The Case of the Chinese Gong

New York: Triangle Books. Good in Good dj. 1940 (c.1935). 3rd Tower Books edition. Hardcover. [shelfworn book, slight exposure of boards at lower corners, minor fraying at both ends of spine, pages age-toned as typical with these cheap reprints, one-time owner's name plus date & place of purchase written in ink along edge of rear pastedown (concealed beneath rear jacket flap); the jacket is heavily edgeworn, faded at spine, numerous old internal tape-repairs at edges and fold-points]. "At precisely 7:30, when a servant announced dinner by striking a Chinese gong, Mr. Greeve became the late and unlamented Mr. Greeve -- with a bullet hole through his head. One of his guests had shot him at the moment when the reverberating sound of the huge gong completely drowned out the noise of the gun. A careful consideration of the crime left the police baffled. Even Ludovic Travers, amateur sleuth extraordinary, chased up a lot of blind alleys before the amazing performance of a magician at a music hall gave him a clue which solved the puzzle." This very prolific British author cranked out about more than 60 mystery novels between the late 1920s and the mid-1960s, apparently all of which featured Ludovic Travers! .