He Wouldn't Kill Patience — Carter Dickson

"What the Goddamnholyblazes is goin' on in here?" roared the great Sir Henry Merrivale when he saw the tropical American lizard (Amieva Amieva), two feet long, with yellow stripes and in a bad temper, coming at him at full speed down the Reptile House.
A young man (a professional magician) furiously angry with a young woman (also a professional magician) had hurled the keeper, since he dared not hurl the young woman, through the glass of the tropical American lizard's case.
When a book starts like this, lively things are likely to happen. And when a man is murdered in a room where every crack is sealed - on the inside - with thick gummed paper, and a king cobra is one of the weapons used, and the victim's fellow victim is a Bornese tree snake called Patience, things look like being unusual as well as lively.