MURDER ON THE CAPE The best-selling novelist is dead in the summer house.The millionaire is in the pillory in the town square.The village idiot is guarding him with a twenty-foot bullwhip.The bridge champion is under arrest for stealing his own car.The doctor is trying to get everyone in sight jailed for murder. Dale Sanborn had as many visitors the night he was killed as if he'd been the most popular man on Cape Cod. One of them killed him—that was sure. The only trouble was, any of them could have—and all of them wanted to. Ginger, Miss Prue’s cat, ran into Dale Sanborn's shack. When Miss Prudence cautiously entered, Ginger was lapping oil from a sardine tin that lay next to the corpse of a celebrated novelist.When the local sheriff rounded up his suspects, they included Bill Porter, the millionaire who lived in Wellfleet because he hated cities and loved Miss Prue’s niece, Betsey; Johnny Kurth, and his divorced wife, both of whom tried to wangle invitations for the same weekend; and Betsey’s college friend who had hair like a chrysanthemum.But Asey Mayo, Bill Porter’s man of all work, a lean old Cape Codder whose maxim was “Common Sense,” puts his sharp wits to work to save Bill from being indicted. For the sheriff was so convinced of Bill’s guilt that he put him into the pillory the town made for its tercentenary celebration. Asey Mayo is an unusual type of detective. His observations are sage and his humor is infectious.(above from the jacket) New York Times: “Phoebe Atwood Taylor can get more fun into a detective story than any writer at present producing, and with all the fun there is a mystery that is baffling for its own sake." New York Herald Tribune: "Asey Mayo stories are always full of salty flavor with corking characters. More detective stories should be like those of Phoebe Atwood Taylor.” The suspect chart is included in this edition. Also available by Phoebe Atwood Taylor:Murder at the New York World’s FairBeginning with a Bash (Leonidas Witherall)The Iron Clew (Leonidas Witherall)Three Plots for Asey MayoPunch with Care (Asey Mayo)Diplomatic Corpse (Asey Mayo)

Phoebe Atwood Taylor once again embroils her scholarly sleuth Leonidas' Witherall in enough foul play to challenge his wits to their limit. Returning to the Cape after a trip around the world, Witherall investigates some odd doings on the train: he is knocked unconscious and kidnapped. When he finally manages to get home, he discovers the body of Miss Medora Winthrop in his garage. Even the amazing Witherall is hard put to solve this one.

"Buff" Orpington arrived in picturesque Quanomet to find the little Cape Cod town in ferment. A stupendous pageant of American history was being staged, and the inhabitants of Quanomet had time and thought for nothing else. But all was not as it should be in the small community. There had been more curious incidents than could be attributed to the usual petty jealousies and maneuverings for the best parts and positions. Quanomet was, in fact, in its modest way about to make history, and Buff finds himself taking an uncomfortably prominent role when he discovers a newly made corpse in the cemetery. After too long an absence, Asey Mayo, the salty Cape Cod Sherlock, returns in fine form to solve the baffling murder in his own inimitable way.

Asey Mayo, the "Codfish Sherlock Holmes," investigates the murder of a traveling performer.When the Cape Cod Players roll into towns along the lower Cape, the locals expect a great show, replete with games, magic, and merriment. Of course, they usually have an audience, too. When Boston widow Victoria Ballard, visiting the Cape to recover from a near-fatal bout with pneumonia, comes upon the troupe near her rural convalescent home, she ascertains that someone has played a nasty trick on the players, sending them to a remote destination in the wild backcountry in search of a paying gig. Sympathetic to the plight of the ragtag group, Vic invites them to stay the night with her, but when day breaks to find the lead magician with a bullet in his head, she realizes the cruel trick that brought the travelers to her home may have been part of a deadly plot—and that she may have been an unwitting participant.Enter Asey Mayo, Cape...

When an art auction ends in murder, unlikely sleuth Asey Mayo embarks on a search for the perpetrator in a crime that could by linked to the fierce competition between rival art dealers Miss Pitkin and Mr. Harmsworth, the discovery of an unexpected treasure, or the secrets of Quin Sharp, the auctioneer, in a mystery set on Cape Cod.

The sign said COME IN AND BROWSE—IT'S WARM INSIDE. Martin Jones made the mistake of his life when he joined the others inside the bookstore. One of them, Professor John North, would soon be dead. And Martin is going to be the prime suspect.Luckily for Martin the bookstore is owned by his friend Dot Peters, who knows he's innocent. Even with the able assistance of Leonidas Xenophon "Bill" Witherall, the retired headmaster of the Boston academy which Martin once attended, can she prove his innocence?

As the tourists arrive on the Cape for the summer a series of odd events – fires, shots in the night, thefts – threatens to scare them off. The homespun detective is called in to save the day – and finds a corpse in Hell Hollow. With the aid of Cousin Syl and his wife, Asey outwits both the State Police and the murderer.

It promised to be a cozy weekend house party on the Cape, but none of the guests had foreseen such a snowfall, none was prepared to be completely cut off, without heat, light or telephone. And certainly none had expected to find the host, Albert Stires, dead in his bedroom.Fortunately, Asey Mayo happens to be on the scene. At first, Stires seems to be the victim of arsenic, and suddenly there are too many suspects with far too easy access to the poison. But then Asey discovers a most ingenious murder weapon, virtually unknown in the twentieth century, which destroys its evidence as it works on its victim. Just as it nearly succeeds in working upon Asey himself!

Asey thought the Douglasses' behavior a bit suspicious when their imposing houseguest, writer and educator Carolyn Barton Boone, couldn't be found. Then Asey, in the company of Doc Cummings, happened to find her corpse over at Pochet Point in an antique Pullman railroad car, a punched green ticket in her hand. It was only when this singular cadaver abruptly vanished that things really began to get complicated, not to say downright threatening.