The Black Spectacles

The British Library
An evocative, 1930s mystery from the golden age of crime writing; carefully selected and republished by the British Library with an informative new introduction. A poisoned box of chocolates brings death to Sodbury Cross’s idyllic High Street. Relatives and locals are mystified how the poison could have been administered under the nose of the shopkeeper. Marcus Chesney tries to re-enact the crime and stages an elaborate memory game to show how the poisoning could have taken place undetected. But when Chesney himself is murdered in full view of witnesses and with cameras filming every moment disbelief turns to terror. Can Dr. Gideon Fell tease out the truth in a masterpiece of the impossible-mystery-genre? First published in 1939, an ingenious story written by John Dickson Carr (1906-77); the American-born author who developed a distinctly ‘British’ style with his mystery writing, becoming one of only two Americans admitted to the Detection Club.

Paperback
19 x 13cm
271 pages
FSC accredited paper
Originally published in 1939, text reflects prevailing attitudes of the time