Jumping Jenny (British Library Crime Classics)

A mystery dinner theater party thrown by local author with a taste "for rather gruesome humor" requires guests come dressed as infamous killers—Jack the Ripper, Dr. Crippen, and the like. Whatever could go wrong?

Know-it-all amateur criminologist Roger Sheringham settles in for an evening of beer, small talk, and analyzing his companions. Ena Stratton, the host's sister-in-law, catches his attention. Her erratic mood swings and loud, gossipy talk is winning her more than a few enemies amongst the guests. When she's found dead, it's clear that one of the partygoers helped her to an early grave.

Noticing a key detail that could implicate a friend in the crime, Sheringham decides to meddle with the scene and unwittingly makes himself a suspect.

Tightly paced and cleverly defying the conventions of the classic detective story, Anthony Berkeley's dark sense of humor and taste for the macabre drive this 1933 classic.