Classic mystery

The Hollow Man

by John Dickson Carr

Professor Charles Grimaud is warned that a figure from his past intends to kill him, then is shot inside a locked room from which no attacker could have escaped. At nearly the same time, another impossible death occurs in a snow-covered street where footprints should reveal every approach and departure. Dr. Gideon Fell tests explanations involving disguises, timing, illusion, and the assumptions witnesses bring to an apparently sealed scene. Dense and ingenious, this classic suits readers who want an elaborate locked-room puzzle, wintry London, theatrical suspects, and a famous examination of how impossible crimes are constructed.