Name Your Poison — Helen Reilly

Name Your Poison by Helen Reilly, an Inspector McKee Mystery

As McKee follows the trail of a very ambitious poisoner, he finds the next victim on her way from a Connecticut mansion…stuffed in a trunk.

“The case is probably the most complicated one in McKee's entire career. ... those who do not lose patience too easily will find in it as neat a bit of detecting as McKee has ever done.” -- The New York Times

“Svelte story…The gentle Scot, McKee, gets at the truth after many consequences. [Reilly's] smooth, romantic manner always pleases.” -- Kirkus Reviews

“The best Inspector McKee mystery yet! Highly emotional, intricately plotted, and tough to guess." �"New York Herald

“Verdict: Satisfying” -- The Saturday Review of Literature


From the cover:
• An unwelcome box of orange blossoms...a syllable uttered by a dying woman...A leopard-skin coat worn by a messenger of death...a pearl button in a tiny pool of melted snow... A nearly empty coca-cola bottle...A blue wool thread at the bottom of a flight of stairs...A series of cork-tipped Egyptian cigarettes...A snatch of music between the gusts of a snowstorm... A golden box with very deadly contents
• A shabby old trunk with very dead contents...a telephone call from a murderer...A single galosh half buried in the snow...A blank sheet of paper showing some curious embossings...a spent bullet in the fold of a shirt...

Wouldn't You Like To Know --
• Why Mouse was crying dreadfully in the night?
• Who sent her the box of orange blossoms?
• What was on the card she tore up and burned?
• What caused the peculiar gathering of forces at the Biltmore?
• What was behind the four mysterious and meaningless deaths by poison?
• What caused the dark fear which gnawed at Julie?
• Who was in the living-room when Julie listened at the door?
• What Rosetta Westing was doing in Brian's garage?
• Why the elegant Conroy was stopping at a shabby roadhouse in Easton?
• Who tried to climb in Julie's window?
• What was the significance of Julie's sinister dream?

You will learn the answers to these questions in the unfolding of one of the grimmest and most perplexing manhunts in Inspector McKee's spectacular career.

Also by Helen Reilly:
Tell Her It's Murder
The Farmhouse
The Dead Can Tell

[2012 July 28: minor corrections
[2013 Jan. 14: several minor corrections