who settled in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1634, Charles Stuart Palmer (1905–1968) led a picaresque American life before becoming a successful writer, holding such jobs as iceman, sailor, publicity man, apple picker, newspaper reporter, taxi driver, poet, editor, and ghostwriter.
The Penguin Pool Murder (1931) introduced the popular spinster-sleuth Hildegarde Withers. Formerly a schoolteacher, the thin, angular, horse-faced snoop devotes her energy to aiding Inspector Oliver Piper of the New York City Police Department, driving him slightly crazy in the process. She is noted for her odd, even eccentric, choice of hats. Palmer stated that she was based on his high school English teacher, Miss Fern Hackett, and on his father.
There were thirteen more novels in the Miss Withers series, the last, Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene (1969), being completed by Fletcher Flora after Palmer died. There also were four short story collections, with the first, The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers (1947), being selected as a Queen’s Quorum title. It was followed by The Monkey Murder and Other Hildegarde Withers Stories (1950) and People vs. Withers and Malone (1963), in conjunction with Craig Rice, which also featured her series character, John J. Malone. The fourth, Hildegarde Withers: Uncollected Riddles (2002), was published posthumously.
The film version of The Penguin Pool Murder was released in 1932 and spurred five additional comic mystery films. The first three of the six featured Edna May Oliver in a perfect casting decision, followed by Helen Broderick, and then two with Zasu Pitts, including the last, Forty Naughty Girls (1937). Piper was played by James Gleason in all films.
The success of the series gained Palmer employment as a scriptwriter with thirty-seven mystery screenplays to his credit, mostly for such popular series as Bulldog Drummond, the Lone Wolf, and the Falcon.
“The Riddle of the Black Museum” was originally published in the March 1946 issue of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine; it was first collected in The Riddles of Hildegarde Withers (New York, Jonathan Press, 1947).