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.
"One of the best . . . Read it for the story or puzzle or period color-but by all means read it."
The New York Times Book Review
"A master magician . . . The king of the art of misdirection."
Agatha Christie
"Mr. Carr can lead us away from the small, artificial world of the ordinary detective plot into the menace of outer darkness. . . . Every sentence gives a thrill of positive pleasure."
