The Arabian Nights Murder — John Dickson Carr

In the eerie, marble-pillared main hall of the Wade Museum stood an enormous black-hooded carriage with secret windows and polished brass door handles.

In the dead of night, Detective Inspector John Carruthers wrenched open the door just as the night watchman screamed:

"WATCH OUT WHEN YOU TOUCH IT! THERE'S A DEAD MAN INSIDE! THERE'S A GREAT BIG BLOODY CORPSE LYING JUST IN --"

And like a jack-in-the-box, out of the carriage sprang the body of a tall man, spectrally thin, clad in a frock coat and top hat. His chin was crested with false whiskers. His hand clutched a copy of Mrs Eldridge's Manual of Home Recipes. and from his chest sprouted the five-inch handle of a Persian dagger.

Enter Dr. Gideon Fell to solve a murder as fantastic as any of the tales from the Thousand and One Nights, a mystery as bizarre as the Wade Museum itself.