The Crimson Patch

Last updated
The Crimson Patch
TheCrimsonPatch.jpg
First edition
Author Phoebe Atwood Taylor
LanguageEnglish
Series Asey Mayo
Genre Mystery, Detective novel
Publisher W.W. Norton & Company
Publication date
1936
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages239 pp (Foul Play Press paperback edition, 1986)
ISBN 0-88150-064-X (Foul Play Press paperback edition, 1986)
OCLC 14103048
Preceded by Deathblow Hill (1935) 
Followed by Out of Order (1936) 

The Crimson Patch, first published in 1936, is a detective story by Phoebe Atwood Taylor which features her series detective Asey Mayo, [1] the "Codfish Sherlock". This novel is a mystery of the type known as a whodunnit.

Plot summary

Mr. Myles Witherall, retired New Englander, decides on a whim to take an inexpensive tourist bus to the little town of Skaket, and thereby gets involved in the movements of an escaped killer. Meanwhile, a young married couple of artistic antecedents find that Skaket's inhabitants have turned violently against them, just before they find the body of Rosalie Ray, radio personality, dead in her bed, murdered with a whale lance. It takes Asey Mayo's knowledge of Skaket mores, a session of bric-a-brac destruction with wilful ingenue Laurie Lee, and the breaking of a clever alibi before Asey can pinpoint the killer and administer justice personally.

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