Murder on the Face of It

Susan Yates, distinguished and charming New York fashion designer, was one of the few people on a transatlantic liner who knew that a fabulous figure of New York's glamour trade lay dead behind the closed door of a stateroom. Susan was one of the stream of Americans returning to New York from Europe's war scare, and when Lyle Curtis, assistant district attorney, met her at quarantine, she was very glad that freedom of the port was one of the benefits of his friendship. A tremendous news story about the death of a prominent figure, an unsolved case that reflected no credit on the district attorney's office, and a heterogeneous group of shipboard companions who kept up the appearance of friendship for many months, combined to keep Lyle and Susan alternately co-operating and diverging in what turned out to be the biggest case Lyle had yet handled. Written with a brightness that insures amusement, Murder on the Face of It presents a plot that will not easily be solved by even the cleverest murder-mystery addicts. Murder on the Face of It was first published in 1940. This edition includes an introduction by Curtis Evans.