The Riddle of Monte Verita

Monte Verita was once the site of a famous avant-garde community attracting celebrities such as Isadora Duncan, Carl Jung and Thomas Mann. Legend has it that its leader had himself sealed in a grotto in the hillside; when it was unsealed, he had vanished.

It is now 1938, and nearby Ascona is hosting a conference on the locked room mystery. A number of the participants are secretly agents for the Great Powers, jockeying for position on the eve of World War II. One of them accepts a challenge to be sealed in the same grotto and escape, but before he can do so, he is himself the victim of a spectacular impossible crime.

Bill Pronzini, one of the current masters of the genre writes: ‘I enjoyed The Riddle of Monte Verita. The “impossible” situations are quite ingeniously devised, developed, and explained. The author’s knowledge and love of the genre are admirable, and his skill would certainly have been applauded by the undisputed master of the impossible crime story, John Dickson Carr.’

The author of this complex and elegantly written mystery has been honoured by the Acadamie Française and the Cannes Film Festival for his work. This is his first novel, and the fourth publication of Locked Room International, dedicated to bringing top-quality locked room and impossible crime stories to lovers of the genre. Previous books in this series: The Lord of Misrule, The Fourth Door, and The Seven Wonders of Crime, all by Paul Halter, France’s master of the impossible mystery. Planned for later in 2012: The Demon of Dartmoor and The Invisible Circle, both by Paul Halter, and The Killing Needle by Henri Cauvin. For more information contact pugmire1@yahoo.com

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