From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Gilded Man (also published as Death and the Gilded Man) is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr (1906-1977), who published it under the name of Carter Dickson. It is a whodunnit and features the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale.
[edit] Plot summary
Wealthy art connoisseur Dwight Stanhope, his glamorous wife Christabel and his pretty daughters, sensible Betty and neurotic Eleanor, have invited a couple of guests to their mansion "Waldemere"; Vincent James, the "weekend perennial -- charming and a bit thick" and Nick Wood, an attractive young man about whom little is known. What is odd is that Dwight Stanhope's valuable paintings, including a Rembrandt, have been moved from the burglarproof gallery to the main floor, and their insurance policy has been cancelled. Everyone in the mansion (built by Flavia Jenner, a Victorian actress of easy virtue, and including her own private theatre) has the jitters. No one is really surprised when there's a huge clatter in the middle of the night and a masked burglar is found stabbed in front of the paintings -- but everyone is amazed to see that the dead burglar is Dwight Stanhope. Sir Henry Merrivale arrives and suspicious events begin to happen thick and fast; he mixes investigation with an uproarious performance as a stage magician at a children's show and solves the crime.
