Hangman's Holiday

A 1933 collection of twelve detective stories rather than a continuous novel. Four feature Lord Peter Wimsey in cases that turn on a seaside hotel, a wine-tasting club, a sculptor's studio, and a string of pearls. Six follow Montague Egg, a travelling salesman in wines and spirits, who applies the maxims of his trade handbook to crimes met on the road and in commercial hotels. Two remaining stories stand outside both series: one concerns a garden fountain and a household secret, the other a man who claims a peculiar knowledge of how people die. The volume is a set of short puzzles in clubs, shops, and country houses.

Bound in pale blue cloth blocked with an image. Mid-blue endpapers. Pale blue slipcase.