The series also features Pam and Jerry's warmly humorous domestic environment and the couple's witty exchanges with the duller members of the police force.

Although the Norths remain the focus of the series, the books contain a good deal of political and social commentary, a richly detailed look at the changing life in New York City, as well as glimpses of the outlying suburban counties.

Even though the Mr. and Mrs. North novels now may appear overly deliberate in their pacing, they still prove wonderful reading as mysteries, and the glimpses they provide of our past social history give them a nostalgic and authentic period flavor.

The Owen Davis play became a 1942 MGM film (Mr. and Mrs. North), starring Gracie Allen and William Post, Jr., with Millard Mitchell repeating his role of Detective Mullins from the Broadway production.

In his book, Radio Crime Fighters, Jim Cox wrote that the couple: … who passed themselves off as a publisher and his homemaker-spouse continued to make lighthearted wisecracks as they stepped over bodies in dark alleys and were rendered unconscious by unknown assailants dispensing blows to the head almost every week ...

"[4] In 1946, producer-director Fred Coe brought the Owen Davis play to television (on New York City's WNBT) with John McQuade and Maxine Stewart in the leads and Don Haggerty, Joan Marlowe, and Millard Mitchell repeating their Broadway roles.

Guest stars included Raymond Burr, Hans Conried, Mara Corday, Lawrence Dobkin, I. Stanford Jolley, Carolyn Jones, Katy Jurado, Jimmy Lydon, Dayton Lummis, Julia Meade, William Schallert, and Gloria Talbott.