The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks.
This new edition also includes the rare Inspector Bencolin short story The Murder in Number Four by John Dickson Carr, and an Introduction by CWA Diamond Dagger-Award winning author Martin Edwards..
First published in 1932 at the height of crime fiction\'s Golden Age, this macabre and atmospheric dive into the murky underground of Parisian society presents an intelligent puzzle delivered at a stunning pace.
Waiting within, beneath the glass-eyed gaze of a leering waxen satyr, is a gruesome discovery and the first clues of a twisted and ingenious mystery.
Surrounded by the eerie noises of the night, Bencolin prepares to enter the ill-fated waxworks, his associate Jeff Marle and the victim\'s fianc� in tow.
The museum\'s proprietor, long perturbed by the unnatural vitality of his figures, claims that he saw one of them following the victim into the dark--a lead that Henri Bencolin, head of the Paris police and expert of \'impossible\' crimes, cannot possibly resist.
Today she was found in the Seine, murdered.
Do you see? Last night Mademoiselle Duch�ne was seen heading into the Gallery of Horrors at the Mus�e Augustin waxworks, alive.
It is soundless and motionless...
It is an atmosphere of death.
The purpose, the illusion, the spirit of a waxworks
