A scream, mounting higher and higher over the bustle and clatter back-stage at the Bolton Theatre– A woman staggers from the star’s dressing-room, her white satin gown stained and patterned with the gory foot-prints of a little dog, her face contorted into a mask of horror–

But the show must go on!

The audience must be entertained–must laugh–while murder stalks among them. A killer may be on the stage among the players, he may be among the musicians in the orchestra, or he may be sitting there among the spectators.

Anything might happen here. The Bolton Theatre is known to the theatrical profession as a jinx house.

Defying convention, public opinion, the press, the District Attorney himself, Detective-Sergeant Pietro Tonelli, who glories in the proud title of cop, carries out a bold plan to detect a murderer who has come and gone like a phantom.

A crisp story, with action in every line. A glamorous picture of life behind the scenes of a great city written by a newspaper man who knows.

The Jinx Theatre Murder was published in 1933. (More classic mysteries available from CoachwhipBooks.com.)