John Dickson Carr

A New Year's houseparty, complete with a children's treat and a conjurer, should be pleasantly amusing. When Sir Henry Merrivale is a guest, however, one can confidently count on burglary along with other assorted mayhem in the offing. Thickly plotted as Carr always is, and full of loose ends and red herrings, but withal an enjoyable vintage (1942) wallow.

Spanish translation of THE BLACK SPECTACLES. Also titled THE PROBLEM OF THE GREEN CAPSULE.

Scotland at the outbreak of the Second World War: a series of mysterious deaths, a motley crew of characters, some heavy-handed humour concerning a particularly potent blend of Scotch whisky and a pair of squabbling academics. Not one, but two "locked room" puzzles solved by series detective Dr. Gideon Fell.

When someone begins a killing spree on Napoleon's personal sentries, captured British agent Alan Hepburn finds himself forced not only to assist with the investigation, but also to match wits with the Emperor and his chief of police, the wily Fouche.

An ancient Egyptian lamp carries a curse -- or is there something more sinister behind a series of mysterious deaths? Sir Henry Merrivale becomes involved with the lamp's current owner, the daughter of one of the dead men.

> GAMBLING WITH DEATH Ten minutes after the Duc de Saligny entered the card room of the elegant Parisian gambling house, the police burst in - and found the Duc's severed head, standing upright on the stump of its neck, staring at them from the center of the room. >ENTER HENRI BENCOLIN >Both doors to the card room had been watched and guarded, yet the murderer had gone in and out without having been seen by anyone! But the flamboyant prefect of police, Henri Bencolin, was willing to bet if the Duc had lost his head over a losing hand, the killer was ready to deal another game of death. And the wily detective had an ace up his sleeve that might - with luck - provide the winning combination for bringing the headstrong killer to justice.

>>‘“The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks. It is an atmosphere of death. It is soundless and motionless... Do you see?”’ >Last night Mademoiselle Duchêne was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Musée Augustin waxworks, alive. Today she was found in the Seine, murdered. The museum’s proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark – a lead that Henri Bencolin, head of the Paris police and expert of ‘impossible’ crimes, cannot possibly resist. >Surrounded by the eerie noises of the night, Bencolin prepares to enter the ill-fated waxworks, his associate Jeff Marle and the victim’s fiancé in tow. Waiting within, beneath the glass-eyed gaze of a leering waxen satyr, is a gruesome discovery and the first clues of a twisted and ingenious mystery. >First published in 1932 at the height of crime fiction’s Golden Age, this macabre and atmospheric dive into the murky underground of Parisian society presents an intelligent puzzle delivered at a stunning pace.

From the original review in the Toledo Blade, 11 December 1949: "No locked room mystery this, but still one of the best featuring Gideon Fell. An old lady dies of poison and while her late companion, the accused, languishes in prison awaiting trial, her niece's husband likewise sips of the fatal cup. The leading character in the book is the trial lawyer, who, despite his conceit, courage and ability would not have solved the mysteries without old Gideon's deductions from a silver candelabrum and a red garter."