Popular Library 19 (1943)

Synopsis:

Two men claim the same name and estate. Each insists that he is Sir John Farnleigh, heir to a rich baronetcy in Kent. Each man brands the other as an impostor. Each tells a different but equally convincing story.

Only one person is in a position to identify the real Sir John. That person is Kennet Murray, Sir John's former tutor, who has the answer in the form of fingerprints taken when Sir John was a boy.

Murray's knowledge, needless to say, is dangerous. For it makes him a logical candidate for murder. In fact, one of the claimants even forewarns Murray: "I smell blood. You will have to be murdered..."

It was a shocking prediction to make. Yet that very night, in the garden of the Farnleigh estate, death struck swiftly, ruthlessly. And the victim was not Murray!

"Ingenious" is the word for THE CROOKED HINGE, a masterpiece of crime detection starring John Dickson Carr's philosophical sleuth, Dr. Gideon Fell.

Many puzzles crop up to baffle Dr. Fell. One is the strange significance of the crooked hinge. Another involves the hideous Golden Hag, a mechanical automaton.

THE CROOKED HINGE is a gripping mystery in which magic, an "impossible" killing and witchcraft are skillfully blended.