Dell 370 (1950)

Synopsis:

What this mystery is about:

An ingenious suicide, which somehow smells of murder, in a sealed room on the zoo grounds... A pair of professional magicians (young, hot-headed, assorted male and female) with a grudge against each other that dates back four generations... A Bornese tree-snake named Patience... A pistol shot that wrings an eager smile from a devoted relative... A dinner rapidly becoming charcoal in a very empty house all decked out for a party... A reptile house which becomes the scene of increasingly amazing events... A photograph that causes an unaccountable shock... Excitement on the catwalk of an empty theater... A burned paper match that incites a frenzied attempt upon the life a beautiful girl.

Wouldn't you like to know:

• How a murderer manages to put to shame two famous families of escape artists?
• Why Agnes Noble seems to regard the victim's death as a deliberate of discourtesy?
• How a dead snake points to a murder?
• How to get away from a Gila monster?
• The secret of Fatima, the card-playing dummy?
• How to get a confession from someone who is dead sure it can't be done?
• What happens when old Sir Henry Merrivale become the unwilling roommate of two deadly snakes and a murderer?