Just the Facts, Ma'am 2018

Once again Bev Hankins has posted a clever challenge for those who love reading classic mystery novels. This year, we will be reading to get "Just the Facts" where those facts should fit in the categories of who, when, where, what, how and why  in our detective notebook.

If we choose to read mysteries written before 1960 in the Golden Age, our notebook will look like this.

If we choose to read mysteries written in the Silver Age between 1960 and 1989, our notebook will look like this.

There will be prizes based on the number of clues found. Of course, it is all more complicated than this and you will find all of the rules at the Just The Facts web site at https://myreadersblock.blogspot.com/2017/11/vintage-mystery-challenge-2018-just.html.  I am going to read Golden Age mysteries, and hope to get some of the blocks in my notebook filled.

My Golden Detective Notebook

WHO
Swan Song  by Edmund Crispin, 1947. An Academic.

Murder in a Hurry  by Richard and Francis Lockridge, 1950. A crime solving duo.

Why Shoot a Butler? by Georgette Heyer, 1933. An amateur detective.

 Death at the Medical Board  by Josephine Bell, 1944. In the medical field.

 The Crimson Clue  by George Harmon Coxe, 1955. A Photographer.

  The Curved Blades  by Carolyn Wells, 1915. Matriarch of family.

WHAT
Head of a Traveler  by Nicholas Blake, 1949, Pseudonymous author.

The Black Curtain  by Cornell Woolrich, 1941. Color in the title.

 Murder After Hours  by Agatha Christie, 1946. Published under more than one title.

 The American Gun Mystery by Ellery Queen, 1933. Means of murder in the title.

   Mrs. McGinty's Dead  by Agatha Christie, 1952. Reference to a woman in the title.

 Bad for Business  by Rex Stout, 1940, Title contains two words beginning with the same letter.

WHEN
  An English Murder  by Cyril Hare, 1951, During a recognized holiday.

The Tuesday Club Murders by Agatha Christie, 1932.

  Death of a Fool  by Ngaio Marsh, 1957. During a performance.

   The Case of Jennie Brice  by Mary Roberts Rinehart, 1913. During a weather event.

    Death on the Nile   by Agatha Christie, 1937. During a cruise.

    Night at the Mocking Widow  by Carter Dickson, 1950. During a special event.

WHERE
  Fire Will Freeze   by Margaret Millar, 1944, In a country house.

  Death in the Tunnel  by Miles Burton, 1936, On a mode of transportation.

 Murder on Paradise Island  by Robin Forsythe, 1937, On an island.

 The Dutch Show Mystery   by Ellery Queen, 1931. In a hospital.

Verdict of Twelve  by Raymond Postgate, 1940. Features a courtroom scene.

 Murder of a Lady   by Anthony Wynne, 1931. In a locked room.

HOW

The Dead Can Tell  by Helen Reilly, 1940. Death by drowning.

Dark Death   by Anthony Gilbert, 1953, Two deaths by different means.

Cold Poison  by Stuart Palmer, 1954. Death by poison.

 Mystery Mile   by Marjorie Allingham, 1930. Death by shooting.

 Footsteps in the Dartk   by Georgette Heyer, 1932. Death by strangulation.

 A Blunt Instrument   by Georgette Heyer,  1938, Death by a blunt instrument.

WHY
A Dram of Poison  by Charlotte Armstrong, 1956. Won an award of any sort.

 The Greene Murder Case   by S. S. Van Dine, 1927. It made a "best of" list.

  Red Harvest  by Dashiell Hammett, 1929. Out of my comfort zone.

 Scarecrow by Eaton K. Goldthwaite, 1945. An author I have never tried.

Overture to Death by Ngaio Marsh, 1939. An author I have read and loved before.

What Mrs. McGillicudy Saw  by Agatha Christie, 1957. Book made into film.

The Man in the Brown Suit by Agatha Christie

If you are looking for a mystery with a brave young woman who is seeking excitement and adventure, who does not fear dangerous people and situations, and who will find a bit of romance along the way, then this is the book for you. Anne Beddingfeld was the daughter of an absent minded professor whom she took care of. After his death, Anne sought something more interesting in life and she found it in a subway. As she was waiting for the train, a man near her looked past her, got a look of great fear on his face, and, in his panic, stepped back and went down of the electrified third rail. A man at the station said that he was a doctor and after a short examination pronounced the man dead. As he rushed from the station, the doctor dropped a piece of paper with the writing 17 , 122 Kilmorden Castle on it. Anne picked it up and kept it.

At the inquest on the man's death in the Subway, Anne learned that he had a permit to view the Mill House for rental purposes in his pocket. She learned from the newspaper that a woman had been found murdered at the Mill House which was owned by Sir Eustace Pedlar. Anne could not resist getting permission to view the Mill House and learned that a man in a brown suit had also come to view the property that day shortly after the murdered woman entered the house.

Anne also learned that the Kilmorden Castle was not a building, but a ship which was sailing for South Africa. She spent all of her savings on a ticket. On this ship she found many interesting people, one of whom might be the man in the brown suit. Sir Eustace Pedlar was there along with his two secretaries. There was a clergyman, the reverend Edward Chichester who did not seem at all like a man of the cloth. There was Colonel Race, a strong, silent type who was suspected of being in the secret service. On her voyage, Anne becomes more involved in the mystery, is almost murdered, and meets a handsome man.

Anne's pursuit of the man in the brown suit will take her to South Africa and Rhodesia, and she will witness Jan Smuts revolution. More excitement, thrills and crocodiles will come her way before all is solved. This is an enjoyable read although it is more of a thriller than a detective novel.

This was Agatha Christie's 4th novel and it was published in 1924. Agatha and Archie Christie had traveled in South Africa in the year 1922. For more information about this trip, see the website https://lisawallerrogers.com/tag/agatha-christie-in-south-africa/. 

The King is Dead by Ellery Queen

King Bendigo was incredibly rich, and someone wanted to kill him. King had made his fortune selling munitions during World War II, and he was continuing his business, and the money was rolling in. He lived on his own private island which was not shown on any map. He had a huge house, a private security force, and defensive armaments which would attack an unwary visitor.

His family lived on the island with him. He had a very beautiful wife, Karla, who was quite clever. His brother, Abel, was his business manager and had a lot of power in the business. Then there was his brother, Judah, who was an alcoholic who had stashed bottles of brandy all over the house and the island. Judah was the intellectual in the family and appreciated literature, art and classical music.

Abel Bendigo came to visit Ellery Queen and his father, Inspector Queen. He told them that King Bendigo had received letters which told him that he was to be murdered, and he ordered Ellery and his father to come to the island and find the letter writer. He had made prior arrangements with police department which gave the inspector time off. Apparently rich people can do this kind of thing. So Ellery and his father were put on a plane and flown off to the Bendigo's island. There they were given almost freedom of the island as long as they did not go any place which was not allowed. They met King, Karla, and brother Judah who always seemed to be in an alcoholic stupor. King did not take the death threats seriously because he believed that he was totally protected by his security forces.

Then a crime occurred. I will not tell you who or where or when because that would be a spoiler. It is definitely a locked room crime. This book has political overtones which applied when it was written, and still apply in the present when those with great wealth are involved in the political process.

I found the beginning of the book to be a bit dull with too much of description of Bendigo's wealth and power. When the actual crime occurred, I couldn't put the book down as I waited for Ellery and his father to find the perpetrator. This book was published in 1952, and you are probably aware that Ellery Queen was the duo of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee.

Death in Five Boxes by Carter Dickson

Dr. John Sanders of the Harris Institute of Toxicology was on his way home from work at one o'clock in the morning when he was approached by a young woman, Marcia Blystone,  with an unusual request. She asked Dr. Sanders to go with her into a house near where they were standing. When Sanders asked why, she said that her father had gone in there, that she was afraid for him, and was also afraid to go in alone. Sanders agreed to go and they entered the house and started up the dark stairs toward the apartment for Felix Haye. Along the way, Sanders tripped over a sword stick which had blood stains, and met a man named Ferguson coming out of an office. Ferguson said that he had heard heard hysterical laughter coming from the apartment on the next floor up, and then everything became quiet.

When they got to Haye's apartment, Sanders went in, leaving the girl outside. He found four people seated around a table. Three of them were in a drugged sleep, and the fourth, Haye himself was dead having been stabbed. The identities of the people in the room were established. The three sleeping people were Dr. Dennis Blystone,  Marcia's father. Dr. Blystone was found to have four watches in his pockets. Another sleeper was Mrs. Bonita Sinclair who was an art critic. She was found to have  quicklime and phosphorus in her purse. The third sleeper was Mr. Bernard Schumann who was head of the Anglo-Egyptian Importing Company. He had the mechanism of an alarm clock in his pocket. The dead man was Felix Haye, a very wealthy investment broker.

Chief Inspector Humphrey Masters took charge of investigating the case. It had been established that the sleepers had been given atropine, a derivative of belladona but in varying amounts. They had drunk a cocktail which had been prepared by Mrs. Sinclair who had been watched by everyone present. She could not have put the atropine into the cocktails. The atropine was only in their glasses; there was none in the cocktail shaker. Masters and Sanders set out to investigate, and Masters decided that the assistance of Sir Henry Merrivale was needed. They found the plump HM exercising in a delightfully funny episode.

Sir Henry was contacted by the law firm of Drake, Rogers, and Drake on the day after Haye was murdered. A burglary  had occurred in their office and some things had been stolen from the items which Felix Haye had left for safekeeping there. Missing were five small boxes which the solicitors were supposed to open after Haye's death. Records there showed that the names on the boxes were Bonita Sinclair, Dennis Blystone, Bernard Schumann, Peter Ferguson, and Judith Adams. Three of these people had been present at Haye's death. Ferguson had been Haye's apartment that night, and the identity of Judith Adams was a complete mystery.

Sir Henry and Masters continued their investigation, and everyone concerned was questioned and a great deal of their history was uncovered. HM, of course, found out the identity of the murderer and explained the great puzzle of how the atropine had been put into the drinks.

Carter Dickson is the pen name of John Dickson Carr who is the master of locked room mysteries. The book was published in 1938.

The Red Widow Murders by Carter Dickson

"Do you believe that a room can kill?' This is the question which Sir George Anstruther, the director of the British Museum, asked his friend Dr. Michael Tairlaine.  Four people had died mysteriously in a room over a period of one hundred years. Each had gone into the room alone and within two hours, they had died.

Then Sir George invited Tairlaine to take part in an experiment which was to be held in order to determine if the room in question was still deadly. Tairlaine was to arrive at certain spot the following evening, and if approached, was requested to do whatever the person told him  to do.

So on a foggy evening,  Tairlaine followed instructions. He was invited into a house by a butler, and was welcomed by Lord Michael Mantling, the owner of the house. The evening's activities were then explained to him.  The room which had been come to be called the Red Widow room had finally been closed off and instructions had been given by Lord Mantling's father that no one was supposed to enter the room until the house was torn down.  Lord Mantling had sold the house and land to a company who planned to tear it down and build apartment houses. Tonight was the final test of the murderous nature of the room.

A group had been gathered in the house, and a cards were to be drawn to determine who would spend two hours in the room . The group would consist of Lord Mantling, his brother Guy, his aunt Isobel, and her protege Mr. Ralph Bender. Also participating would be Mr. Ravelle who was descendant of the maker of the furniture for the room,  and Robert Carstairs who was a long time friend of Lord Mantling.  There were two witnesses who would not participate in the card drawing. They were Dr. Tairlaine and Sir Henry Merrivale who was quite an expert on the subject of mysterious poisons and equally mysterious rooms. They would be joined a little later by Judith Mantling, the sister of Michael and Guy, and her fiance, Dr. Eugene Arnold.

The person who had drawn the high card entered the room. The others waited outside the door, and called out to him every fifteen minutes. They received a reply at every interval except for the last. When no reply was heard, they entered the room and found him dead. Probably he died from a mysterious poison.

Sir Henry Merrivale would learn the whole history of the Red Widow room which went all the way back to the French Revolution from Guy Mantling. HM's investigation would lead to a final solution of the crimes for another murder would occur before the puzzle was solved.

This book was published in 1935 by John Dickson Carr under the pen name of Carter Dickson. Carr is the master of the locked room mystery. I found this book to be quite enjoyable both because of the solution of the crime and because it is very atmospheric with quite a bit of fog and rain.

Mystery in the Channel by Freeman Wills Crofts

The steamer Chichester was making her daily run between Newhaven and Dieppe. When she was half way to her destination, her captain spotted a small pleasure yacht sitting motionless in the water. The captain was curious and ordered the steamer to pull closer. When it did so, it was possible to see a man laying face down on the deck, and what looked like red blood smears on the deck near him. The captain ordered the third mate, Mr. Macintosh, to take a boat and a couple of men over to take a look at the yacht. When they arrived, they established that the man on deck was dead. As they investigated further, they found another body in the cabin. There was nobody else on board, and they found no weapon.

The captain told Mr. Macintosh to take the yacht to the harbor in Newhaven. On the way, they encountered a motor launch which was heading directly for the yacht. Macintosh stopped and took aboard the man on the launch. This would be a Mr. Nolan and he knew the two dead men on the yacht. They were Mr. Moxton, the chairman, and Mr. Deeping, the vice-chairman, of  Moxton's General Securities, and they were supposed to be heading to France to a meeting a perspective client. Mr. Nolan was one of supervising executives, and he was also to attend this meeting. Macintosh told Nolan that he had better come along to Newhaven. When they got there, they talked to the local police who were quite relieved then it was decided that this case was too complicated for them and that they should call in Scotland Yard.

Scotland Yard decided that Inspector French was now to handle a case which was becoming much more complicated because rumors in London had it that Moxton Securities was bankrupt. These rumors proved to be true, and Inspector French now had a case which included the murder of two men, the possible theft of one million pounds from Moxton Securities and the disappearance of another of the company's executives. Inspector French is indeed the man to handle this. He is methodical, precise, honorable, and very, very clever. Some readers may find him a bit too methodical, but I like the way he goes about solving crimes. The reader can follow Inspector French's thoughts, and knows how he goes about making decisions about to do next. Usually his decisions are good, but there are times when he makes mistakes.

This book was published in 1931, and has just been reissued as part of the British Library Crime Classic series.

The Plague Court Murders by Carter Dickson

" I want you to spend the night at a haunted house" Ken Blake was approached by his friend Dean Halliday at their club with this strange request. Blake, who had been a bit bored with life lately, immediately accepted this challenge. Since both Blake and Halliday were novices at ghost hunting, Blake requested that he bring along an expert on the subject,  Detective Inspector Masters from Scotland Yard in an unofficial position because  Masters had quite a bit of experience in exposing bogus mediums in the past.

There is a lengthy back story involved in the episode which will follow and most of it deals with  Louis Playge  who was the common Hangman of Tyburn in the years 1663 - 65. It was for him that Plague Court was named. Curiously a dagger that was supposed to have belonged to Playge had recently been stolen from the London Museum.

Blake, Halliday, and Masters went to Plague Court in the evening. In this decaying building, they joined two women who were already there. There was young Marion Latimer and a much older woman, Lady Anne Benning, who was Dean Halliday's aunt. Also present were Marion's brother, Ted Latimer, and Major Featherton. A medium, Mr. Darworth, was there that evening to exorcise the evil spirit which haunted the house. Darworth had brought with him the boy Joseph who was able to receive spirits, but not to exorcise them. Darworth was now locked in a small house on the property. He had arranged a bell which would be heard in the house if anything happened to him.

That evening, Darworth was murdered in the locked house. Some said that they heard the bell ring and others did not. Masters had grown very worried about Darworth, and insisted they break down the door which the men did with great difficulty. They found Darworth who had been stabbed lying before the fireplace in a locked room with no footprints in the mud outside to show that anyone had entered the building.

Now entered Sir Henry Merrivale whose assistance was requested by both Blake and Major Featherton.  Sir Henry had been head of the British Counter-Espionage during the war, and was still associated with the war department. Sir Henry was a large, indeed very large, man who had been sitting in his office "fixing his mind in the coruscations of the infinite". He was very interested in taking on the mystery of the Plague Court murder. Soon another gruesome murder would occur to further complicate the solution of the crime. No crime was too difficult for HM, and he found the murderer and explained how it was done.

This is the first of many locked room mysteries which were written by John Dickson Carr using the pen name Carter Dickson in 1934. Sir Henry Merrivale is a master of solving this type of murder, and I have always found his exploits fascinating.

Hanged for a Sheep by Francis and Richard Lockridge

Aunt Flora had called Pam North for help because Aunt Flora believed that someone was trying to poison her with arsenic.  Jerry North was now in Texas reading a book for his publishing house, so Pam packed up her luggage and her two cats and went for a stay with Aunt Flora.

Aunt Flora was quite an eccentric character. She was getting along in years now, but she had been married four times. Currently she was seeking a separation from her fourth husband, Stephen Anthony, and  she had thrown him out of her house. Aunt Flora still maintained good relations with her children and grandchildren. There was her son, Alden Buddie, who was the product of her first husband, Alden Buddie. This son had two daughters, Clem and Judy. She also had a son Wesley Buddie, and he was the father of Christopher Buddie. Then she married Robert McClelland who had a son named Something or Other McClelland (Pam couldn't remember his name) and they had a son named Bruce McClelland who was a newspaper reporter. Her third husband was a man named Craig and they had had one son, Benjamin who was a very staid banker and who still lived with Aunt Flora. Aunt Flora had a house full of sons and grandchildren along with Harry Perkins who had been a friend of her first husband and who now lived in a room at the top of the house, and did odd jobs about the house.

Aunt Flora explained to Pam the reasons why she thought she had been poisoned though she could not see the reason. Aunt Flora did have a lot of money, but she had written a very fair will which  distributed her money evenly and which did not give an extreme benefit to any one person.

Then one morning, Pam came to breakfast and discovered the body Stephen Anthony in the breakfast room. She called her friend Lieutenant Bill Weigand who started the investigation. He interrogated  all of the members of the family, and he and Pam tried to discover a link between the murder and the attempted poisoning. There would be another murder which would involve Pam in a very scary manner, and at last Jerry North would return home to help in finding the solution to the crimes.

I have always liked Pam and Jerry North because they are nice people with a good sense of humor.. The mysteries are always well written and are not too blood spattered.  This book was written in 1942.

Cold Steal by Alice Tilton

Leonidas Witherall is a secret writer of mystery novels and an amateur detective.  He looks like Shakespeare, and his friends think that he is incredibly clever. In this novel, he is returning from a trip around the world, and is on the last leg of his journey on a train which will take him home to Dalton. On this train, he saw a mousey, grey woman hide a package in the bottom of a trash container. Unable to control his curiosity, he took the package out and found that it contained a gun and a pair of handcuffs. He rewrapped the package and put it back. This action will get him involved in a strange series of events on the train which will conclude with him getting banged on the head.

Meanwhile, while he was gone, Leonidas had entrusted his friends with the job of getting a new house built for him. He had given them the necessary money and the plans. He was indeed a very trusting man. On the train, he met a young man named Dow who befriends him and agrees to take him to the new house in Dalton. After a very confusing drive around Dalton, they at last arrived at the new house which is not quite what Leonidas had in mind when he gave his friends the plans. Leonidas was quite thrilled with the house which is described in a remarkable amount of detail. At the end of his tour of the house, he finds the body of a woman in his car in the garage. He finds out from Dow and Cassie, an older friend of his, that the body is that of Medora Winthrop, an incredibly wealthy and very difficult woman who was his neighbor. In the best tradition of cozy mystery novels, Leonidas, Dow, and Cassie decide that they will find out who the killer is.

Their investigation is complicated by the invasion into his house of many citizens of Dalton who wish to look at the architectural and decorating wonders of his new house. It is, of course, necessary, to keep them from looking in the garage where the body is still in the car, and this body will remain undisturbed in the car for the rest of the novel. So much for any crime scene forensics. The investigation proceeds in a rather haphazard way and eventually the solution is found.

I hope that this novel is meant to be a farce. Some parts are down right silly, some parts are funny. The actual solution of the crime is stuck on at the end after a great deal of running around by the amateur detectives.  If you are looking for humor and farce in a mystery novel, this is a book for you.

Alice Tilton is one of the pen names of Phoebe Atwood Taylor who is the author of the more conventional, but cozy Asey Mayo mysteries which are set on Cape Cod. This book was published in 1939.

Minute for Murder by Nicholas Blake

World War II is now over. Nigel Strangeways had spent the war working in the Ministry of Morale which provided information about the war for the British public. Now he had only six months left in his tour of duty. Strangeways had grown to know the people he worked with. He possibly did not really like all of them, but he had become accustomed to them.

One of the most interesting people who had passed through the department was Charles Kennington who had worked at the Ministry, become very good friends with Nita Price, the department secretary, and then had left. The news said that Kennington had died fighting on the Rhine. Now with the war over, the news had it that Charles had been acting as a British spy in Europe and had captured Stultz who was the number three Nazi leader. Charles had taken from Stultz the poison capsule which was the way the German leader had expected to commit suicide.

Now Kennington had come back to see his old co-workers, and he had brought with him the poison capsule. At a small party with members of the department, the capsule was passed around for all to see. Tea was served and when Nita Prince drank hers, she died immediately. She had been a victim of the poison capsule. To use the capsule, it was necessary to break it, but the remains of the capsule was not in Nita's tea or in the office where the party was held or in the street below the window of the room.  Was Nita the intended victim or was it intended for someone else? Inspector Blount asked Nigel to assist in the investigation since he had been so useful in prior investigations.

The first question to be answered was why any one would murder Nita Prince. She was liked by the people in the department. It was rumored that she was having an affair with Jimmy Lake who was the head of the department.  Jimmy Lake was, however, married to Alice who was the sister of Charles Kennington, and Alice had been present at the party when Nita was poisoned. Nigel's investigation would also turn up a person in the department who might have been collaborating with the Nazi's during the war. It would be up to Nigel to untangle the complex scheme of personal relationships in this department in order to find the murderer.

This book was published in 1947 by Nicholas Blake which was the pen name of Cecil Day-Louis who would become the poet laureate of England. During World War II, Blake had worked as a publication editor for the Ministry of Information, and it is likely that he got his idea for Minute for Murder during his time there.

Buried for Pleasure by Edmund Crispin

Gervaise Fen, professor of literature at Oxford, had decided to run for parliament. His reason for doing so remains rather unclear in this delightfully funny mystery novel. He had never been in his proposed constituency before and arrived at the town of Sanford Angelorum shortly before the election. He rented a room at the Fish Inn. He was quite intrigued when he read over the guest register and found the name of Rawdon Crawley, The innkeeper told him that Mr. Crawley was there to fish although there were no fish in the streams. Fen knew that he must get to know Mr. Crawley.

Before this meeting occured, Fen had to begin his campaign. He met his campaign manager, Captain Watkyn, who had made sure that Fen was nominated to run and that he had plenty of posters and pamphlets. He also assured Fen that since he was running as an Independent, he had absolutely no chance of winning against the established parties. Nevertheless, Fen persisted. He gave his first campaign speech and the listeners seemed almost interested. Fen attributed his ability at speech making to years of teaching and to his literary abilities.

I should also mention the naked man who was running through the neighborhood. Fen encountered him on his initial taxi ride from the train station. The naked man would also jump out and surprise the elderly ladies. The locals assumed that he was an escapee from the local mental institution. Also the town had a poltergeist at the vicarage; however, the vicar seemed to have it under control.

Back to Rawdon Crawley. When Fen finally met up with him, Fen found that he knew him. He was Bussy a detective inspector of the C.I.D. who had assumed the name of Rawdon Crawley because he was sure that the locals had not read Vanity Fair. Bussy was there to investigate the murder of a woman named Mrs. Lambert who had died from eating poisoned chocolates. Mrs. Lambert had begun her working career as a prostitute, but had desired a better life. She went to school, got a decent job, and had married Mr. Lambert. Bussy suspected that she was being blackmailed about her past which was a waste of time because Mr. Lambert knew all about her past.

Another murder occurred, and the police came to investigate in the form of Superintendent Wolfe of the local police department, and Detective-Inspector Humbleby of New Scotland Yard. Suspicion immediately fell on the escapee from the mental institution, but Fen was not convinced. 

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Anybody who has endured the recent elections will find it a funny and expert commentary on the bizarre activities of politicians and voters.  Fen's last speech to the voters is definitely worth reading. This book was published in 1949, but many of the comments still apply.

Death on a Quiet Day by Michael Innes

When David Henchman started off on his walking excursion on the moor, he could not have conceived that he would end up in a run for his life. David and some other students were on a reading party during their spring holiday vacation from Oxford; they were reading Plato with Professor Pettifor.  David had decided to get away from the group for a day and to enjoy a walk through the moor.  His goal was to reach a hill called Knack Tor and to climb it.

David did climb it and at the top he found the body of a man with a bullet hole in his head, and a gun in his hand. David ascertained that he was alone with the body on the top, and looked over the edge where he saw a man walking by. David hailed the man who ignored him at first, and eventually climbed to the top of Knock Tor. Their conversation was essentially a negotiation about what they should do about the body. Should they both leave and report it or should one leave or should they just ignore it and go away. David became more and more suspicious of this man, and his suspicions were realized when the man took the gun from the dead man's hand and aimed it at David. David fled down the side of the tor and across the moor followed by the stranger.

David's run away from his pursuers makes for great reading. As he is totally running out of energy to continue, he meets Sir John Appleby of Scotland Yard who believes his rather fantastic story and takes considerable interest in retracing David's steps. Together they return to Knack Tor and find the body of a dead man, but not the dead man that David found the first time that he was there.

This book was written in 1957 and was also published as Appleby Plays Chicken. This title refers to the game of chicken which the students were playing the night before David had his encounter on Knack Tor. The book is a little short  in the display of Apple's detecting skills and not a lot of time is spent looking for clues and examining witnesses; instead there are several energetic chase scenes involving Appleby, David and the other students which keep the reader reading.

The Mad Hatter Mystery by John Dickson Carr

Lord Bitton had appealed to Chief Inspector Hadley to investigate a theft which had taken place at his home. Lord Bitton was a collector of books and manuscripts so Hadley had invited Gideon Fell, an expert in this subject, to attend this meeting. It seems that Bitton had visited the Edgar Allen Poe house in Philadelphia and observed that a manuscript had been uncovered in a wall by some workmen. Bitton stole the manuscript, returned with it back to England, and would not tell anyone, even his family, what story it was . Now the manuscript had been stolen from its hiding place in his home.

Meanwhile, someone was stealing the hats of Londoners and putting them in unlikely places. The London newspapers were calling the thief The Mad Hatter, a name which had been started by a cub reporter by the name of Philip Driscoll who was the nephew of Lord Bitton. A cabby's horse was seen wearing a barrister's wig. The hat of a member of the stock exchange was found on one of the lions at Nelson's monument in Trafalgar Square.

Lord Bitton's hat had been stolen just an hour and a half before he arrived at the meeting with Hadley and Fell to discuss the matter of the theft of a Poe manuscript. Then they received the news that the body of young Driscoll had been found on the steps of the Traitor's Gate at the Tower of London, and that the body was wearing Lord Bitton's hat. The meeting was immediately moved to the Tower of London. Suspects were interviewed, but very little was learned, and no one had witnessed the murder which had been done with a souvenir blade from France. Curiously, several people who could be involved with the manuscript theft were also sight seeing at the tower that day.

Further investigations would show the involvement of Lord Bitton's brother, Lester and his wife Mary.  They had a daughter, Sheila, who was a rather flighty young lady who planned to marry Mr. Dalrye who had been a very good friend of Driscoll. There was also the American manuscript collector, Mr. Acton, who said little but who knew more about the Poe manuscript that he was letting on. Of course, Gideon Fell solved the whole puzzle, but he seemed to see the solution to all of the problems from the moment that the murder occurred which was rather disconcerting.

Hamlet, Revenge! by Michael Innes

The duke and duchess of Horton were presenting the play Hamlet at their estate, Scamnum Court of which it is said that "Perhaps it is not the stateliest of the stately homes of England. But it is a big place: two counties away it has sort of little brother in Blenheim Palace". The play was to be performed by amateur actors except for Melville Clay who was to be Hamlet, and who had already had great successes in the part in London and New York. The Lord Chancellor of England, Lord Auldearn, was doing the part of Polonius. The duke and duchess had parts as did their children, Noel and Elizabeth. The performance would be attended by Shakespearean scholars and nobility. There were, of course, rehearsals during the two days, before the actual performance. During this period, Lord Auldearn appeared to be troubled and it was suspected that he was considering an important treaty.

Then the evening of the play arrived and all went well until the performance arrived at the scene where Hamlet confronts his mother while Polonius hides  behind the screen. As Hamlet was about to draw the screen aside, a shot rang out. Hamlet found that Lord Auldearn had been fatally shot. The only person who could have seen the shooter was the prompter, Mr. Bose, who would also be murdered later in the day.

Young inspector John Appleby had been at the ballet watching Les Presages. When he arrived at his low cost lodgings, he found the Prime Minister waiting for him. Appleby and the Prime Minister set off rapidly in a fire engine while the Prime Minister explained the situation to Appleby. He also said that Appleby had been selected for this job because he "would not be scared by the high-and-mighty mob" which were assembled there. The PM told him that it was imperative that the murderer be found because there were matters of national security involved.

Thus Appleby arrived at Scamnum Court where he fortunately found Giles Gott, a  friend of his and an author of mystery novels, who could render some assistance in the investigation since he had been at Scamnum in the days preceding the murder. There was, indeed, a document of national importance  involved but it was found. But could it have been copied before it was found? Was the murderer after this document or did he or she kill Lord Auldearn for some other reason. There were many important people to interview and many alibis to examine before Appleby determined the identity of the murderer.

This is a remarkably literate mystery novel, and  it also helps to know your Hamlet. It was published in 1937, and was the second in the Inspector Appleby series. Michael Innes was a pseudonym of J. I. M. Stewart who wrote fiction and nonfiction under his own name as well as the many books which he wrote under the Innes name.

Blood Money by Dashiell Hammett

There was a huge bank heist in San Francisco. Two banks, the Seaman's National Trust and the Golden Gate Trust, were robbed on the same day by a gang of at least 150 crooks who had been imported from all over the United States. The operation was well organized with teams of robbers who were given instructions by team leaders. Who ran the whole thing? Bluepoint Vance was in the car directing operations, but there were also The Shivering Kid, Alphabet Shorty McCoy, Toots Salda and the Dis-and Dat Kid. After the robbery, the police had some of the robbers in custody and more names were given such as Denny Burke, Toby the Lugs, and Paddy the Mex.

Who was going to find the leader of this operation? The Continental Op.  Pushing forty years old  and twenty pounds overweight, he could still hold his own in a battle with the bad guys. All of the thieves involved in the robbery were waiting to get their pay off, and if they didn't San Francisco would become a hot bed of crime as they struggled to find other sources of funds. Some of the thieves were killed after the robbery which apparently was done to make smaller the number of thieves who would need to paid off. Two of the dying thieves wrote on a wall in their own blood the name Big Flora. The Continental Op did indeed find Big Flora, and found that she was a very big blond with muscles, but not the boss of the operation. All of this was described in the first part of the book. In the second part, the Continental Op with another agent Jack Counihan, who is young and eager,  search for the real mastermind of the huge robbery.

This book was not originally written as a novel. It is two short stories which were published in Black Mask magazine in 1927 as " The Big Knockover" and "$106,000 Blood Money" and only later in 1943 were they combined to make a novel. There is quite a difference between the two parts. Part 1 which describes the robbery and the bloody aftermath is quite violent. Part 2 which describes the hunt for the mastermind behind the operation is much quieter and better written.  In both parts, Hammett comes up with great names for his criminals.

Do Not Murder Before Christmas by Jack Iams

Stanley (Rocky) Rockwell is the young city editor of the newspaper The Record which is crusading against the city machine which is run by the Malloy family. It had been a tradition in the city for many years that on Christmas day, Uncle Poot, a local toymaker, would open his shop and give free toys to the children who visited. The Malloys had opened a community center and planned on Christmas to open the center and give a party for the local children at the same time. Rocky was given the assignment to write an article on the two competing Christmas celebrations.

Rocky started his assignment by visiting the new community center which appeared to rather poorly funded by the Malloys. It was run by Jane Hewes, a good looking blonde, who was not really qualified for the job, but Rocky found her very attractive, and they got along quite well with each other. Together they visited Uncle Poot and tried to convince him to change the date of his party to Christmas, but he declined.

On Christmas eve, Uncle Poot was murdered in his toy shop and his money was taken. At first the police accused a mentally challenged man, Loppy O'Shea,  of the murder and the robbery, but Rocky refused to believe that Loppy was guilty. Rocky undertook the job of finding the murderer. He was helped by his friend Lieutenant Bill Hammer who was one the few policemen who was not in the pay of the Malloys, and by the society columnist for The Record, Mrs. Pickett, who writes under the name Debbie Mayfair and who was familiar with the Malloys but not their friend.

I enjoyed this book. It is well written and has some good humorous touches. The main characters undergo many difficulties during the search for Uncle Poot's killer including being arrested, being fired, and engaging in some fist fighting.

This book was written in 1949 by Jack Iams (1910 - 1990). Iams was born in Baltimore, and his name was actually Samuel Harvey Iams Jr. During his lifetime, he was a reporter for the London Daily Mail, The Daily News, and Newsweek. He was also a television critic for the New York Herald Tribune. He wrote 13 books, and some of these were the mystery series with Stanley Rockwell as the detective.

Crime Hound by Mary Semple Scott

Herbert Crosby, fourth assistant to the District Attorney of Saint Lewis, was on his vacation in an attractive area of lakes and pine trees near Brantford. It was so attractive that he decided to rent a cottage in the area as a summer vacation spot for his family. It should be noted that his idea of a cottage has five bedrooms and also bedrooms for 5 servants. He went to the office of Jediah Cook whose rental ads he had seen along the road. Cook never showed up, however, and Crosby found a way to find an attractive lakeside cottage which was being rented by an attractive young woman, Joan Ashleigh. Joan was living with her aunt, Countess Ororsky in the cottage next to the one that Crosby wanted to rent. Joan is an orphan whose parents died in a boating accident. Crosby put down the money for the summer rent on the spot.

It turns out that Jediah Cook didn't show up at his office because he died when he and his car went into the lake not far from the site of Crosby's cottage.  Local law enforcement in the form of Sheriff Mott showed up to investigate. His conversation seems to be limited to the words "Yeah, sure". Mott seems to suspect Herbert Crosby to be responsible for Cook's death and a great deal of the other happenings in this resort community. Countess Ororsky suspects Russians are involved. Others in the community suspect a Native American named Rain of the crime. The reader will note that there is a great deal of prejudice against Native American in this book.

The plot becomes much more involved. A young girl is locked in a closet. Another death occurs. Then there is Tender Teddie who runs a night club which is quite similar to the speakeasy which he ran during prohibition. Tender Teddie is really in prison, but seems to get parole every summer to run his club. Everything seems to be controlled by Benjamin Skeeter who wants to run this community and its residents.

Eventually everything is resolved in a rather surprising ending. I cannot say that I recommend this book for serious mystery readers. It is more of a cozy than a hard boiled mystery novel. There is a love story included, and Herbert Crosby tackles all the mysterious happenings with the secure faith in his ability to solve the crimes.

Mary Semple Scott (1873 - 1968) was the granddaughter of Illinois senator James Semple, and her brothers made the first electric bus in St. Louis. She was active in the woman's suffrage movement, and was editor of a suffrage magazine. Crime Hound which was published in 1940 was her only mystery novel.

Somewhere in the House by Elizabeth Daly

Henry Gamage, detective and expert on books, was invited to one of the strangest cases of his career. Mrs. Clayborn Leeder invited him to be present at a very unusual family event - the opening of a door which had been sealed for twenty years.

 Mrs. Leeder's grandmother Clayborrn had six children. Noonie was her youngest daughter and was her favorite child. Noonie could play the piano although she was not otherwise too intelligent.  Grandmother gave Noonie special favors, and when Noonie showed musical ability, grandmother had a room at the top of the house soundproofed so that Noonie could practise. Then, at a young age, Noonie died. After this, grandmother shut herself up in her room with only a distant relation, Aggie Fitch, to keep her company. Grandmother had a wax model of Noonie made and placed in the room with the piano. Only grandmother and Aggie Fitch were allowed to enter the room which was otherwise kept locked The family kept quite about this extreme behavior less others should think that grandmother was unbalanced (wasn't she?). When grandmother died, her will stated that the room should be kept as it was until her grandson Garth was 25 years old; he was five years old at the time of her death. On this date, those members of the family still alive, would inherit the Clayborn money.

So the room had remained for 20 years. The family did not, however, want anybody to know about it. They had the room sealed in such a way that the door looked like part of the wall. The outside windows were bricked up. The servants who knew about its contents had been dismissed. Aggie Fitch had left when the room was sealed. The family believed that she had used her savings to go traveling.

The remaining family members had continued to live in the house, because they were living on money given to them by grandmother's estate, and that amount of money was not enough to live in any other way. 

Now Mrs Leeder wanted Gamage there when the door was opened, because she said that she believed that grandmother and Noonie had a valuable button collection which was hidden somewhere in that room, and she wanted an impartial witness present at the opening to search for it. Indeed, when the room was unsealed, something shocking was discovered. This discovery would lead to other crimes and an explanation of an older ones.

Mystery novels of the Golden Age do sometimes contain contrived situations which would never occur in real life in order to give the detective a real challenge. There are perfectly normal people who keep the rooms of loved ones intact after their death. I, however, found the situation in this book a bit extreme. The older family members still seem to do nothing to improve their financial situation, and remain content to remain in that house doing very little for twenty years. Only the very young ones seem to offer any hope of the future. Gamage, of course, solves the mysteries and ties everything up quite neatly. Readers who enjoy complex family dramas will find this book appealing.

Nothing Can Rescue Me by Elizabeth Daly

Wealthy Florence Mason had decided to write a novel and work on it  had progressed until it appeared that some one or some thing was inserting sentences into her draft of the novel. These were ominous sayings such as THOU ART BUT DEAD; IF THOU HAVE ANY GRACE, PRAY and WHATSOEVER NOISE YE HEAR, COME NOT UNTO ME, FOR NOTHING CAN RESCUE ME.

Florence's nephew, Sylvanus Hutter, came to Henry Gamage, bibliophile and amateur detective, asking for help in finding who was doing this. He asked Gamage to come to Florence's estate, Underhill, to meet the people in Florence's life. Gamage agreed to come for a weekend, but he could not spare more time because he was doing war work.

Gamage had already met Florence's husband, Tim Mason. They had recently married. Florence was 51 and Mason was quite a bit younger. At Underhill, Gamage met Miss Wing who was Florence's secretary and the most likely person to have inserted the strange bits into the text of the novel which she was typing, but Florence seemed to trust her implicitly. Also present were Sally Deeds and Susie Burt who had failed in the secretary job and had been replaced by Miss Wing. Also there was a young man, Percy, who was quite good looking, a reader, and who did something in advertising.

Money, of course, is the cause of a great many murders. Nahum Hutter had made millions and he left his money to Florence and Sylvanus to be used during their lifetime. Presumably they were receiving the income from the principle. When one of them died, the other would receive the principal to spend as they wished. Florence had made a will with bequests to Sally Deeds, Susie Burt, and her husband, with the rest of the millions and Underhill to go to her secretary, Miss Wing whom she said was the only person who had really liked her. Corinne Hutter, the local librarian, was at Underhill that day. She was distant relative who would not benefit from the will, because she said that she did not want anything.

Gamage arrived at Underhill and scanned the contents of the library. He identified the quotes which had been added to the rough draft of the novel. These quotes were all from books in the library, so that anyone at Underhill could have added them. He interviewed all of the residents. Then the whole affair took a new turn when Sylvanus Hutter was murdered in the library. He had been struck over the head with a statue. Now Florence Mason was in control of millions of dollars. Gamage saw that Florence was now in great danger from all the people at Underhill who would benefit from her will. Another murder will follow before Gamage determines who was committing the crimes.

This book was published in 1943. It is currently available as a paperback and as an e-book.

Antidote to Venom by Freeman Wills Crofts

George Surridge was the highly respected director of the Birmington Zoo. In this position, he had a good social position in the city, a good salary, and a comfortable house to live in. Unfortunately George and his wife Clarissa did not get along very well. George believed that she wanted more money than it was possible for him to provide. George was a member of a gambling club, and George sometimes lost more money than he could afford, but he would sometimes recoup his losses. Then one day at the zoo, George met a charming woman, Nancy Weymore, who was a widow. She and George developed a friendship, and George gave up his golfing afternoon to be with Nancy.

Meanwhile at the zoo,  George had to deal with some difficulties. An  employee, the night watchman John Cochrane, needed to leave the zoo for a short time to give his sick wife her medicine. George encountered Cochrane on his way back, and insisted the Cochrane should be fired. Also, professor Burnaby, a retired professor, who was still conducting his research on the effect of snake venom on cancer cells with resources of the snake house at the zoo, caused zoo employees to worry about the possibility that he was becoming somewhat senile, and George found it necessary to restrict Burnaby's access to the snake collection.

George and Nancy conceived the idea of purchasing a charming cottage where she could live, and where George could easily come and visit. George's hope for money rested on the belief that his elderly aunt would shortly die. Her doctor had told George that she had not long to live. George was her only heir. His aunt did indeed die, but George found out there would be quite a while until he could get access to her money. He had promised the realtor that they would purchase the cottage and he needed money. Then George was approached by Capper, who was the solicitor responsible for settling his aunt's estate and a nephew of Burnaby. He was also Burnaby's only heir. Capper proposed to George that they cooperate in a very complicated plot to murder Burnaby by a method which would be impossible to detect. This plan would give George the money much more rapidly than he was getting it from his aunt's will.

The reader will find out about George's part in this plan as he carries out the necessary steps George does not know, however, how Capper carried out his part in the murder.  Burnaby does die, and an inquest is held. and his death is ruled an accident. A casual conversation brings this death to the attention of Chief Inspector  Joseph French of New Scotland Yard. French reads the evidence and a transcript of the coroner's trial, and finds something which he thinks has been overlooked. He goes to Birmington to look into Burnaby's death, and unravels a remarkably complex method of committing a murder.

This book was published by Freeman Wills Crofts in 1938. At this time, he had already become a well known and popular mystery novelist. In this novel, he tried to combine the inverted detective story in which the reader knows who and how the murderer committed the crime, and the direct story in which the detective determines who the murderer was and how the crime was committed. This book is quite detailed, and the character of George Surridge is much more developed than is done in mystery novels of this period.

The Book of the Lion by Elizabeth Daly

Paul Bradlock had been a writer who had lived in Paris during the exciting years of the twenties when the city was the center of literary and artistic achievement. Paul was a writer but not a great one. He had published a volume of poetry, married Vera Larkin, and returned to New York in 1930. He had then written plays but only one had been produced. Paul gave up writing and lapsed into a life of drinking. He had been murdered in a park two years before the story in this book began.

Henry Gamadge,a consultant on old books and autographs, and an amateur detective, was contacted by Avery Bradlock, Paul's brother. Avery wondered if Gamadge would look over Paul's letters because Avery had heard that people would pay for letters of writers. Gamadge told him that he did not purchase letters, but that he would look over the letters to see if they had any value. He joined Avery and his family for dinner that evening. Vera Bradlock, Paul's wife surprised every one by announcing that she had already agreed to sell the letters to a friend of hers, Hilliard Iverson. At dinner that evening, Iverson wrote out the check and presented it to Vera, and took a box containing the letters away with him.

Gamadge suspected that something was suspicious about this whole transaction, and a little investigation would prove him right. He talked to Vera and Iverson and was told that Paul Bradlock had purchased a copy of a missing book by Geoffrey Chaucer in a used book store in Paris, and that they had sold this copy of The Book of the Lion for a large sum of money. Then, it would seem,  the book had been destroyed. Gamage realized that he was dealing with some type of forgery ring, and that he would need to find who and how the forgeries were done.

Elizabeth Daly published this book in 1948. Ms. Daly did not find success as a mystery writer until she was 62 when her book Unexpected Night was published. She wrote fifteen more mystery novels after this. It is said that she was Agatha Christie's favorite mystery author. The Book of the Lion is currently available as a paperback and as an e-book.

Dr. Priestley's Quest by John Rhode

It all began when Mr. Gerald Heatherdale came to Dr. Priestly's home at Westbourne Terrace with new evidence in the murder of his brother Austin which had occurred a year before. Gerald's brother Austin, had written Gerald asking him to come to see him at his home at White Pelham. Gerald and Austin had not been getting along well, but Gerald decided that he really should go. When he arrived at White Pelham, he found that Austin had not returned from a short trip that he had taken to London to see his solicitor, Mr. Withers. The next morning, Austin's body was found. There were signs of a struggle, and it was decided that his death was brought about by thieves who had then robbed him. The new evidence Gerald had found was a note which had been sent to Austin warning him to stay away from the area in which his body was eventually found.

The will which Gerald and Austin's father, Sir Francis Heathedale,  had left seemed to be quite important in the events which followed.  Sir Francis had been in shipping and had had built a new vessel which was named The Brackenthorpe Manor. In the will, he left this ship to Gerald, Austin, and Captain Murchison, her current skipper. They were responsible for keeping the ship in operation for the next twenty years. If they did not, they would receive nothing from the estate. If one died, the other two would be responsible for the ship, and if two died, one would be left with the cost of this ship which would be aging by that time. In the event of the death of all three, Sir Francis' estate would give some money to Mr. Withers, his house to his housekeeper, and the rest to a distant relative in New Zealand. Gerald and Austin did not really have any interest in the ship and resented the money which they needed to spend on it. With Austin's death, the financial responsiblity of Gerald and Captain Muchison grew.

Dr. Priestly told Gerald that there was nothing that he could do about a crime which was a year old. Shortly after this, Dr. Priestly received an anguished plea from Gerald to come to his home because he had received a warning note which was similar to the one that Austin had received a year earlier. Dr. Priestly and his secretary, Harold Merefield who is the narrator of this story, went immediately to investigate. Gerald was becoming a nervous wreck, and arrangements were made to remove him from harm's way. This did not go as anticipated, and the results were very bad.

Dr. Priestly is a very meticulous investigator. He takes nothing at face value. Every detail is examined from every angle. He does not believe that witnesses can be trusted because they can be too easily influenced by just being associated with a murder case. He believes that the police are extremely incompetent and accept questionable observations too quickly. Dr. Priestly is a scientific investigator, and a great deal of the book is given to exposition of his methods and analysis of his findings which makes the book a bit dry. Readers looking for action and character development will be disappointed.

John Rhode is the pseudonym of  Cecil John Charles Street. He was quite a prolific author and wrote two series, The Dr. Priestly series, and another which featured Desmond Merrion and Inspector Henry Arnold under the pen name of Miles Burton. Dr. Priestley's Quest was written in 1926 which is rather early in his writing career. He would continue to write books under the name of John Rhode until 1961.

Where There's Smoke by Stewart Sterling

Ben Pedley is the head Fire Marshall of New York City with the responsibility of investigating and determining the cause of fires in a city with seven million inhabitants. When this story begins, he was called to a fire at the Brockhurst Theater where, on this very cold night, fire men would be battling a blaze with water which would coat them and their equipment with ice.

The fire had started in the dressing room of the lovely radio singing star, Leila Lownes. Ben Pedley rescued Leila from the flames, but it was not until after the fire was put out that firemen discovered the burned body of her brother, Ned Lownes. curled up under a couch. An autopsy would reveal that Ned had had a lot to drink before his death, and inspection of the dressing room indicated that the fire had been deliberately set.

Ned Lownes had been Leila's manager, and he had treated her badly. She had a good motive for wanting his death. There was also Paul Amery, her lawyer, Terry Ross, her press agent,  and Hal Kelsey, a band director, who all  had reasons for wanting Ned dead. Another murder and arson would occur as those in Leila's life struggled to get control of her career and the money that could be made from her performance contracts.

Steward Sterling (1895 - 1976) was the pen name of Prentice Mitchell who also wrote under the pen names of Spencer Dean and Jay deBekker. He wrote about unconventional detectives such as Ben Pedley and Don Cadee, a department store detective. He was also a screen writer and an author of radio scripts. If you are interested in more information on Prentice Mitchell, read the essay by Richard Moore.

I found this book to be interesting, and it was good to have a crime solver who wasn't a traditional detective or policeman. The book does have a lot of slang terms which may have been more comprehensible in 1946 than they are now, but now they just make reading more difficult. The author has great respect for firemen and the difficult job that they do. His writing is best when he is describing the actions of the firemen and their equipment.

This book was published in 1946. I have read it for the 2017 Golden Vintage Scavenger Hunt in the category of a book with a red object on the cover.

A Graveyard to Let by Carter Dickson

Sir Henry Merrivale, crime solver extraordinaire, has left England and has come to an exceptionally hot New York city. He has been invited by Mr. Frederick Manning of the Frederick Manning Foundation to come to Manning's home at Maralarch in Westchester County where Manning will "show him a miracle and challenge him to explain it."

After creating quite a disturbance at Grand Central Station, Sir Henry is driven to Maralarch by Cy Norton who had been a New York correspondent for a British newspaper and who had recently lost this job. At Maralarch, they meet Frederick Manning's three children, Crystal, Jean, and Bob. Crystal, the oldest at age 24 and already married three times,was pretentious and longed for a place in society. Bob, the one in the middle, was not the sharpest member of the family and was mainly interested in baseball. Jean, the youngest at 20, was an attractive and very pleasant young lady who was engaged to Huntington Davis.

At dinner that evening, Manning made some surprising announcements.  He informed his children that he had not really wanted them, and was not really fond of children. He had loved his wife very much, but she had died in a fire many years before. Now Manning had found a new love, Irene Stanley, whom his children referred to a "bubble dancer". He did informed his children that he had provided for their futures. Manning had also been charged with embezzling money from his foundation and he made no secret of this.

The next day, the family and Sir Henry had gathered around the swimming pool. Frederick Manning had been clipping the hedges that morning, but he too was now at the pool. Suddenly they heard the sound of the sirens of police motorcycles. Manning said "I fear that this is rather earlier than I expected" and jumped into the swimming pool fully dressed. Those around the edge of the pool watched as Manning's hat, shoes, coat, and trousers drifted to the top of the water. But Manning did not come up. A search of the water in the pool showed no sign of Manning or of any exit from the pool. Manning had disappeared in the swimming pool.

Sir Henry, of course, set about solving the problem of Manning's disappearance with his usual skill and wit.  He also demonstrates a remarkable skill on the baseball diamond. Carter Dickson is a pen name of John Dickson Carr who is a master of novels of locked rooms and unsolvable crimes. This book was published in 1949, and used copies are available at Amazon.