The Midnight Guest

A celebrated painter, Louis Delahay, is found dead, and the investigation quickly narrows to the people closest to him: his wife and their trusted friend Lord Ravenspur. From there the case opens into a tangle of buried secrets, mistaken identities, and old grudges that stretch back further than anyone first suspects. Fred M. White builds his puzzle in the classic Edwardian manner, parceling out suspicion and misdirection while keeping the reader guessing about who the midnight guest really is. A brisk, plot-driven whodunit from a writer better remembered now for his disaster stories, it will suit fans of turn-of-the-century detective fiction. Available free as a PDF and EPUB edition.