A Hamlyn whodunnit

Analyse : Roman policier (énigme).

The windows of French’s department store are one of New York’s great attractions. Year-round, their displays show off the finest in fashion, art, and home décor, and tourists and locals alike make a point of stopping to see what’s on offer. One afternoon, as the board debates a merger upstairs, a salesgirl begins a demonstration in one of the windows, showing off French’s new Murphy bed. A crowd gathers to watch the bed lower from the wall after a single touch of a button. But as the bed opens, people run screaming. Out tumbles a woman—crumpled, bloody, and dead. The victim was Mrs. French, wife of the company president, and finding her killer will turn this esteemed store upside down. Only one detective has the soft touch necessary—debonair intellectual Ellery Queen. As Queen and his police inspector father dig into French’s secrets, they find their killer is more serious than any window shopper.

Mark Treasure mysteries #2 University College, Itchendever, is short of funds - and up for grabs. The rival parties in the proposed takeover seem to be the American Funny Farms Foundation, run by the widow of a board-games mogul, and a calculating Arab prince. Banker sleuth Mark Treasure tries his hardest to adjudicate, but instead finds a baffling murder on his hands. And this isn't a mere case of finding the culprit - there are other knotty problems with a bearing on the case. Who sent the gory sheep's head to the eccentric American millionairess? Was the celebrated Dr Goldstein, senior tutor and TV personality, behind the bomb scare? And why have the Arabs kidnapped an English Literature lecturer?

In the princely state of Bhopore, India, 1930, a handful of Western visitors comes to the opulent Summer Palace to meet the outrageous Maharajah and his entourage. There they meet the Maharajah's heir, the sensual Porgy, and his English chorus-girl mistress. They meet the enigmatic chief minister, and the aloof British Resident, with his dignified little nine-year-old son. And before long, they also meet sudden death... Various people in the Palace become suspects, and an imperturbable District Superintendent of Police is called in. But who will he find guilty of the murder of the Maharajah?

On a dark and rainy night, amorous antiques dealer Lovejoy and his lady of the moment witness a car being forced off the road and over an embankment; the mortally injured driver turns out to be Leckie, a fellow antiques dealer and old army chum. Lovejoy's search for the villains is spiced with the promise of a valuable cache of antiques hidden somewhere at the end of the line. Spirited, vivid writing and a marvelously varied cast of characters from the shadier side of the antiques world make this Jonathon Gash's best book to date.

The story begins with a pretty young heiress and her uncle seated outside their summer home on Spanish Cape, escaping the guests at her parents' house party. Suddenly a one-eyed giant bursts onto the scene and kidnaps them, misidentifying the uncle as John Marco, a house guest. The giant removes them both, ties the heiress to a chair in an empty neighbouring home, and disappears with the uncle. Ellery Queen and a friend arrive at the neighbouring home in the morning and release the heiress, but by the time they can return her to her home, Marco has been found on the terrace, strangled, and nude except for an enveloping opera cape. The house party and the household contain many people who had good reason to want the victim out of the way, some because he was blackmailing them. As Ellery is investigating the crime, another household member commits suicide out of sheer desperation at the potential revelation of a dread secret. By the time the uncle escapes his captor and swims to shore, Ellery is ready to reveal the identity of the murderer and the reason for the victim's nudity in a dramatic final scene.

First published as The Case of the Abominable Snowman in 1941 by Collins UK (The Crime Club) In the middle of a cold snap, with snow swirling round the imposing Easterham Manor, Nigel and Georgia Strangeways enter the warmth of the Victorian estate. But upon their arrival, the couple quickly learns that all is not as cozy as it seems. The whole house is pervaded by a sense of foreboding: a room is haunted, the cat is possessed, and the specter of the enigmatic Elizabeth Restorick looms. Confounded by the guests' strange reactions to the very mention of Elizabeth's name, Nigel never gets the chance to form his own opinion of the young woman. The next morning, Elizabeth Restorick is found hanged and naked in her room, a hint of a smile playing on her painted lips. Could her apparent suicide be more than just that? Would this beautiful girl—sensuous, compassionate, full of vitality—have taken her own life? Or did someone take it from her? With too many loose ends to count, planted evidence, and motives mounting, Nigel must delve into Miss Restorick's colorful past to solve this tragic mystery.