[Dr. Twist 01] • The Fourth Door (Locked Room International)

Someone has volunteered to spend the night in the haunted room at the Darnley House. The room is sealed by pressing a unique coin, selected moments before, on the wax. But when the door is re-opened, someone else’s body is lying there, the seals are unbroken, and the coin has not left the possession of the witness.

Things are never what they seem in this classic Golden Age mystery, with a new twist in every chapter. A second impossible murder occurs inside a house surrounded by virgin snow. The detective in charge believes he is dealing with the re-incarnation of Houdini, but in the end there is a rational explanation to everything, and it is left to Dr. Alan Twist to provide it.

‘The Fourth Door,’ also known as ‘The Houdini Murders’ was the first best-seller of the French writer Paul Halter, widely regarded as the successor to John Dickson Carr; it won the coveted Prix du Roman Policier in 1987. Paul Halter has written over 30 novels, almost all ‘locked room,’ including ‘The Lord of Misrule’ also available in English on Amazon. In 2006 his collection of short stories ‘The Night of the Wolf’ appeared, to critical acclaim.

A third full-length novel, ‘The Seven Wonders of Crime,’ is in preparation. For comments and questions please contact: pugmire1@yahoo.com