
cover art by Rudolph Belarski
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one of SMB founder Bill Farley’s Top Five Mysteries of all time. Sir Eustace is a cad of the first water, with a specialty in other men’s wives, and the list of people who might want to do him in could fill a London phone book. But which of them actually sent the chocolates with their nasty hidden payload? Scotland Yard is baffled. Enter the Crime Circle, a group of society intellectuals with a shared conviction in their ability to succeed where the police have failed. Eventually, each member will produce a tightly reasoned solution to the Case of the Poisoned Chocolates, but each of those solutions will identify a different murderer. First published in 1929, this is both a classic of the golden age of mystery fiction, and one of the great puzzle-mysteries of all time.

cover art by Jerry Allison

June 1963 Pocket reissue, 3rd print
cover art by Harry Bennett
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if you look closely at the paperback that she’s reading on the cover of Zero Cool, you’ll see it is Grave Descend, another Hard Case Crime with cover art by Glen Orbik. It is a great little piece of self-reference.


cover art by Paul Galdone

February 1957 Pocket reissue, 6th printing
cover painting by James Meese
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1962 Fontana paperback reissue
20th with Superindendent Roderick Alleyn

cover art by Renato Fratini

cover art by Norman Saunders
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cover art by William Rose
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