Dell 175 (1947)

Synopsis:

Things this mystery is about:

An innocent-looking water bottle containing a deadly corrosive acid... A commonplace message on a blackboard which almost sends a girl to destruction... A speaking-tube which emits no speech but horror... A "practical house" on a movie lot which is the setting for a scene which was never in the script.. A lump of putty thrown straight at a young lady in order to save her life... A revolver shot which smashes a window and also the picture of a preacher... Several thousand feet of mysteriously missing movie film.. Murder threats written on cheap pink stationery... A page of manuscript written in an unlivable hand... Fifty harmless cigarettes in a red leather box.. An inter-office telephone which becomes an instrument of torture.

Wouldn't you like to know:

• Why in heaven's name anyone would seek to murder innocent Monica Stanton?
• Who put acid in the ship's water bottle?
• Whether the bottle was knocked over accidentally?
• What became of the valuable missing movie film?
• What beautiful Frances Fleur was doing with a beer bottle near the 1882 set?
• How that deadly cigarette could possibly have got into the red leather box?

You will learn the answers to these question in a fast-paced story of how a beard and an ingenious murderer and irascible old Henry Merrivale combine to make life horribly thrilling for a pretty young script writer in a big movie studio.