The Judas Window by John Dickson Carr (writing as Carter Dickson). One of the five best locked room mysteries, as selected by 14 established mystery authors and critics (All But Impossible!, 1981. ed. E. Hoch). The Case: Avory Hume is found dead with an arrow through his heart—in a study with bolted steel shutters and a heavy door LOCKED FROM THE INSIDE. In the same room James Caplon Answell lies unconscious, his clothes disordered as though from a struggle. The Attorney for the Defense: That gruff and grumbling old sleuth, Sir Henry Merrivale, who proves himself superb in court—even though his gown does tear with a rending noise as he rises majestically to open the case. The Action: Before H.M. can begin his defense, Answell, his client, rises and cries out that he is guilty. Sir Henry doesn't believe it. But proof, circumstantial evidence, and the man's own confession point to his guilt. So the great, explosive detective gets down to serious sleuthing and at last startles the crowd in the Old Bailey with a reconstruction of the crime along logical, convincing lines.

John Dickson Carr, a master of the Golden Age British-style mystery novel, presents Dr. Gideon Fell's most chilling case, in which a clock-obsessed killer terrorizes LondonA clockmaker is puzzled by the theft of the hands of a monumental new timepiece he is preparing for a member of the nobility. That night, one of the stolen hands is found buried between a policeman's shoulder blades, stopping his clock for all time.The crime is just peculiar enough to catch the attention of Dr. Gideon Fell, the portly detective whose formidable intellect is the terror of every criminal in London. Working closely with Scotland Yard, he finds that the case turns on the question of why the clock hands were stolen. And learning the answer will put Dr. Fell squarely in the path of a madman with nothing but time on his hands.

Historical mystery featuring a real life detective set in Victorian England. Bawdy, funny, puzzling, frightening.

The body of a young woman, who has been stabbed in the back, is found floating in the Seine River. The body of another young woman, with a knife in her back, is found in the arms of a wax figure, the "Satyr of the Seine", in a local wax museum. All available clues lead directly to the infamous "Club of the Silver Key", where aristocratic masked club members mix and mingle in the darkened rooms in search of adulterous entertainment. Henri Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle must penetrate the club and make sense of the few clues before Bencolin arrives at the solution and makes a very surprising wager with the murderer.

Arthur Fane arranges an unusual entertainment for his uncle, a long-term guest, and a few other witnesses — he hires Dr. Rich to hypnotise his wife Victoria. The guests, but not Victoria, have been shown that a gun in the room is actually harmless; everyone, including Victoria, is aware that a dagger provided is made of rubber. The hypnotised Victoria is invited to shoot her husband, and refuses; when told to stab him, though, she agrees. Unfortunately, someone has substituted a real dagger for the rubber one, even though everyone in the room agrees that it would have been impossible to make the substitution. Although Sir Henry Merrivale is busily engaged in dictating his scandalous and slanderous memoirs to a ghost writer, he takes a hand to solve the murder with his friend Chief Inspector Masters, and brings things to a head just as another death occurs.

Sir Henry Merrivale (better known to the public, and to his co-workers of the Military Intelligence Department as "H.M.") had disappeared. Two of his young friends were to be married the following day. Then a telegram arrived: MEET ME IMPERIAL HOTEL TORQUAY IMMEDIATELY EXPRESS LEAVES PADDINGTON 3:30 URGENT MERRIVALE. At once everyone was precipitated into the Punch and Judy Murders… Hours later, the prospective bridegroom, now a fugitive from justice, and dressed in an unlawfully appropriated policeman's uniform, stood at the open door of a small library, confronted with a corpse. He was wondering how he could escape from the house before the bona fide police arrived…

Another of Carr's mysteries with a strong gothic touch, this one involving a psychic.  _________________

Too many murderers. White Priory was a beautiful old mansion outside London. Its owner, a playwright, had invited some people down to discuss his new play, among other things…But someone had come not to talk, but to kill. When Scotland Yard joined the houseparty, everyone started to talk, but all they did was accuse each other of murder — and all their accounts seemed equally plausible. It was a case for Sir Henry. Only Merrivale could sort out the suspects and mark the murderer before he killed again…

A Grand Master of the British-style detective story brings Victorian England to vivid life in this murder mystery, which critic Anthony Boucher hailed as a "faultless formal puzzle in detection"In 1865, novelist Clive Strickland is relaxing at his club when his friend Victor Damon comes to him in a panic, begging Clive to help him marry off his sister to a cash-poor marquis whose affections reek of gold-digging. Victor doesn't care. Something sinister lurks at High Chimneys and he wants his sisters out of the house before their lives are put in danger.Old Matthew Damon, their father, has long been dogged by scandalous rumors of solitary visits to the cells of women about to be hanged for murder. But when murder is done at High Chimneys, Strickland and private investigator Jonathan Whicher will have to sort out the rumors and look behind the discreetly drawn curtains of High Chimneys for a killer.