The Singing Bone

Freeman, R. Austin Freeman

Silas has diamonds in the heel of his shoe. He is a thief, but until the night he meets Oscar Brodski on the footpath near his house, he has never considered murder. A diamond dealer, Brodski's pockets bulge with more precious stones than Silas has ever dreamed of, and they will be his with one swift, violent act. Silas does the deed and arranges the diamond dealer's body to make the death look accidental. He has provided for every contingency–except for the arrival of a doctor named Thorndyke. In this collection of ingenious stories, the reader knows the killer's identity long before the ingenious medical detective enters the scene. These are brilliant early examples of open mysteries, in which the question is not whodunit–but 'howcatchem' or how will the criminal get caught? A trope then used by the series Columbo.