A01=Carter Dickson
A01=John Dickson Carr
Author_Carter Dickson
Author_John Dickson Carr
Category=FFC
Category=FFJ
detective
eq_bestseller
eq_crime
eq_fiction
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
forthcoming
Golden Age mystery
impossible crime
inspector
literary
traditional British mystery
whodunit
Product details
- ISBN 9780712369558
- Publication Date: 10 Jul 2026
- Publisher: British Library Publishing
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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On the eve of his wedding to Evelyn Cheyne, who he met and fell in love with during the course of The Unicorn Murders, former spy Kenwood Blake is summoned to Devon by spymaster Sir Henry Merrivale, and asked to take part in an undercover operation. Despite being assured he’ll be back in London in time for the wedding the following morning, Blake is unconvinced.
Once in Torquay, he is sent to investigate Paul Hogenauer, a local scientist of German heritage, who has been dabbling in spiritualism and the occult – a man Merrivale and Devon’s Chief Constable Colonel Charters suspect of anti-British espionage. But, on entering his house, he finds Hogenauer dead in a chair in his sitting room, showing all the signs of strychnine poisoning.
When he finds Hogenauer’s friend and confidant Dr Keppel dead in his hotel room in Bristol, also apparently from strychnine poisoning, he has a seemingly impossible mystery to unravel. Can he solve the clues, bring the killer to justice and still get to the church in time to get married in the morning?
Once in Torquay, he is sent to investigate Paul Hogenauer, a local scientist of German heritage, who has been dabbling in spiritualism and the occult – a man Merrivale and Devon’s Chief Constable Colonel Charters suspect of anti-British espionage. But, on entering his house, he finds Hogenauer dead in a chair in his sitting room, showing all the signs of strychnine poisoning.
When he finds Hogenauer’s friend and confidant Dr Keppel dead in his hotel room in Bristol, also apparently from strychnine poisoning, he has a seemingly impossible mystery to unravel. Can he solve the clues, bring the killer to justice and still get to the church in time to get married in the morning?
Carter Dickson was the pseudonym used by the American author John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) for his novels starring Sir Henry Merrivale. Carr was a prolific writer of highly regarded mysteries, many featuring Merrivale or Dr Gideon Fell. His novels republished in the British Library Crime Classics series include The Ten Teacups, The Judas Window, The White Priory Murders and The Unicorn Murders.
