Faulkner's Folly

Eric Stannard, internationally celebrated portrait painter, lies dead in his studio with an etching needle through his heart. The lights had flickered out moments before. In that darkness, someone struck. Now the suspects multiply like brushstrokes on a canvas: his wife Joyce, trembling with shock; his model Natalie, whose beauty inspired his greatest works; his son, hopelessly in love with Natalie; a neighbor who has long loved Joyce; a prowling burglar who claims he saw nothing. Even a psychic arrives, professing to channel the dead. But it falls to the methodical Alan Ford to untangle this web of passion, jealousy, and art. Carolyn Wells, the prolific queen of Golden Age puzzles, constructs her mystery with the precision of a master painter. Each suspect wears a mask. Each alibi crumbles under scrutiny. The truth hides in plain sight, waiting for the reader who can see it.