The Emperor's Snuff Box by John Dickson Carr

Eve Neill had divorced Ned Atwood. The charge was that he had committed adultery, but Eve had also found him cruel and uncaring. Ned, however, said that she would always love him. Eve lived in the French town of La Bandelette which was one of the most fashionable watering places in France. Across the narrow street from Eve's house was the home of the Laws family. The son, Toby Laws, invited her over for tea, and she immediately felt comfortable with the Laws and especially with Toby who was a banker. The father, elderly Maurice Laws, was a collector of small but valuable art objects. Maurice was an advocate for many humanitarian activities by the British government, but he lived in France to avoid paying British taxes. As time went by Toby asked her to marry him, and Eve accepted.

One evening Ned Atwood used the key to her house which he had lied about losing. He went to Eve's bedroom and begged her to not to marry Toby Laws. Ned said that the Laws family only wanted the marriage to get Eve's money. During their argument, Ned turned to look out the window, and across the street he could see into the study where Maurice Laws worked on his collection. Ned and Eve could see that someone had attacked Maurice Laws and brutally murdered him. Eve insisted that Ned leave before the police arrived at the Laws house. He returned her key and started down the dark staircase. He tripped over a lose stair and fell down the staircase. When Eve reached him at the bottom she found him alive, very dazed, and bleeding. Some of the blood got on her hands and the white negligee that she was wearing. She got Ned up and out of the backdoor which then closed locking her out. She had Ned's key to the front door in her pocket so she had to sneak around her house to get in the front door because the police had arrived across the street.

One week later, the police decided to arrest Eve for the murder of Maurice Laws. Her servants had shown the police the blood stained negligee and had witnessed her sneaking back in the front door. The police had also found on her negligee a tiny fragment of Napoleon's snuffbox which had been smashed on Laws' desk. Ned Atwood, the one person who could back up her story, was unconscious in the hospital with a concussion due to his fall down her steps.

At this point, I will leave you worrying about how Eve got out of this dilemma. Adding anything else would be a spoiler. I will say that she did receive a great deal of help from a distinguished  English doctor named Dr. Dermot Kinross who was very instrumental in finding the murderer.

This book is by the great master of mystery John Dickson Carr. It was published in 1942, and is still available in paper format and as an e-book.

Love Lies Bleeding by Edmund Crispin

Gervase Fen, Oxford professor and amateur detective, had been invited to present the prizes on Prize Day at the exclusive Castrevenford High School. On the day when he arrived, he learned that a sixteen year old student, Brenda Boyce, had gone missing. She had gone to the rehearsal of the school play and was supposed to secretly meet her current boy friend in the chemistry lab afterwards, but now she has just disappeared. Also two teachers were murdered in the evening. Young Michael Somers was found shot in the teacher's workroom, and  Mr. Love, an older teacher was shot in his home.

Gervase Fen could not resist helping inspector Stagge to find the murderer in this crime wave which hit the school right before Prize Day when all the parents would be at the school. Fen's investigation took him to the run down home of Mrs. Bly What he found there would perhaps lead to a very significant discovery of a rare and very valuable literary treasure. Unfortunately Mrs. Bly could be of little help, because she also was murdered.

This is a delightful read. The characters are eccentric, and the dialog is witty. Edmund Crispin is the pen name of Robert Bruce Montgomery. He did, at one time in his career, teach at a secondary school for two years.  In addition to mystery novels, Montgomery wrote classical music and movie scores. He wrote nine mystery novels and two collections of short stories. Love Lies Bleeding was published in 1948. His novels have been reissued by Felony and Mayhem press.

Watson's Choice by Gladys Mitchell

Wealthy Sir Bohum Chantrey was giving a Sherlock Holmes dinner at his home, and he had invited psychiatrist and detective, Dame Beatrice Bradley, her secretary, Laura Menzies, and Laura's fiance Inspector Robert Gavin to attend. All of the guests were supposed to be in appropriate costumes. Laura would go as Mrs. Grant Munro, Gavin would be going as Inspector Lestrade, and Dame Beatrice as Mrs. Farintosh. (If you do not remember a Mrs. Farintosh in the Holmes stories, it will be explained).

Others attending this event would be Charles and Ethel Mildren, impoverished actors, who would be Sherlock Holmes and Mrs. Hudson. Manoel Lupez who Sir Bohum's illegitimate son, and a bull fighter by profession, would be attending as Arthur Holder. The prime feminine role of Irene Adler would be taken by Linda Campbell, the governess of one of Sir Bohum's adopted nephews. Toby Dance and his wife Brenda would be attending as Dr. Watson and Miss Mary Sutherland. Sir Bohum would be portraying Professor Moriarty, and his secretary, Tony Bell, would be Duncan Ross. Others in the party were suitably dressed.

The party started with a dinner and then progressed to the evening's entertainment. Some of the guests did not like their costumes and changed places with each other. There was a scavenger hunt to find Holmes related objects which Sir Bohum had hidden. There was supposed to be a dance which had to be delayed because the musicians had lost their way in the heavy fog. What did appear from the fog was a large and shaggy dog which the members of the house party promptly named the Hound of the Baskervilles. Even Sir Bohum had not know that the Hound would arrive.

Shortly after the party, Sir Bohum announced that he would be marrying Linda Campbell who was much younger than he was. This rather shocked the people who attended the party. Especially Manoel Lupez who worried that a legitimate heir to Sir Bohum's wealth might be born. It was apparent to many that Sir Bohum did not love Laura nor did he even seem to like her.

Laura Campbell was murdered, and her body found at a deserted train station in the neighborhood of Sir Bohum's house. Lady Beatrice and Laura Menzies were drawn into the finding the solution along with Robert Gavin as a representative of Scotland Yard.

Gladys Mitchell started writing mysteries in 1929. This book is the 28th in the series and was published in 1955. The book starts off with the interesting premise of the Sherlock Holmes party which is a rather long introduction to the characters. After the party the story seems to wander around a bit.