And So to Murder

John Dickson Carr was an American author of detective fiction, who also wrote using the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn. He is generally considered one of the greatest writers of so-called Golden Age of mystery fiction, and a master of the locked room mysteries, in which a detective solves crimes seemingly impossible to solve as they take place in a room with no apparent means of entrance or exit for the perpetrator. Often regarded as a British-style mystery writer, Carr resided in England for a number of years, and his novels have an English setting and English characters. His two best-known detectives, Dr. Gideon Fell and Sir Henry Merrivale, are both English. In "And so to Murder," the daughter of a British clergyman, writes a surprisingly scandalous best-seller and, as a result, is hired as a script writer. But, rather than working on her own novel, she has to help another writer to adapt his latest detective novel, “And So to Murder.” Inexplicably, several mysterious attempts to her life are made, and the world highest paid scenario writer, who was brought in from Hollywood to "punch up" the screenplay on another film, is nearly killed when smoking a poisoned cigarette. Sir Henry Merrivale helps Chief Inspector Masters to bring home the crimes to their unlikely perpetrator.