Rim of the Pit (An American Mystery Classic)

Rim of the Pit (An American Mystery Classic)
Author: Hake Talbot
Publisher: Penzler Publishers
Total Pages: 275
Release: 2023-10-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1613164661

The cult classic mystery that John Dickson Carr hailed as “a marvel of ingenuity.” “I came here to make a dead man change his mind.” So begins a creepy and unusual mystery celebrated to this day as one of the greatest “impossible crime” novels of all time. When a family’s promise to protect the beloved pine grove of their dead father creates a financial strain, a seance is suggested to summon the ghost of the late logger and ask its permission. A mixed group of skeptics and believers convene at a snow-bound lodge to call the spirit with a group that includes a gambler, a businessman, a clairvoyant, a professor, and a refugee, among others. With so many diverse interests at the table, the tensions run high — but when one of the participants ends up dead, there is reason to suspect that a nefarious spirit is to blame. The body is discovered in a locked room, impenetrable from the outside — just one of many bizarre and inexplicable circumstances surrounding the scene of the crime. There is also the trail of footprints in the snow, beginning and ending amid a field of untouched powder; another on the roof, with the tracks leading for a short distance before vanishing into nothingness; and, there are fingerprints on a gun suspended at an unreachable height… Supernatural undertones and eerie atmosphere clear away in the third act to present a logical conclusion to the case, teasing out the clues and murder methods that unscrupulous readers may have missed. With its off-beat exposition, puzzling plot and exceptional prose, Rim of the Pit is a cult classic of the Golden Age era deserving of a wide audience today.

Rim of the Pit

Rim of the Pit
Author: Hake Talbot
Publisher: American Mystery Classics
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-10-03
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781613164648

The cult classic mystery that John Dickson Carr hailed as "a marvel of ingenuity."

Cat's Paw

Cat's Paw
Author: Roger Scarlett
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-04-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1613162820

When a wealthy bachelor is murdered in his baroque Boston mansion, a bizarre clue holds the key to whodunnit Martin Greenough’s walled-off mansion is the last remaining holdout in the Boston parkland known as the Fenway—and the fact that it eluded condemnation by the city is a testament to the elderly bachelor’s great wealth. Childless and nearing the end of his life, he surrounds himself with only his cat, his servants, and a friend, Mrs. Warden—to say nothing of the circle of extended family members whose lives he both subsidizes and rules from afar, the nieces and nephews who all seem to be more fond of Uncle Mart’s money than they are of his character. On the eve of his birthday, Greenough requests the presence of his heirs at his home, insisting that he has something important to discuss. Before that discussion can take place, though, the man is murdered in his study. In one way or another nearly everyone there would benefit by his death, and none gathered seem terribly upset by it, so finding the culprit is no easy task for Inspector Kane of the Boston PD. But as he untangles the threads and unburies dark family secrets, the discovery of a bizarre clue might hold the key to solving the crime. A classical “closed circle” mystery featuring a colorful cast of characters, Cat’s Paw exemplifies the puzzling, house-bound tales for which Roger Scarlett is remembered today. It is sure to delight any fan of pure, Golden Age detective stories—especially those with a love of architecturally-focused plots. Includes discussion guide questions for use in book clubs.

Ride the Pink Horse

Ride the Pink Horse
Author: Dorothy B. Hughes
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 284
Release: 2013-06-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1480426962

During the annual Fiesta, three desperate men converge in a perilous New Mexico town in this “extraordinary” crime novel (The New Yorker). It takes four days for Sailor to travel to New Mexico by bus. He arrives broke, sweaty, and ready to get what’s his. It’s the annual Fiesta, and the locals burn an effigy of Zozobra so that their troubles follow the mythical character into the fire. But for former senator Willis Douglass, trouble is just beginning. Sailor was Willis’s personal secretary when his wife died in an apparent robbery-gone-wrong. Only Sailor knows it was Willis who ordered her murder, and he’s agreed to keep his mouth shut in exchange for a little bit of cash. On Sailor’s tail is a cop who wants the senator for more than a payoff. As Fiesta rages on, these three men will circle one another in a dance of death, as they chase truth, money, and revenge.

Waltz Into Darkness

Waltz Into Darkness
Author: Cornell Woolrich
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1613161522

From “the supreme master of suspense” comes the chilling chronicle of one man’s descent into madness. (New York Times) When New Orleans coffee merchant Louis Durand first meets his bride-to-be after a months-long courtship by mail, he’s shocked that she doesn’t match the photographs sent with her correspondence. But Durand has told his own fibs, concealing from her the details of his wealth, and so he mostly feels fortunate to find her so much more beautiful than expected. Soon after they marry, however, he becomes increasingly convinced that the woman in his life is not the same woman with whom he exchanged letters, a fact that becomes unavoidable when she suddenly disappears with his fortune. Alone, desperate, and inexplicably love-sick, Louis quickly descends into madness, obsessed with finding Julia and bringing her to justice — and simply with seeing her again. He engages the services of a private detective to do so, embarking on a search that spans the southeast of the country. When he finally tracks her down, the nightmare truly begins… A dark tale of the destructive power of love, Waltz into Darkness is a classic “femme fatale” narrative that shows “the father of the modern suspense story” (LA Times) at the top of his unsettling craft. It has been adapted for film twice, most notably serving as the basis for Francois Truffaut’s Mississippi Mermaid.

The Hollow Man

The Hollow Man
Author: John Dickson Carr
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2012-11-29
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1409129365

The most famous of all locked-room mysteries - a classic in the crime genre. 'The first deadly walking of the hollow man took place when the side streets of London were quiet with snow and the three coffins of the prophecy were filled at last...' The murderer of Dr Grimauld walked through a locked door, shot his victim and vanished. He killed his second victim in the middle of an empty street, with watchers at each end, yet nobody saw him, and he left no footprints in the snow. And so it is up to the irrepressible, larger-than-life Dr Gideon Fell to solve this most famous and taxing of locked-room mysteries.

The Adventures of Ellery Queen

The Adventures of Ellery Queen
Author: Ellery Queen
Publisher: Open Road Media
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2013-02-05
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1453289445

In eleven stories, the brilliant sleuth tangles with a book thief, an assassin who targets acrobats, and more . . . For Ellery Queen, there is no puzzle that reason cannot solve. In his time, he has faced down killers, thugs, and thieves, protected only by the might of his brain—and the odd bit of timely intervention by his father, a burly New York police inspector. But when a university professor asks Queen to teach a class, the detective finds there are people whom reason cannot touch: college students. Queen’s adventure on campus is only the first of this incomparable collection of short mysteries. In these pages, he tangles with a violent book thief, an assassin who targets acrobats, and New York’s only cleanly shaven bearded lady. Criminals everywhere fear him, whether they work in mansions or back alleys. No mystery is too difficult for the man with the golden brain.

Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries

Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries
Author: Otto Penzler
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-07-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1613163282

Fourteen impossible crimes from the American masters of the form For devotees of the Golden Age mystery, the impossible crime story represents the period’s purest form: it presents the reader with a baffling scenario (a corpse discovered in a windowless room locked from the inside, perhaps), lays out a set of increasingly confounding clues, and swiftly delivers an ingenious and satisfying solution. During the years between the two world wars, the best writers in the genre strove to outdo one another with unfathomable crime scenes and brilliant explanations, and the puzzling and clever tales they produced in those brief decades remain unmatched to this day. Among the Americans, some of these authors are still household names, inextricably linked to the locked room mysteries they devised: John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen, Clayton Rawson, Stuart Palmer. Others, associated with different styles of crime fiction, also produced great works—authors including Fredric Brown, MacKinlay Kantor, Craig Rice, and Cornell Woolrich. All of these and more can be found in Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries, selected by Edgar Award-winning mystery expert and anthologist Otto Penzler. Featuring a delightful mix of well-known writers and unjustly-forgotten masters, the fourteen tales included herein highlight the best of the American impossible crime story, promising hours of entertainment for armchair sleuths young and old.

The White Owl TPB

The White Owl TPB
Author: Edmund Snell
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 194
Release: 2011-08-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1605435104

"The White Owl," by Edmund Snell, quivers with the literary hocus pocus that affords mental relief in a materialistic age. Two adventurers, searching for an Aztec temple containing a deity, which flourished before the Spanish conquistadores overran Mexico, find it, and on opening the covering of a shaft one of them is carried down into its fathomless depths by a huge white owl. There appears to the survivor a girl, Naia, who tells him that his friend will reappear after twenty moons. The White Owl having been released, the hatred of the Aztecs for their Spanish oppressors is renewed, and a series of murders of Spaniards in various places in Europe follows, the White Owl with hideous green eyes continually appearing when the mysterious influences are at work. The vanished explorer and the girl Naia are always the instruments.