And So to Murder

And So To Murder

Author	John Dickson Carr writing as "Carter Dickson"
Language	English
Series	Henry Merrivale
Genre	Mystery, Detective, Novel
Publisher	Heinemann (UK, 1941) & Morrow (USA, 1st edition)
Publication date	1940
Publication place	United Kingdom
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	239 (in Dell mapback #175, 1947
Preceded by	Drop to His Death
Followed by	And So To Murder

And So To Murder is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr (1906-1977), who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunnit and features the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale and Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Humphrey Masters.

Plot summary

Monica Stanton, the pretty and rather naive daughter of a British clergyman, is the author of a surprisingly scandalous best-seller. As a result, she's been hired as a script writer for Albion Films, working with William Cartwright, a script writer from the world of detective novels. However, she's not going to be working on her own novel -- she's helping Cartwright adapt his latest detective novel, And So To Murder. Tilly Parsons is a dumpy, bustling chain-smoking American woman in her early fifties who is the highest-paid scenario writer in the world, imported from Hollywood at great expense to adapt Monica's novel. Glamorous movie star Frances Fleur, whose punctilious husband Kurt von Gagern selects all her parts, will be the star. Against the backdrop of Pineham Studios and Fleur's current movie, a series of mysterious attempts on Monica's life begin -- they are exceptionally nasty and completely inexplicable, involving sulphuric acid. When someone poisons Tilly Parsons' cigarette and nearly kills her, Sir Henry Merrivale helps Chief Inspector Masters to bring home the crimes to their unlikely perpetrator.