The Book of the Lion — Elizabeth Daly

A 1940s antiquarian book dealer gets caught up in a Manhattan writer's murder in this mystery from Agatha Christie's favorite American author.

It should be a fairly routine job for Henry Gamadge: Examining the papers of a dead poet and playwright with some early promise but not much in the way of commercial success. But it's not so much the life and letters as the death of the author (murdered in Central Park) that interests Gamadge. Add in a dead witness and the odd behavior of the family, and Gamadge decides something criminal is afoot.

“Gamadge richly deserves his popularity with readers. Every move he makes and every sentence he speaks prove him to be a likable, intelligent gentleman.” -- New York Times