Funny / John Putnam Thatcher

• In A Place for Murder, Thatcher's boss Brad Withers makes an ass of himself and becomes a murder suspect with his frantic efforts to get back a taxidermy mount that he borrowed from his wife to show off in town after it is confiscated as evidence before his wife finds out what is going on. He's also been withholding vital evidence because he's worried his brother-in-law is the killer, yet he still has the gall to be insulted when the cops refuse to accept his word about something.
• In one scene of Murder Against the Grain, after a Russian tour guide abandons his group to protest the theft of money meant for a Russian grain deal, there is an Escalating War of patriotic retaliatory acts, such as an American opera company touring Russia insisting on singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" instead of actual opera, with the range of voices giving it an interesting effect and the local theater critic awkwardly but dutifully praising the performance.
• In Murder to Go:
  • The Sloan contingent's celebration about the exposure of the killer quickly sours when they learn that he accidentally wrecked their car during his getaway attempt.
  • Placid old banker Thatcher shows some Hidden Depths by impressing some much younger people with Rumba dance moves at a party.
• In Accounting for Murder:
  • Thatcher makes a polite comment about Albanian poetry and folk music at a party, then finds the host wanting to make him listen to a lot more of it, causing Thatcher to urgently wrap up his business and leave the party with undue haste. Then, after giving his denouement at another party, it turns out the singer is there too, and Thatcher has no excuse for leaving before the guy starts singing.
  • Regina Plout, a member of the stockholders' Protest Committee, conducts routine actions with "pompous solemnity" half the time and, at one point, accuses someone who is seemingly above suspicion of the murder simply because "I don't like his shifty eyes." It's implied that her eccentricities have driven her son and daughter-in-law "to one of the more inaccessible points on Long Island."
• In When in Greece:
  • After Everett drugs a group of La Résistance people who kidnapped him in search of the MacGuffin, making them so sick that the next time they see him, they have reactions like making the sign of the cross as if to ward off a demon.
  • A group of archaeologists helping the protagonists put on a hilarious Obfuscating Stupidity performance as the silliest tour group imaginable to manipulate the Big Bad while also being so woefully inaccurate with their fake accents and geography mistakes that Thatcher is terrified the deception will fall apart at any minute.
• In Murder Without Icing:
  • Brad Withers is hosting a welcome home party for a victorious hockey team and accidentally introduces their masseur as one of the players.
  • George Lancer wonders what other job is suitable for the announcer for the symphony orchestra the Sloan used to sponsor when his voice is what everyone associates with the Sloan. The narrative snarks that Lancer has an unrealistic estimation of how many people associate the symphony and its announcer with anything.
• In Ashes to Ashes, two parish priests have a Sit Com Archnemesis relationship, such as when the younger one gets caught up in the idea of reforming Church teachings to eliminate celibacy and the older man snarls that "I know I am sixty-eight years old, but when that young man talks to me about the burden of chastity, it would be more polite if he recognized that I know what it is!"
• In Sweet and Low:
  • An advertising campaign for a new chocolate line hits the news at the same time that the company gets involved in a murder investigation.
  • The Tranquil Fury everyone displays around snide, Small Name, Big Ego Bourgeois Bohemian filmmaker Craig Phibbs can be amusing, such as when he wants to make Thatcher the face of his documentary Greed, and Thatcher gets mad at being stereotyped that way over other, more short-sighted and insufferable businesspeople in the room.
• In Going for the Gold, a Defector from Commie Land prompts an onrush of passing the buck by different officials who all want someone else to handle it, while the Soviet officials treat the whole thing with a sense of disinterest.
• In Green Grow the Dollars: The Upper-Class Twit younger stepfather of one suspect (who isn't even middle-aged yet) talks about him and his wife like they're "a pair of old fogies."

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