Excerpt: The Mah Jong Murders (The Charleston Years)

During her surprise 80th birthday party at her daughter Penelope's house, Mary Frances had shocked dozens of friends and relatives by announcing (while chewing on some of Penelope's famous chicken salad), that Lil Steup's daughter had been spotted by one of Mrs. Cohen's acquaintances at Lohmann's Plaza.   After fielding the usual chorus of questions:  "Who the hell is Lil Steup?" and a "Who cares, mother," Mary Frances dropped the subject to segue to more interesting topics like the ecstasy she experienced whenever she tasted Penelope's food.

"Ummmmm, uhhnhmmm uhmmmmm," Mary Frances exclaimed  while savoring another bite of the delicious salad.

All in all it had been a good life.  A 42-year marriage to an interesting man who adored her, the love of her three kids, and lots of beloved friends, many of whom were long dead.  A kind hearted grandson, the spawn of Penelope's marriage to a fun-loving beach boy, and two surviving sibling twins (Mervin and Molly) seven years Mary's junior and steadfasat in their devotion to their older sister.

Odd as it seems, Mary Frances and her family lived in Charleston, West Virginia for the first 21 years of her life. Shortly after Teddy and Sarah Newman arrived in Charleston from their Lithuanian homeland they opened a butcher shop and quickly made friends within the small, close-knit Jewish community on the south side of the city.  In 1917, five years after Teddy and Sarah's emigration to America, Mary Frances was born.  Because the good-natured Sarah Newman was not a disciplinarian and Teddy spent more hours playing cards in Charleston's colored town than toiling in the butcher ship, it fell on Mary Frances to be the driving force of the family, with some assistance from Sarah's younger sister, Anne.  The responsibilities of holding a family together at such an early age fell like a boulder on Mary's shoulders; she suffered what was then called a nervous breakdown at age 12, but Aunt Anne rushed to her side to nurse her back from depression.

Tall, attractive and gregarious, Mary Frances had an easy time at school, play and in the butcher shop, quickly becoming one of Charleston's most eligible young Jewish women.

Around 1937 a 30ish man named Herbie Cohen landed in Charleston shortly after a year-long odyssey with childhood friends which took him from his home in Brooklyn to Hollywood, California.  The Brooklyn boys crossed the country in a Cadillac Herbie co-owned with a fellow adventurer.  He returned to Brooklyn, but the ever-restless Herb soon found himself in Montgomery, West Virginia selling clothing to retail stores in coal mining towns and in the larger towns of Charleston, Huntington and Parkersburg.  While hawking his goods in Charleston, Herbert E. Cohen met and fell in love with  beautiful Mary Frances, whom he embellished with compliments, including:  "You are the ugliest woman I've ever dated."

Tall, handsome and rugged, Herb Cohen had cut a swath through Brooklyn and Manhattan, leaving a trail of jilted fiancées' in his wake.  He'd built his body by playing handball and semi-pro football.  He always claimed that his admiring teammates would chant:  "Who would lay the enemy low?  Cohen with his left elbow."

Herbie trained his brilliant mind by immersing himself in Democratic politics while engaging in long-winded discussions with his gifted cadre of close chums, two of whom would become justices on the New York State Supreme Court.  But it was Herb's younger brother, Al, who would break his heart and lead him to flee New York City in embarrassment and shame.