Orig. publ. as by John Stephen Strange. ( )

I really enjoyed preparing this old, out-of-print book for reprinting. It is a terrific debut mystery for John Stephen Strange, set in 1926 New York City. Detective Van Dusen Ormsberry is a dapper, clever detective, and his protegee, Billy Adams, is a lovable boy detective wannabe. The victim in this mystery is a Crime Writer himself, but what was he writing about that may have lead to his murder on the top of an omnibus? This title was one of the first recommendations of the newly created Crime Club in 1928, and Fans of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction should really enjoy this first of Strange's 22 mystery novels. ( )