The Red Widow Murders (1935)
Blurb:
My review:
Masterly treatment of the stock situation of the man found poisoned in "a room that kills," this one dating from the Revolution. H.M., at his most serious and intelligent, recognises the significance of the clue of the chicken soup, murdered animals, hypnotism and ventriloquism. The murder method is ingenious in its simplicity and utterly surprising, although clues, properly interpreted, abound (although the reader, like Chief Insp. Masters, may be led astray by mist and a Japanese dressing-gown). The identity of the murderer, monomaniac and megalomaniac, is a surprise; the motive, hinging on the lunacy law, unusual.