The Three Taps

Ronald Knox’s 1927 mystery introduces Miles Bredon, an investigator for the Indescribable Insurance Company, who is sent to look into the death of a wealthy businessman named Mottram. Mottram has been found dead at a country inn, apparently killed by gas from a faulty fitting, but the payout on his large life policy hangs on whether the death was accident, death, or murder. Bredon, aided by his quick-witted wife Angela and shadowed by a rival amateur sleuth, works through a tangle of clues with the dry humor that marks Knox at his best. A founding member of the Detection Club, Knox plays fair, laying every fact before the reader.