The Statue of Three Lies

by David Cargill (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2011

  $3.40

  When Jack Ramsden, a cabinet-maker and designer of stage props for magicians, was preparing his annual illusion for his wife's birthday, he was killed by a shot from a rifle on a stand. The problem was - he was alone in the room when the shot was fired and the door and windows were locked. A verdict of death by misadventure was declared at the inquest. Fourteen years later the official findings are being questioned by at least one member of his family. Professor Giles Dawson, a London historian specialising in magic and the great illusionists, receives a cryptic letter from Laura, Jack Ramsden's daughter whom he knew as a child. The letter urges him to return for her mother's 70th birthday celebrations to help prove that her father's death had been murder. Giles accepts the invitation and, during a weekend fraught with danger, he comes face to face with everyone who was present on the night Jack Ramsden died. Certain entries in the dead man's diary require explanation and a subsequent visit to the United States focusses his mind on the truth behind a mystery of baffling proportions. The Statue of Three Lies is a thrilling `locked room' murder mystery.

• New

  Hardcover
  2009

  $49.25

  Jack Ramsden, Cabinetmaker for Stage Magicians, died whilst preparing his annual presentation for his wife's birthday. It was meant to be an ingenious demonstration of Magic and Illusion until it all went wrong. Jack was killed by a shot from a rifle on a stand. The puzzle was - he was alone in a locked room. Accident or suicide? Fourteen years later a cryptic letter from Laura, the daughter of the dead man, urges Giles Dawson, a historian of Magic and the Great Illusionists, to return to the family home in Scotland where he'd spent much of his boyhood, to help prove her father's death was Murder. The attempt to solve the Locked Room Mystery puts Giles in Danger with Fear and Dread constant companions. Will a death-defying Houdini-type illusion in the United States, just months before Jack's death, explain how a bottle-opener can open more than bottles ? Can an introduction to a bronze statue open his mind on the truth before death has again taken a cold hand in the proceedings?