Book description
It is no ordinary murder case that brings the famed French detective
Monsieur Bencolin out of retirement, but one that involves a midnight
rendezvous on a steamy Paris night, a broken love affair, and four
different murder weapons found in the secret villa where the body is
discovered.
Rose Klonec, whose corpse bears the mark of a particularly horrible
wound, had connections - and old lovers - throughout Paris, and soon the
number of suspects grows to match the number of possible weapons...
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.
