A sharp-witted Manhattan schoolteacher tackles eight little mysteries in this collection from the author of The Puzzle of the Happy Holligan.
When not teaching third graders, middle-aged singleton Hildegard Withers enjoys sipping orange pekoe tea, reading Sherlock Holmes stories, and tending to her tropical fish. And from time to time, she also helps her friend, Insp. Oscar Piper, with some puzzling cases . . .
“The Riddle of the Lady from Dubuque”: Miss Withers goes undercover at an affluent dinner party, but murder cuts the evening short.
“The Riddle of the Yellow Canary”: Hildegarde races to prove a young songwriter’s death was a homicide and force her killer to face the music.
“The Riddle of the Blue Fingerprint”: A mahogany wardrobe for sale at a local auction house contains a peculiar surprise: the body of a man Miss Withers was hired to find.
“The Riddle of the Doctor’s Double”: A doctor pays a house call to a sick patient on Riverside Drive, but the housekeeper thinks she just let him in, so . . . who is upstairs with her boss?
“The Riddle of the Twelve Amethysts”: Miss Withers investigates a curious case of blackmail involving packages containing the violet gemstone.
“The Riddle of the Black Museum”: A baffling locked-room murder sends Miss Withers on a field trip to the NYPD’s famed collection of apprehended weapons.
“The Riddle of the Green Ice”: Apartment hunting in New York can be killer, but Miss Withers wasn’t expecting a robbery and a shooting, too.
“The Riddle of the Snafu Murder”: After a possible spy uses her name in bars around town, Hildegarde’s search for answers leads her to a Greenwich Village murder.
Her style may be eccentric, but Miss Withers is as clever as they come. If you enjoy reading these cases, be sure to check out any of the full-length mysteries in the series like The Penguin Pool Murder, Murder on Wheels, or Murder on the Blackboard.
Praise for the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries
“One of the world’s shrewdest and most amusing detectives.” —The New York Times
“Hildegarde Withers remains incomparable and inimitable.” —Anthony Boucher
