Murder Room
30 total works
A murder has taken place on stage and it seems that one of three people must be guilty. The crime was committed in full view of the audience and players, but no one can say whom the murderer is. There appear to be no clues, the suspects are all well trained in the art of dissimulation, and all three deny any knowledge of the crime.
It looks like the perfect murder, until Dr Basil Willing, psychiatrist-sleuth, begins to investigate the peculiar behaviour of a pet canary and a housefly.
Celia McNeill is under arrest during her vacation to France and, desperate for cash, she makes a deal with card master Sergei Radetzkoy, whom she meets while being detained in Dieppe.
He says he's just lucky at cards, but the crooks who follow him from the casino aren't interested in his winnings. They demand to know his 'system'. The fashionable folk who rescue him don't conceal their interest in his extraordinary success at the casino either - an interest that leads to murder ...
Marian Tansey appears to be living a happy life. She has great friends, a job in a thrift shop, and she has just bought a new car. She may even be falling in love with Dick Lang, who sold it to her. She could be on top of the world, but there are a few clouds in the sky.
There is a mystery surrounding the car. It has been 'borrowed' during the night by someone unknown. But most of all there's the frightening fact that, although she hasn't admitted it to any of her friends or colleagues, Marian lost her memory a year or two ago and has no idea who she is. Then, there is a murder ...
The sign read 'Do Not Disturb', and at first Edith Talbot ignored the pitiful whimpering that came through the door. The hotel clerk assured her that the room was occupied by a sick boy under the care of a physician. Later in the night, when the cries resumed, she felt something must be done, and she made the fatal mistake of knocking on the door ...
From then on things begin to happen, strange things that at first seem like coincidence but crescendo into a series of hair-raising events.
'Continuous action, and extra good writing' Saturday Review of Literature
In this collection of eight stories by one of America's most gifted writers, Helen McCloy takes the reader into a world of mystery and imagination.
In the signature story - 'The Singing Diamonds' - Mathilde Verworn enlists the help of Basil Willing, a psychiatrist-sleuth, to answer the question of whether there is such a thing as collective hallucination. Six people from six different locations testify to seeing diamond-shaped objects in the sky, and four of those six have died in peculiar circumstances in the past twelve days ...
Adam Endicott did not want Sam Joel as a husband for his young daughter, Kate. His past was sketchy and, as a reporter on a small-town newspaper, his assets were meagre. Yet when Kate is abducted by a terrorist group, Sam is able to produce a large part of the ransom.
But paying the terrorists' demand does not bring back Kate. It only leads to another murder. When Sam decides to look for Kate himself he indeed finds a girl, but is it her? Can her experience have changed her this much? Is this the girl he loves, or a changeling?
When Dr Basil Willing rents a small shack for a vacation on Long Island he becomes embroiled with his landlady, Claudia Bethune. Claudia wants to learn the secrets of her relatives and friends, so she steals a truth serum and holds a dinner party for her nearest and dearest.
In the early morning hours, as Dr Willing returns to his cottage, he sees what he thinks is a fire and investigates. He finds Claudia near death at the table and hears footsteps fading up the stairs. Someone didn't want Claudia to learn the truth about them, and soon Dr Willing finds himself a suspect in murder.
Tatiana 'Tash' Perkins, a brilliant young journalist, is sent by her paper to interview the State Governor's wife, and a strange interview it is: the woman behaves like a zombie, and when they are alone together she slips a letter to Tash and asks her to post it. But before Tash can do so, her handbag is snatched and the letter with it.
Yet the governor charms her, and soon she is accepting a job as his campaign speech-writer. But Tash is soon drawn into a frightening sequence of events, ranging from the killing of a canary to murder by arson, and an assassination at a political rally.
After 15 years of living elsewhere under an assumed name - one he has made famous by becoming a successful writer - Frank Bly, aka Stephen Longworth, returns to the town where an attempt was made on his life, and from which he escaped leaving no clues behind.
He confronts several people who have thought him dead. He thinks one of them is the person who tried to kill him. Before he finds the truth, there is more murder, attempted murder and a suicide ...
When Sara Dacre comes across a large red pendant at a twenty cent jewellery stall she is tempted to buy it - especially when she bumps into her friend Gerry Hone, who persuades her that it will brighten up her old grey taffeta.
But soon she finds herself at the centre of some strange events. On leaving the shop she and Gerry witness the scene of an accident - but nobody can agree what happened. And when Gerry takes her to an automat for coffee he goes to the counter to order - and never comes back ...
'Explosive' Birmingham Post