Poison Unknown

When the death of a well known physician during a dinner party is determined to have been due to some mysterious unknown poison, the natural assumption was that the host of the party had been the intended victim. After all, the doctor had moved to the seat of his host just before he died. And the host had complained to the chief of police himself about a series of anonymous and threatening notes he had received, so much so, that two policemen had been posted outside the house during the dinner. But why would either man have been a target? And how had the untraceable poison been delivered under the eyes of both the guests and the police? Unable to find answers to these questions the police chief turns to his old friend, Professor Harley Manners for help. But can even Dr. Manners, a specialist in abnormal psychology, discover the secrets behind the . . . Poison Unknown!

Charles J. Dutton (1888-1964) was an American writer of mysteries. He was educated at Brown University and later studied at Albany Law School and the Defiance Theological Seminary. After graduation he worked for a while as a newspaper columnist. He wrote numerous works of fiction that were published in magazines both in the U.S. and Great Britain. In the early 1930's he moved to Des Moines, Iowa where he assumed the post of minister for the First Unitarian Church. He wrote some fifteen mystery novels. Appearing in nine of these was the private detective John Bartley. Bartley was followed by Professor Harley Manners, a criminal psychologist who was featured in six novels. The two characters overlap in the book Streaked With Crimson. One of the things that set Dutton apart from other mystery writers of the period was his interest in the psychology of the criminal mind. He was also fascinated by old books and ancient history, subjects which play parts in a number of his novels.