The Punch and Judy Murders (1937)
Blurb:
My review:
One of the best Carter Dicksons, in which humour and the detective story are neatly combined. Ken Blake's pre-nuptial adventures, in which he is chased by the police and eludes them by putting on a series of disguises, are superbly funny, and the plot twists and turns like an anaconda in an epileptic fit. Fortunately, H.M.—more serious than usual, perhaps in contrast to the humour of the rest of the book—is there to disentangle the whole preposterous gallimaufry. Having interviewed the suspects and heard ingenious multiple solutions in the Berkeley-Queen style, H.M. produces a great surprise solution, with which the only flaw is that the villain does not receive his comeuppance. A book as light, as complex, and as hilariously unpredictable as North by Northwest.