The Waxworks Murder

1932 novel by John Dickson Carr
The Waxworks Murder
First US edition cover
AuthorJohn Dickson Carr
Original titleThe Corpse in the Waxworks
LanguageEnglish
SeriesHenri Bencolin
GenreMystery, Detective novel
PublisherHamish Hamilton (UK) & Harper (USA)
Publication date
1932
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages220 pp (Penguin paperback edition, 1962

The Waxworks Murder, first published in 1932, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr featuring his series detective Henri Bencolin of the Parisian police. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a whodunnit.

Plot summary

The body of a young woman, who has been stabbed in the back, is found floating in the Seine River. The body of another young woman, with a knife in her back, is found in the arms of a wax figure, the "Satyr of the Seine", in a local wax museum. All available clues lead directly to the infamous "Club of the Silver Key", where aristocratic masked club members mix and mingle in the darkened rooms in search of adulterous entertainment. Henri Bencolin and his friend Jeff Marle must penetrate the club and make sense of the few clues before Bencolin arrives at the solution and makes a very surprising wager with the murderer.

References

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Works by John Dickson Carr
Sir Henry Merrivale series
Novels
Short stories
  • Merrivale, March and Murder (1991)
Gideon Fell series
Novels
Short story
collections
Henri Bencolin series
Novels
Short stories
  • "The Shadow of the Goat"
  • "The Fourth Suspect"
  • "The End of Justice"
  • "Murder in Number Four"
Other novels
As John Dickson Carr
As Carter Dickson
Other works


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