Fat Tuesday — Earl Emerson

When Fred Pugsley receives a dead rattlesnake in the mail, ex-Seattle cop Thomas Black and his friend, lawyer Kathy Birchfield, are called in to investigate. But when they get there, Fred is dead, and his stunned wife sits huddled in the kitchen, clutching a tool used on racing bicycles, the murder weapon.

If she didn't kill him, there are plenty of other suspects. Like Eric Castle, who, by the way, races bicycles.

It's perfect, really, that this bizarre case unfolds while Seattle stages its own Mardi Gras, because nothing could be a more fitting background for the finale than the wild blow-out on Fat Tuesday. It's quite a party....