corpses are bad for business, as John Putnam Thatcher, senior vice-president for Sloan Guaranty Trust, found out when he investigated the affairs of Slax Unlimited, a Sloan-backed plant in Puerto Rico beset with some very suspicious 'accidents.' With $3 million of Sloan money at stake, there was nothing for Thatcher to do but go down to San Juan and investigate. What he found was a body in the front office, violence in a fiery festival, and a ransom note to the governor of Puerto Rico. And for Sloan's premier investigator, murder was decidedly not conducive to business."

There Is No Justice

R.B. Dominic

1971

A Benton Safford novel.

Murder Without Icing

Emma Lathen

1972

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"John Putnam Thatcher, senior vice-president of the Sloan Guaranty Trust, received the news that his bank was to sponsor hockey telecasts with his usual equanimity. After all, the cellar-dwelling New York Huskies were nothing to get excited about. But that was before the Huskies hit an incredible winning streak, shot into first place, and created a wave of hockey hysteria. Even this Thatcher could have ignored - if it hadn't been for the two corpses that were churned up in its wake!"

Sweet and Low

Emma Lathen

1974

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"It all began with Old Glory - not the flag, but the candy bar whose skyrocket success caused a Wall Street storm - with highs, lows, and a killing of the floor of the Cocoa Exchange. Soon John Putnam Thatcher, Sloan Guaranty Trusts's peerless troubleshooter, was called in to calm the corporate crises of the Dreyer Chocolate Company, dodge the media spotlight, and try to discover the answer to a life or death question: Who's mixing a sweet commodities future with the bitter ingredient of cold-blooded murder?"

Epitaph for a Lobbyist

R.B. Dominic

1974

A Benton Safford novel.

By Hook or by Crook

Emma Lathen

1975

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"The Parajian family owns the largest oriental rug company in the US. They are having a generational battle for stock control of the company. John Putnam Thatcher, SVP of the Sloan, solves the 2 murders by following the money."

Murder Out of Commission

R.B. Dominic

1976

A Benton Safford novel.

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Double, Double, Oil and Trouble

Emma Lathen

1978

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"John Putnam Thatcher - banker-detective for Sloan Guaranty Trust - finds himself stepping lively a half stride ahead of disaster when a kidnapping in Istanbul ... a ransom in Switzerland ... and a murder in Texas ignite a flash fire fueled by international oil!"

The Attending Physician

R.B. Dominic

1980

A Benton Safford novel.

Going for the Gold

Emma Lathen

1981

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"Lake Placid becomes anything but for John Putnam Thatcher, banker-detective for Sloan Guaranty Trust, when a French skier is slammed to the snow by a sniper's bullet, and a check fraud scheme swindles half a million dollars from the Sloan's special Olympics branch. Soon a sudden blizzard, a sinister coach, and a growing scandal leave Thatcher on thin ice, chasing a lone murderer closing in for another kill!"

Green Grow the Dollars

Emma Lathen

1982

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"John Putnam Thatcher's out in the field - to harvest a crop of patent thievery, corporate scandal, and multimillion-dollar death! All because a newly deveolped tomato promises a six-month yield - guaranteed to revolutionize agribusiness with juicy new profits. Until the patent rights, claimed by Sloan Guaranty Trust's respected client, are challenged in court by an upstart seed company. After one murder and a second attempt, Thatcher's got only one choice - to find the killer, insure the patent, and nip this case in the bud!"

Unexpected Developments

R.B. Dominic

1983

A Benton Safford novel.

Something in the Air

Emma Lathen

1988

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"A discount airlines is considering going from a profitable commuter line to a major coast to coast airline, taking on the big guys. An internal fight breaks out, the Sloan is involved through a loan, and stock in a trust they manage, so John Putnam must get involved with his henchmen."

East is East

Emma Lathen

1991

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"Lackawanna Electric Industries, rebounding from bankruptcy under the forceful leadership of Carl Kruger, is about to pull off a distribution coup with Yonezawa Trading, one of Japan's largest corporations. Thatcher is present at the Tokyo signing, which is delayed by the discovery of a murdered accountant in Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Investment and a note suggesting a $1-million bribe. Business interests collide with political issues as the success of Lackawanna hangs in the balance. Changes in Japanese traditions are probed and suspicion falls on a Yonezawa rival; other factions vested in Lackawanna's fate include a group of old political hands in Washington, D.C.; officers of a robotics firm recently purchased by Kruger; and, of course, the CEO's inner circle."

Right on the Money

Emma Lathen

1993

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"ASI is a large, impersonal, kitchen water-fixture manufacturer looking for a merger partner to break into the more lucrative retail market. Their choice is Ecker, a small but profitable family-owned-and-operated kitchen appliance company. But merger leads to murder as mayhem erupts from both parties and those who view this supposed 'golden' merger as a potential disaster."

Brewing Up a Storm

Emma Lathen

1996

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"When a 19-year-old boy dies in a drunk driving accident, Madeline Underwood decides to convince the world that Kischel Brewery's "soft drink" leads young people to try the harder stuff. But Underwood faces formidable enemies: Kischel's investment bankers, including the unmistakable John Putnam Thatcher, their razor-sharp attorneys and no less than the head of a Congressional committee that she's managed to publicly embarrass. So when Madeline is found dead, stuffed in the closet of the building where the committee convened, it takes all of Thatcher's acumen to sift through a long list of killers. It's the case that would drive a lesser man to drink."

A Shark Out of Water

Emma Lathen

1997

A John Putnam Thatcher novel.

"A megabucks investment opportunity draws financier/sleuth John Putnam Thatcher to the decaying Polish port if Gdansk, where a killing can be made if the busy canal there is rebuilt--long a dream of maverick Baltic business official Stefan Zabriski. But cutthroat politicking and partying among multinational shippers, bankers, and ecologists can be costly, and fatal, for Zabriski turns up dead after a serious champagne bash. Drawn into a sticky merger of power games, crooked commerce, and international intrigue, Thatcher must speculate on a deal more lethal that any he's ever seen on Wall Street."