I picked this one up because I enjoy John Dickson Carr but I forgot how off the rails the solutions can be. The writing throughout most of the book is smooth and interesting. And it stays interesting but I don't think it's a solution that would be put out today.
A publisher, Edward Stevens is reading a book on female murderers by a a reclusive author. He is astonished to see a picture that looks startlingly like his wife, down to the bracelet that she wears. But by the time he gets home, the picture is no longer in the manuscript.
That concern is overshadowed by the fact that he is called because his friend believes that the friend's uncle, Miles Despard, was murdered. Stevens is skeptical because the idea had never been presented before. There WAS the testimony of the housekeeper that there was a woman dressed in old fashioned clothes who seemingly walked through a wall that has been covered up for over two hundred years. She has nothing to gain by saying that and more evidence starts to mount. What actually happened?
Three stars
This book came out in 1937, reissued November 4, 2025
ARC kindly provided by Penzler Publishers and NetGalley
Opinions are my own
