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“Elizabeth Daly rose like a star on the mystery fans’ horizon with Unexpected Night.”—The New York Times “Spooky from start, with extra shivery climax at [a] theatrical performance where death plays leading role.”—The Saturday Review Amberly Cowden was staying at a Maine golf resort just as he attained the age of majority, and with it a one million dollar inheritance. “He is imagined to have celebrated his coming of age by going out and falling off a cliff. Poor old Amby.” “Poor old Amby,” indeed, but it is fine news and better timing for his relatives. Had he died before reaching the age of 21, every cent of the money would have gone to “some French connections” utterly alien to Amberly’s American relations. As luck would have it, the extra-keen sleuth Henry Gamadge is at the resort for a bit of R & R. Never one to ignore a suspicious turn of events, Gamadge vows to get to the bottom of young Amberly’s death, no matter what the cost. From the jacket: Distinguished by a delightful humor and by the freshness of its writing, this novel tells of terror and strange murder in a Maine seacoast resort. An army family, the relatives and hangers-on of a rich young invalid, a summer theater group of Irish players, an expert on documents, and the salt Maine air are the components of Miss Daly’s novel. The reasons why it was necessary for Amberley Cowden’s body to be found on the beach at the bottom of the cliff near the hotel and for his sister alma to be repeatedly frightened are part of the solution of this original and unusual plot. Young Gamadge doesn’t think it strange that Amberly Cowden has died, but he begins to worry when one of the Irish players tells him that he had the evil eye. It turns out that the actor was very nearly right. With great skill and a fine feeling for people and detail Miss Daly makes her first novel individual and vividly alive.

From Agatha Christie’s favorite American author—creepy correspondence from a Manhattan mansion puts an amateur sleuth on the trail of a killer. Take one grand house, stuff it with staff, and make it home to several generations. If they send their sons to Oxford and occasionally knock each other off, you’ve got a country-house murder mystery, the delight of classic English crime fiction. But if the boys are at Yale, odds are that you’re reading its American counterpart, the New York mansion mystery—a genre largely invented by Elizabeth Daly. In Arrow Pointing Nowhere, Daly is back on the Upper East Side, where antiquarian book dealer Gamadge has been receiving missives suggesting that all is not right at the elegant Fenway mansion. But first he must find out who the messages are from . . . “Highly recommended.” —New Republic “Told with all the skill that Miss Daly has at her command, and she has plenty.” —New York Times

In this mystery by Agatha Christie’s favorite American author, an amateur sleuth deals with sinister spirits and murder at a New York country mansion. It’s mid-1943, and Henry Gamadge is up to his elbows in war work and longing for a quiet weekend. But when a half-forgotten classmate requests assistance, Gamadge is unable to refuse the tug of an old school tie. Sylvanus Hutter is concerned about his Aunt Florence, a giddy socialite terrified of Nazi bombs. Florence has moved her extensive household of hangers-on to the family mansion in upstate New York. But menace seems to have followed them, in the form of threatening messages inserted into the manuscript of Florence’s painfully bad novel in progress. Several members of the household are convinced the messages are emanating from Another World, but the politely pragmatic Gamadge suspects a culprit rather closer to home. “Deliciously gossipy, back-biting characters, an imposing mansion in upstate New York . . . altogether a pleasure.” —The New Yorker

From Agatha Christie’s favorite American author—a bookish sleuth attempts to solve the murder of a spiritual eccentric at a wealthy estate. Just about any of the guests at Johnny Redfield’s party seems to have a good reason to have killed the guest of honor, Johnny’s Californian aunt who, with her astral name and vague pretensions of mysticism, does not exactly blend in the elegant New York atmosphere that surrounds her. And what’s more, no one has a solid alibi. It will take all of Henry Gamadge’s ingenuity to figure out this closed-room mystery.

An amateur sleuth aids a Maine town plagued by poison in this mystery by Agatha Christie’s favorite American author. With talk of war all over the radio waves, antiquarian book dealer Henry Gamadge is back in Maine, this time by invitation of his friend Detective Mitchell. Mitchell has a real puzzler on his hands: three different children have been poisoned with deadly nightshade, and there is no motive that could possibly link all three poisonings, beside the fact that the children all live in the same small community. Could the nearby encampment of Gypsies be involved? And was the death of a state trooper at about the same time a mere coincidence? Gamadge sets out to separate fact from fiction and find the killer before they strike again . . . “An exciting novel and an excellent mystery.” —San Jose News

From Agatha Christie’s favorite American author—an amateur detective examines the mysterious reappearance of a woman who vanished 100 years ago. One hundred years earlier, a beautiful guest had disappeared from the wealthy Vauregard household, along with the second volume in a set of the collected works of Byron. Improbably enough, both guest and book seem to have reappeared, with neither having aged a day. The elderly Mr. Vauregard is inclined to believe the young woman’s story of having vacationed on an astral plane. But his dubious niece calls in Henry Gamadge, gentleman-sleuth, expert in rare books, and sufficiently well-bred to avoid distressing the Vauregard sensibilities. As Gamadge soon discovers, the household includes an aging actress with ties to a spiritualist sect and a shy beauty with a shady (if crippled) fiancé. As always in this delightful series, Gamadge comes up trumps, but only after careful study of the other players’ cards. “Delightfully original and suavely written.” —New York Times

Spinster Alice Dunbar disappeared shortly after her old and wealthy Aunt Woodworth died. But no one connects the events except Gamadge. Daughter of a comfortably well-off family, Alice's dreary life consisted of running household errands with the family chauffeur. What motive would she have to run away? She had no money, no vices, and no lover. Or did she? Once Gamadge discovers the true destination of Alice's frequent drives, he finds himself racing down a winding, dark road that leads straight to a very dead end.

An amateur sleuth with an eye for fakes is on the lookout for a murderer in this mystery by Agatha Christie’s favorite American author. What begins as a courtesy call on his wife’s friend, Miss Julia Paxton, turns into another case for Henry Gamadge, antiquarian book dealer, handwriting expert, and amateur detective. Miss Paxton presents Gamadge with a mystery: a framed etching that had always hung in the hallway of the Ashbury mansion has suddenly sprung an inscription dated 1793. Miss Paxton swears nothing had been written on that portrait before the previous Sunday. Did Iris Vance, a relative and professional medium, made it happen? And how? Henry Gamadge is pretty sure the solution to this mystery has nothing to do with the supernatural, but he can’t quite make out what it all means. Was it a joke? Petty larceny? Or is something much more dangerous going on, and has Gamadge somehow stumbled onto a criminal conspiracy?

A crossword puzzle leads a 1950s antiquarian book dealer to a puzzling family in this mystery by Agatha Christie’s favorite author. Amateur detective Henry Gamadge is summoned to a secluded estate by way of a crossword puzzle, the only means of communication for a widow being held captive by her relatives. They claim she’s lost her mind; she thinks they have shut her away to keep her from spilling on her late husband’s suspicious suicide. Gamadge knows that a woman who can convey her situation in the space of a crossword is most definitely in possession of her mental faculties. But can he sort out the secrets of a clan so hell-bent on avoiding a scandal? “Henry Gamadge is one of the more captivating sleuths in detective fiction.” —New York Herald Tribune