The Mystery of Hunting's End

Published in 1930, ''The Mystery of Hunting's End'' by Mignon G. Eberhart, often dubbed "America's Agatha Christie," is a classic Golden Age whodunit, the third book in her popular Sarah Keate series. Set in the isolated Sand Hills of Nebraska, the story follows socialite Matil Kingery, who invites the same guests to her hunting lodge who were present exactly five years prior when her father died of alleged "heart failure". Matil is determined to expose his murderer.

The remote, rough-hewn lodge-smack in the middle of rolling grassy dunes-is soon battered by a November snowstorm, trapping the guests inside. The tension is heightened by a jittery, moping collie named Jericho, a stray cat that seems to herald unnatural deaths, and a mounting body count.

To catch the killer, detective Lance O'Leary poses as one of the guests. At his recommendation, Matil hires Nurse Sarah Keate to care for the cantankerous Aunt Lucy, providing the sharp-tongued nurse with a front-row seat to the unfolding panic and secrets. The locked-room mystery is particularly renowned for its atmospheric tension and claustrophobic setting.