Puzzle for Players

Patrick Quentin, best known for the Peter Duluth puzzle mysteries, also penned outstanding detective novels from the 1930s through the 1960s under other pseudonyms, including Q. Patrick and Jonathan Stagge. Anthony Boucher wrote: “Quentin is particularly noted for the enviable polish and grace which make him one of the leading American fabricants of the murderous comedy of manners; but this surface smoothness conceals intricate and meticulous plot construction as faultless as that of Agatha Christie.”

Theater producer Peter Duluth is fresh out the sanitarium where he got sober; found his new love, Iris; and also happened to help catch a murderer. Now he’s dead set on staging his big comeback with a new play featuring his lady as the star.

Unfortunately, they end up in a broken-down theater where the rats keep company with ghosts, and where there hasn’t been a hit in years. Combined with the usual egos, divas, and personal demons, it will be a miracle if Peter can get the play off the ground.

But his seemingly cursed production turns deadly when an actor literally dies onstage, with another murder soon to follow—this is not a dress rehearsal. Now it’s up to Peter to shine a spotlight on a killer.