“High ingenuity…splendid eating in San Francisco restaurants, and narrator Jean Abbott, always vividly observant of feminine fashions, this time finds that a fashion note is a vital clue.”—The New York Times Jack Ivers, an urban sophisticate with a particular fondness for wealthy women, lies peacefully in his bed, dead. This scenario is greatly convenient for the woman who finds him, as she was on the scene to kill him herself. More curious, the thirteen red tulips she noticed entering Ivers’ home had been replaced by thirteen white tulips before she made her exit. A number of people had good reason to want Jack Ivers dead, and naturally it falls to Jean and Pat Abbott to solve the confounding case. “Amusing and sophisticated.”—The [London] Star “Fashion hints all over place. Smooth.”—The Saturday Review “…has an authentic-seeming San Francisco background for the activities of its two happily married young sleuths and their dachshund, and is strong on personal relations, colour, dress and dialogue, and very nearly as strong on clues.”—The Sphere “Brightly-told excitement, with good dressing and good food as you go along.”—Lady

A young couple and their dachshund star in a stylish San Francisco–set Golden Age mystery of “high ingenuity” (The New York Times). Jack Ivers, a man-about-town with a taste for rich women, has been found dead in his bed. What’s particularly odd is that the chief suspect, a surgeon’s fashionable wife, claims that she spotted thirteen red tulips upon entering the victim’s home—that were somehow replaced with thirteen white tulips by the time she departed. It’s up to sleuthing spouses Jean and Pat Abbott to dig through the dead man’s questionable past and determine in whose heart a murderous passion blossomed . . . “Amusing and sophisticated.” —Daily Star “Smooth.” —Saturday Review “Brightly-told excitement, with good dressing and good food as you go along.” —Lady

During a stay in Kentucky horse country, a husband-and-wife detective team race to find a killer . . . PI Pat Abbott and his wife, Jean, are vacationing in Kentucky horse country and visiting Pat’s old friend Rob Murray, who lives there with his sister and daughter. But when Rob’s trainer is found dead, Pat is willing to bet it’s murder despite the local doctor’s verdict of suicide. The quest to find the truth will involve a fainting blonde at the Abbotts’ hotel and some of the more colorful citizens of Lexington in this suspenseful Golden Age classic featuring “one of the more interesting married teams of detectives” (Thrilling Detective). Praise for the Pat and Jean Abbott Mysteries “Lively and exciting.” —The New York Times “[A] well-plotted and mystifying case.” —Saturday Review “Nasty characters and clues pointing off in all directions—quite good.” —The Miami News

The Man in Gray was published in the United Kingdom as The Gray Stranger “ ‘Now, what’s an enologist?’ I asked the dog. In reply he began to bark furiously and rushed at the front door. He yowled as if in panic.” An enologist is one who studies wine. Daniel Vincent Willoz was one who studied wine until someone put a murderous end to his enological practices. As is often the case, Willoz spent too much time on enology and too little on toxicology. The good news is that Jean and Pat Abbott are present to solve this fiendishly complex murder puzzle set in San Francisco.

In exotic Tangier, the well-known husband and wife team of Pat and Jean Abbott discover that international drug trafficking, plus greed and intrigue, invariably spell catastrophe for those involved therein. And very bad luck for a number of free-loading beachcombers and expatriates who’d just about convinced themselves that they never had it so good.

“Bodies and bafflement galore in multi-murderous tale with considerable Hollywood glitter, ample suspense, and breathless conclusion. Nice gory going.”—The Saturday Review Pat and Jean are invited by distant relatives to stay at the Black Cypress estate in Laguna Beach. It seems that one of the Abbotts’ less-than-pleasant distant relations, Enid Ponsonby, is being watched with a murderous eye, and Pat and Jean are called in for their sleuthing talents. As a welcoming act, an expert knife thrower offers Jean a pointy death, which she barely has the chance to decline. The next morning a ne’er-do-well visiting from New Orleans is found on the property at the base of a cliff, having taken a shortcut to the bottom. The Abbotts face a cast of characters whose dysfunctional relationships with one another ensure the case is no walk on the beach.

“One always embarks on a John Rhode book with a great sense of security. One knows that there will be a sound plot, well-knit process of reasoning, and a solidly satisfying solution with no loose ends or careless errors of fact.”—Dorothy Sayers From the Jacket: Fair blew the wind from France, and the Channel steamer Isle of Jethou rolled a bit in the stiff south-westerly breeze. But the rough crossing didn’t upset the mysterious passenger who had locked himself into his cabin as soon as he boarded the boat at Guernsey. The same desire for seclusion had manifested itself on the boat-train to Waterloo, for the guard had been presented with a pound-note to reserve a compartment for Mr. Mystery. But did he travel alone? For at Waterloo the gentleman from Guernsey was a pretty genuine corpse. Death on the Boat-Train is a first-rate detective story, once again featuring the coldly clever scientific mind of Dr. Priestley, John Rhode’s brilliant creation.