Book description
On his return to Geneva, Brian Innes must meet Audrey Page and find a
way to prevent her from joining the strangely temperamental group of
people gathered around film star Eve Eden at the Villa Rosalind. With
characteristic stubbornness, if not trusting naivety, she refuses to be
detained and is immediately encircled by terror, while the jaws of a
murder trap swing closed.
Fortunately, Dr Gideon Fell is on hand,and when the murderer strikes
with an invisible weapon, Fell accepts the challenge with brilliance and
wit. John Dickson Carr, the master of the locked-room mystery, was
born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, the son of a US Congressman. He studied
law in Paris before settling in England where he married an
Englishwoman, and he spent most of his writing career living in Great
Britain. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Golden Age mystery
writers, his work featured apparently impossible crimes often with
seemingly supernatural elements. He modelled his affable and eccentric
series detective Gideon Fell on G. K. Chesterton, and wrote a number of
novels and short stories, including his series featuring Henry
Merrivale, under the pseudonym Carter Dickson. He was one of only two
Americans admitted to the British Detection club, and was highly praised
by other mystery writers. Dorothy L. Sayers said of him that 'he can
create atmosphere with an adjective, alarm with allusion, or delight
with a rollicking absurdity'. In 1950 he was awarded the first of two
prestigious Edgar Awards by the Mystery Writers of America, and was
presented with their Grand Master Award in 1963. He died in Greenville,
South Carolina in 1977.
