These Names Make Clues

Chief Inspector Macdonald attends a treasure hunt party at Graham Coombe's house, where he finds Samuel Pepys dead in the telephone room. With too many fake names, clues, ciphers, and convoluted alibis, Macdonald and his allies in the CID must unravel a tangled case in this metafictional masterpiece.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 10 September 2021
Publisher: British Library Publishing

Should detectives go to parties? Was it consistent with the dignity of the Yard? The inspector tossed for it-and went. Chief Inspector Macdonald has been invited to a treasure hunt party at the house of Graham Coombe, the celebrated publisher of Murder by Mesmerism. Despite a handful of misgivings, the inspector joins a guestlist of novelists and thriller writers disguised on the night under literary pseudonyms. The fun comes to an abrupt end, however, when Samuel Pepys is found dead in the telephone room in bizarre circumstances. Amidst the confusion of too many fake names, clues, ciphers, and convoluted alibis, Macdonald and his allies in the CID must unravel a truly tangled case in this metafictional masterpiece, which returns to print for the first time since its publication in 1937.

Weight: 240g
Dimension: 131 x 190 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780712353847