The only door open to Hezekiah Morse's study was under observation when someone slipped in and stabbed the bibliophile to death. To the police, it looked like only his granddaughter could have done the deed, especially since she was to be disinherited—except for a terra-cotta statuette of a purple parrot—if she defied Morse in her choice of a marriage partner. Her real love, lawyer Barry Foster, didn't believe she was capable of murder. Fortunately, for both of them, neither did Theocritus Lucius Westborough, professor of Roman history and sometime amateur sleuth. But the aged, tiny professor must first determine what is so significant about the seemingly worthless piece of statuary from New Zealand or how bottles of rare wine and expensive first editions fit into the case.

Named one of the 25 Great Amateur Detective Novels of all time in The History of the Mystery by Max Allan Collins, published December 2001.

When his chryseldephantine statute of the lady of the Golden Serpents is stolen, a department store magnate asks the help of Theocritus Lucius Westborough, professor of Roman history, to help get it back. The magnate has recreated the Minoan palace of Knossos on an island off the coast of California and any number of his relatives or guests would have reason to steal the priceless relic. First published in 1939.

The elderly Roman historian, Prof. Theocritius Lucius Westborough is in his element when a wealthy Chicago collector of antigue weapons is done in with a medieval halberd. Add a locked-and-guarded room surrounded by unmarked snow from which a man disappears plus a cryptogram diary and you've got a real Golden Age puzzler. First published in 1939.

Theocritus Lucius Westborough, mild and meddlesome little professor of Roman history, is asked by world-famous perfumer to a dinner where a murder takes place to the accompaniment of seven rose candles, a scent of violets, a taste of almond and a candle that suddenly burned green. First published in 1940.

First published in 1941, this is the last book to feature Prof. Theoritus Lucious Westborough, a scholar specializing in Roman history. It's another locked room case involving rare jade.