Book details

Book description

Six masked and identically dressed clowns meet at a fancy dress ball. One of them is murdered. Was the claivoyante right in claiming that she foresaw the crime? The inspector believed that she recognised the dead man. Did she? Or was she herself to be the next victim?



With a murdered clown, five suspects and several red herrings Josephine Bell sets a pretty problem in detection for David Wintringham the doctor and amateur detective. Her new story of crime and the supernatural is elegantly contrived with a careful attention to intriguing clues and misleading detail. Its exciting course and highly original denouement will in every way justify the expectations of the author’s many admirers. Josephine Bell was born Doris Bell Collier in Manchester, England. Between 1910 and 1916 she studied at Godolphin School, then trained at Newnham College, Cambridge until 1919. At the University College Hospital in London she was granted M. R.C. S. and L. R.C. P. in 1922, and a M. B. B. S. in 1924.



Bell was a prolific author, writing forty-three novels and numerous uncollected short stories during a forty-five year period.



Many of her short stories appeared in the London Evening Standard . Using her pen name she wrote numerous detective novels beginning in 1936, and she was well-known for her medical mysteries. Her early books featured the fictional character Dr. David Wintringham who worked at Research Hospital in London as a junior assistant physician. She helped found the Crime Writers' Association in 1953 and served as chair during 1959-60.