The Murder Convention: 18

It all started with a scream in the night. Then there were blood splatters on the rug. There was a murder, it seemed, but no corpse. And two of the hotel’s guests went missing. Which one was the victim, and which one the killer? In the absence of a dead body, could the whole thing be a hoax? Especially as the Manor Hotel was hosting the ‘Murder Convention’, a periodic gathering of mystery writers. So was this a macabre game or... the perfect crime? No shortage of candidates to tackle the case, with some guests putting their oar in according to their own pet theory; the police in the persons of DS Mundie and DCI Gilford doing the same; and Daisy Hayes, the hotel’s resident sleuth, the only one to keep her head cool. She and her husband had to sort the foibles from the facts to uncover the truth.