Broadway producer Peter Duluth sought solace in a bottle after his wife's death; now, two years later and desperate to dry out, he enters a sanatorium, hoping to break his dependence on drink, but the institution doesn't quite offer the rest and relaxation he expected. Strange, malevolent occurrences plague the hospital; and among other inexplicable events, Peter hears his own voice with an ominous warning: "There will be murder." It soon becomes clear that a homicidal maniac is on the loose, and, with a staff every bit as erratic as its idiosyncratic patients, it seems everyone is a suspect, even Duluth's new romantic interest, Iris Pattison. Charged by the baffled head of the ward with solving the crimes, it's up to Peter to clear her name before the killer strikes again. A Puzzle for Fools

Duluth's theatrical comeback is threatened by a mysterious curse that seems to haunt his new theater. Members of the cast start turning up dead before the curtain call. This book makes nice use of the charcter's Broadway background. - The Mystery Lover's Companion, Art Bourgeau

To Peter Duluth the full-size puppets had the appearance of life—except for one which turned out to be Eulalia Crawford. There was a knife in her breast and she was horribly dead. Red Roses were strewn over Eulalia's corpse...the white roses came later and destroyed the plans Peter and his movie-star wife had made for their first night together in many months. They found themselves up to their ears in violence and wanted for murder. Their nights became one of wild pursuits through the dark streets of San Francisco's Chinatown and the backstage alleys of a circus.

Book by Quentin, Patrick

paperbound

A Fast Crowd, a Violent Death, and a Touch of Incest to Liven the Party Sally Haven was dangerous all right—dangerous, desperate, and dead. Peter Duluth had just met her the day before, at the bullfight in Taxco. Now her crumpled body lay thirty feet below the balcony of her apartment. Maybe she was murdered. Maybe by Peter’s wife. A gun-toting California citrus grower, a slim, marguerita-sipping brunette, and a golden boy novelist are the players, a near-perfect crime of passion is the puzzle, as Peter and Iris Duluth are plunged onto a gaudy carousel of love and death down Mexico way.

She was the sort of blonde that rolls off the assembly lines in Hollywood or Broadway, but could start a riot her in Mexico. she was young and beautiful, too young to be hitch-hiking alone in the wilds of tropical Yucatan. But there was something else about her, and it was not long after Peter Duluth had given her a lift that he realized what it was: the girl was running for her life. Later, in Mexico City, it was Peter himself who was running—from enemies he did not know. But he learned, there and in New Orleans, that danger is never behind you, but ahead. And that sometimes you have to run toward death in order to escape it....

Duluth, a Broadway producer and amateur detective, is baffled when his wife, Iris, discovers the body of Nanny Ordway, an aspiring writer he had recently befriended.

In this mystery from an Edgar Award-winning author, sleuth Peter Duluth steps in when his rebellious nephew is charged with murder. 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." Jake Duluth is a man alone. Three years after the suicide of his beloved wife, the wall between Jake and his son, Bill, has only grown higher. Bill's constant impulsiveness has driven Jake to distraction, while Jake's constant concern for his publishing business alienates Bill even more. But when Bill is accused of murdering Jake's business partner after falling in love with the man's much younger wife, Jake has no choice but to believe his son and call in someone with much more experience in such sinister matters—his brother, Peter. Now, with Bill's life at stake, Jake and Peter must follow a trail of secrets and twisted loyalties if they are going to uncover a culprit neither could have ever imagined.