When Jonas Wright, a print shop owner and collector of antique weapons, is found slain by his own Gothic halberd in the locked weapons room of his Chicago mansion, Lieutenant Johnny Mack knows it’s a case that is right up his best friend’s alley. So he calls upon Lucius Theocritus Westborough, the little man with the long name and even longer reputation, to help him investigate. The culprit could well be a member of the dead man’s household, and Mack favors his lovely daughter, Madeleine Wright, who’s hopelessly in love with her father’s partner, suave and sophisticated Julian Carr. But Julian is already married, to a selfish heiress who refuses to live with him, and Madeleine is being pursued by artist Tony Corveau, who was recently fired by her father. Westborough suspects the case is far more complicated than his friend believes it to be and that its solution is to be found in the dead man’s notebooks, if only he can find the key to the sophisticated cipher in which they are written. Without it, the killer’s motives will continue to elude Westborough and his police colleagues. First published in 1940, Dragon’s Cave showcases the author’s skill at working historical details and the eccentricities of collectors of odd objects into the narrative.

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