Search Results: American Mystery Classics from I Cannot Live Without Books

The Alarm of the Black Cat (American Mystery Classics) by Dolores Hitchens
A strange encounter with a little girl named Claudia and a dead toad sparks elderly detective fiction fan Rachel Murdock's obsessive curiosity, and she winds up renting the house next door just to see how things play out. But soon after she and her cat Samantha move in, Rachel realizes they've landed in the middle of a deadly love triangle that's created animosity among the three families surrounding her.
When Rachel finds Claudia's great-grandmother dead in her basement, she reaches out to a friend in the LAPD to solve the crime. They soon learn the three households have been torn apart by one husband's infidelity and a complicated will that could lead to a fortune. In a house plagued by forbidden love, regret, and greed, Rachel will have to trust her intuition and Samantha's instincts to survive -- and keep Claudia out of the hands of a killer whose work has just begun.
Charming characters, light humor, and an intriguing… Read More

The Benson Murder Case (American Mystery Classics) by S.S. Van Dine
All of Manhattan high society is abuzz after playboy stockbroker Alvin Benson is discovered dead in a locked room in his brownstone mansion, slumped over in an easy chair with a bullet in his head. Ballistics experts, detectives, and the NYPD's top brass can't solve the crime, but luckily they don't have to: New York's leading flaneur and art connoisseur, Philo Vance, is on the case, and he's got precisely the far-flung and esoteric knowledge needed to interpret the clues and determine whodunnit.
By carefully examining the crime scene and reconstructing the deadly shooting, Vance determines a number of things about the murderer, including his or her height -- and this is only the first of many deductive feats that he will pull off before the investigation comes to a close.
The first novel in one of the most influential detective series of the early twentieth century, The Benson Murder Case features a brain sleuth, a puzzling plot, and… Read More

The Bigger They Come (American Mystery Classics) by Erle Stanley Gardner (Writing as A.A. Fair)
Bertha Cool is the gruff, tough-talking corpulent head of her private detective agency, which opened after the death of her husband; Donald Lam is her meek, slight, and nervy new hire, who makes up for a lack of boldness with brilliant detective work. The duo couldn't be any more dissimilar. However, with their combined skills, they are an unstoppable force in solving crimes, as evidenced by their over two dozen successes in the long-running series penned by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner.
In this, their first outing, Donald Lam is tasked with delivering divorce papers to a man who reportedly made a fortune in rigged slot machines. The only problem is that nobody -- not even the police -- can find him. Before long, Lam's seemingly simple assignment finds him caught up in a web of money, mysterious safety deposit boxes, and a gang of toughs every bit as desperate as he is to find the runaway… Read More

The Case of the Careless Kitten (American Mystery Classics) by Erle Stanley Gardner
Helen Kendal's woes begin when she receives a mysterious phone call from her vanished uncle Franklin, long presumed dead, urging her to contact criminal defense attorney Perry Mason; they continue as she finds herself the main suspect in the murder of an unfamiliar man. Her kitten has just survived a poisoning attempt, as has her aunt Matilda, the woman who always maintained that Franklin was alive in spite of his disappearance. But Helen is lucky she called Perry Mason when she did. He takes the case and, risking disbarment for his unorthodox methods, endeavors to outwit the police and solve the puzzle himself, assisted by his secretary Della Street, his private eye Paul Drake, and the unlikely but invaluable aid of a careless but very clever kitten.
Erle Stanley Gardner (1889 - 1970) was the best-selling American author of the 20th century. In addition to his Perry Mason novels, Gardner published dozens of other… Read More

Dead Man Inside (American Mystery Classics) by Vincent Starrett
1930s Chicago is a rough town, but the most recent rash of crime is unusual even by the Windy City's standards. First, a haberdasher whose corpse is discovered on display one morning, dressed as a mannequin in his store's window. Next, the unveiling of a Civil War statue reveals the dead body of a known gambler instead of the bronze likeness of General Burke. As more strange crime scenes follow, it becomes clear that a killer with a sick sense of humor is on the loose and that anyone could be his next victim.
It's a perfect case for scientist, explorer, former intelligence officer, and reluctant detective Walter Ghost, who just happens to be in town to visit the Newberry Library for research. While the local authorities are left scratching their heads, Ghost leaps into action with deductive reasoning aided by unorthodox methods (including consulting an Ouija board). But will his amateur detection be quick enough to find the culprit before… Read More

Death From a Top Hat (American Mystery Classics) by Clayton Rawson
Now retired from the tour circuit on which he made his name, master magician The Great Merlini spends his days running a magic shop in New York's Times Square and his nights moonlighting as a consultant for the NYPD. The cops call him when faced with crimes so impossible that they can only be comprehended by a magician's mind. In the most recent case, two occultists are discovered dead in locked rooms, one spread out on a pentagram, both appearing to have been murdered under similar circumstances. The list of suspects includes an escape artist, a professional medium, and a ventriloquist, so it's clear that the crimes took place in a realm that Merlini knows well. But in the end, it will take his logical skills, and not his magical ones, to apprehend the killer.
Death From a Top Hat is an ingeniously plotted puzzle set in the world of New York stage magic at its pinnacle in the early twentieth century.
Clayton Rawson (1906 - 1971) was a… Read More

Dread Journey (American Mystery Classics) by Dorothy B. Hughes
Hollywood big-shot Vivien Spender has waited ages to produce the work that will be his masterpiece: a film adaptation of Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain. He's spent years grooming young starlets for the lead role, only to discard each one when a newer, fresher face enters his view. Afterward, these rejected women all immediately fall from grace: excised from the world of pictures, they end up in rehab, jail, or worse. But Kitten Agnew, the most recent candidate, won't be gotten rid of so easily -- her contract simply won't allow it. Accompanied by Mr. Spender on a train journey from Los Angeles to New York, she fears that the producer might be considering a deadly alternative. Something will happen before they reach their destination and, as the train barrels through America's heartland, the tension accelerates towards an inescapable finale.
Dread Journey is a taut thriller that exemplifies Dorothy B. Hughes's greatest strengths as a… Read More

The Haunted Lady (American Mystery Classics) by Mary Roberts Rinehart
The arsenic in her sugar bowl was wealthy widow Eliza Fairbanks' first clue that somebody wanted her dead. The nightly plagues of bats, birds, and rats unleashed in her bedroom were the second indication, an apparent attempt to scare the life out of the delicate dowager. So instead of calling the exterminator, Eliza calls the cops, who send Hilda Adams -- "Miss Pinkerton" to the folks at the bureau -- to go undercover and investigate.
Hilda Adams is a nurse, not a detective -- at least, not technically speaking. But then, nurses do have the opportunity to see things that the police can't and to witness the inner workings of a household when the authorities are not around. From the moment Adams arrives at the Fairbanks mansion, confronted by a swarm of shady and oddball relatives, it's clear that something unseemly is at work in the estate. But not even she is prepared for the web of intrigue that awaits her therein.
Mary Roberts… Read More

It Walks by Night: A Paris Mystery (American Mystery Classics) by John Dickson Carr
Inspector Bencolin has summoned his allies to discuss a peculiar case in the smoke-wreathed gloom of a Parisian salon. A would-be murderer, imprisoned for his attempt to kill his wife, has escaped and is known to have visited a plastic surgeon. His whereabouts remain a mystery, though with his former wife poised to marry another, Bencolin predicts his return.
Sure enough, the Inspector's worst suspicions are realized when the beheaded body of the new suitor is discovered in a locked room of the salon, with no apparent exit. Bencolin sets off into the Parisian night to unravel the dumbfounding mystery and track down the sadistic killer.

The Lost Gallows: A London Mystery (American Mystery Classics) by John Dickson Carr
As the thick, autumnal fog chokes the capital, within the fire-lit lounge of London's notorious Brimstone Club, a bizarre tale is being spun for Inspector Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle. A club member has been sent a model of a tiny gallows, and the word is that the folkloric hangman Jack Ketch has been stalking the streets for victims by night, his gibbet in tow.
The threat of this supposed bogeyman becomes thrillingly real when, that same night, Bencolin and Marle are almost run down by a limousine with a corpse behind the wheel. When an ominous message claims the car's passenger has been taken to the gallows at Ruination Street for hanging, the detective and his associate venture into the night to discover the truth behind the terrifying Ketch and a street that cannot be found on any map.

Miss Pinkerton (American Mystery Classics) by Mary Roberts Rinehart
Miss Adams is a nurse, not a detective -- at least, not technically speaking. But while working as a nurse, one can see things police can't see. An observant set of eyes can be quite an asset when crimes happen behind closed doors, so sometimes Detective Inspector Patton rings Miss Adams when he needs an agent on the inside. And when he does, he calls her "Miss Pinkerton" after the famous detective agency.
Everyone agrees that mild-mannered Herbert Wynne wasn't the type to commit suicide but, after he is found shot dead, with the only other possible killer being his ailing, bedridden aunt, no other explanation makes sense. With the elderly woman left uncared for at her grand estate, Patton sees the perfect opportunity to employ Miss Pinkerton's abilities. But when the sleuthing nurse arrives at the mansion to ply her trade, she finds more intrigue than anyone outside could have imagined and -- when she realizes a killer is on the… Read More

The Penguin Pool Murder (American Mystery Classics) by Stuart Palmer
A field trip is always a treat for the third graders at Jefferson School. But one day at the New York Aquarium, they get much more excitement than they bargained for. A pickpocket sprints past, stolen purse in hand, and is making his way to the exit when their teacher, the prim Hildegarde Withers, knows him down with her umbrella.
By the time the police and the security guards finish arguing about what to do with Chicago Lew, he has escaped, and Miss Withers has found something far more interesting: a murdered stockbroker floating in the penguin tank. With the help of Detective Oscar Piper, this no-nonsense spinster embarks on the first of her many adventures. The mystery is baffling and the killer is dangerous but, for a woman who can control a gaggle of noisy third-graders, murder isn't frightening at all.
The Penguin Pool Murder is the first of many mysteries to feature Hildegarde Withers, the character that became a sensation in… Read More

A Puzzle for Fools (American Mystery Classics) by Patrick Quentin
Broadway producer Peter Duluth sought solace in a bottle after his wife's death; now, two years later, he enters a sanitarium in an effort to dry out -- but the institution doesn't quite offer the rest and relaxation he expected. Strange, malevolent occurrences plague the hospital, and among other inexplicable events, Peter hears his own voice with an ominous warning: "There will be murder." When that premonition comes true, it's up to Duluth, surrounded by a staff every bit as suspicious as its idiosyncratic patients, to solve the crimes before the killer strikes again.
A Puzzle for Fools is the atmospheric and complex mystery that first introduced Peter Duluth; the character and his love interest Iris went on to star in eight more novels, two of which were adapted for film.
Patrick Quentin is one of the pseudonyms of Hugh Callingham Wheeler (1912 - 1987), who collaborated with several other authors on the books written as Quentin, Q.… Read More

The Red Right Hand (American Mystery Classics) Joel Townsley Rogers
After the death of Inis St. Erme, Dr. Henry Riddle retraces the man's final movements, searching for the moment of his fatal misstep. Was it when he and his bride-to-be first set out to elope in Vermont? Or did his deadly error occur later -- perhaps when they picked up the strange, sharp-toothed hitchhiker, or when the three stopped at "Dead Bridegroom's Pond" for a picnic?
As he searches for answers, Riddle discovers a series of bizarre coincidences that leave him questioning his sanity and innocence. After all, he too walked those wild, deserted roads the night of the murder, stranded and struggling to get home to New York City. The more he reflects, the more he comes to doubt his own memories, warped as they are by paranoid fear -- until, in a moment of clarity, a satisfying and carefully clued solution emerges from the nightmare.
Joel Townsley Rogers (1896 - 1984) was a prolific writer of short stories and novels across several genres.

Rocket to the Morgue (American Mystery Classics) by Anthony Boucher
As the overly-protective heir to a beloved literary estate, Hilary Foulkes has made numerous enemies among the fans and authors stifled by his inflexibility -- so many enemies, in fact, that when he is stabbed nearly to death in a room with only one door, which nobody was seen entering or exiting, he's hardly sure who to suspect. As more attempts are made on Foulkes' life, more clues point to the identity of his would-be murderer; each one draws the heir's hired protectors -- Lieutenant Terence Marshall and his assistant, the inquisitive nun, Sister Ursula -- deeper into the strange, idiosyncratic, and unexpectedly dangerous world of science fiction in its early days.
With characters based on Anthony Boucher's friends, including Robert Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and John W. Campbell, Rocket to the Morgue is both a classic locked-room mystery and an enduring portrait of a real-life writing community.
Anthony Boucher (1911 - 1968) was an… Read More

The So Blue Marble (American Mystery Classics) by Dorothy B. Hughes
The society pages announce it before she even arrives: Criselda Satterlee, daughter of the princess of Rome has left her career as an actress behind and is traveling to Manhattan to reinvent herself as a fashion designer. They also announce the return of the dashing Montefierrow twins to New York after a twelve-year sojourn in Europe. But after these three aristocrats meet during an evening walk, their polite conversation quickly takes a menacing turn: the twins have purposefully sought Griselda out to demand the rare and powerful gem they believe to be stashed in her apartment. Baffled by their request, she pushes them away, but they won't take no for an answer. And when they return, accompanied by Griselda's long-estranged younger sister, the murders begin.
Drenched in the glamour and luxury of the New York elite, The So Blue Marble is a suspense novel in which nothing is quite as it seems. In 1941, the book was included in Howard… Read More

Vultures in the Sky (American Mystery Classics) by Todd Downing
The journey of the Mexico City-bound Pullman seems ill-fated from the outset -- what with the engine troubles and the threat of an impending railway strike -- but no one aboard expects the terror that will descend upon the luxury train before it reaches its destination. First, a man dies as the vehicle passes through a dark tunnel and then, just as United States Customs Agent Hugh Rennert begins to investigate, the train comes to a screeching halt in the middle of the desert.
More deaths follow as night falls, and when it becomes clear that a murderer is on the loose, the stationary cars transform into an isolated hall of horrors. As the varied and intriguing cast of passengers begins to panic, it's up to Rennert to untangle the web of clues and motives and unmask the culprit.
A suspenseful whodunit that charts a path through the Mexican wilderness. Vultures in the Sky highlights the best aspects of the Golden Age mystery, mixing… Read More

Waltz into Darkness (American Mystery Classics) by Cornell Woolrich
When New Orleans coffee merchant Louis Durand first meets his fiancee after an extensive courtship by mail, he's shocked that she doesn't match the photographs sent with her correspondence -- instead of the homely, dark-haired woman he expected, he's greeted by a radiant blonde beauty who claims that her deceit was necessary to find true love. But it soon becomes clear that Durand's new bride carries devilish secrets, and when, soon after marriage, she vanishes with his fortune in tow, Durand realizes he's made a terrible mistake.
Alone, desperate, and inexplicably love-sick, Louis quickly descends into madness, obsessed with finding Julia, bringing her to justice, and simply seeing her again. And when he finally tracks her down, the real nightmare begins.
A dark tale of the destructive power of love, this is a classic "femme fatale" narrative.
Cornell Woolrich (1903 - 1968) is the pen name most often employed by George… Read More