No sooner has Inspector Roderick Alleyn settled in to his mother’s house, eager for a relaxing end to his vacation, than he gets a call that a model has been stabbed at the artists’ community down the road.

This tale of murder at a snowed-in country house is a “constant puzzle to the end...alive with wit” (The New York Times).

During World War II, a mud-baths resort in rural New Zealand is on the brink of being taken over by a local blowhard who may be a Nazi spy. Inspector Alleyn has been sent in to sort things out—and don a disguise in order to blend in the resort’s motley cast of characters—in this classic tale of detection from the Mystery Writers of America Grand Master.

Sir Henry Ancred, a celebrated Shakespearean actor, has arranged to have his portrait painted by Agatha Troy, wife of Inspector Roderick Alleyn. But when Ancred is killed at his own birthday party, leaving behind a family full of suspects, Troy’s work ends and Inspector Alleyn’s begins…

Mary Bellamy is the sweetheart of the London stage. So when Mary manages to spritz herself with a deadly insecticide, Inspector Alleyn smells something fishy. And with a bit more investigation, he quickly starts smelling something different: a rat...