The ideal guide for the new mystery writer, or for all lovers of the genre. Includes indepth analysis of writers of the calibre of Conan Doyle, Poe and Rinehart.

A lawyer is leaving his office on the top floor of an office building. He sees the shadows of two men fighting through the clouded glass of an office door followed by a shot from the office across the hall. He goes to investigate. He finds no sign of either victim or assailant despite the fact that no one could have passed him in the hallway without being seen. A murder has been committed, that of the banker. Who is the murderer? A business associate, the banker's beautiful ward, or a mysterious woman who had been in the office earlier? And what part, if any, was played by the amnesia victim...

Imagine a murder committed in a room which has been sealed from the inside, with no possible means of exit. Add to that image a wreath of flowers around the head and across the chest of the victim, a crucifix, an orange, a feather scarf tucked in here and there, two crackers, a handkerchief, and a feather duster, a nail and a watch in a water pitcher by the bedside. Place yourself in a position to solve the mystery behind this obvious murder of a wealthy man who was liked by everyone and had no known enemies. Gray Norris is invited to join detective Keeley Moore and his wife at their vacation...

A classic from the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, The Clue falls squarely in the tradition of two favorite mystery sub-genres the Big House Mystery and the Locked Room Mystery. Detective Fleming Stone is cool and methodical, not unlike his more famous fictional forebears, Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes.

Guests gather at White Birches, the upper New York mansion of millionaire scion Justin Arnold. The weekend's festivities are cut short when the host inexplicably goes missing, presumed to be hiding or unwell somewhere within the grounds of the heavily protected, fortress-like estate. With the amateur sleuths unable to solve the mystery, they call in Detective Fleming Stone. What starts as a missing person thriller becomes a murder mystery in this clever locked-room puzzler from Carolyn Wells, author of The Clue.

Guests gather at White Birches, the upper New York mansion of millionaire scion Justin Arnold. The weekend's festivities are cut short when the host inexplicably goes missing, presumed to be hiding or unwell somewhere within the grounds of the heavily protected, fortress-like estate. With the amateur sleuths unable to solve the mystery, they call in Detective Fleming Stone. What starts as a missing person thriller becomes a murder mystery in this clever locked-room puzzler from Carolyn Wells, author of The Clue.