The Purple Parrot

First edition, trade softcover. Published Lyons: Rue Morgue Press, 2012, first printing. Large 8vo. wrappers, 6” x 9”, 191pp. Fine. The only door open to Hezekiah Morse's study was under observation when someone slipped in and stabbed the bibliophile to death. To the police, it looked like only his granddaughter could have done the deed, especially since she was to be disinherited—except for a terra-cotta statuette of a purple parrot—if she defied Morse in her choice of a marriage partner. Her real love, lawyer Barry Foster, didn't believe she was capable of murder. Fortunately, for both of them, neither did Theocritus Lucius Westborough, professor of Roman history and sometime amateur sleuth. But the aged, tiny professor must first determine what is so significant about the seemingly worthless piece of statuary from New Zealand or how bottles of rare wine and expensive first editions fit into the case.