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It has been a hard day for Leonidas Witherall. Someone had set him up to be mistaken for a burglar, and the police are now hot on his heels. Hoping for help from his former employer, Marcus Meredith, he arrives to find Marcus' body on the floor, his head bashed in by a loving cup. What is odd is that the corpse's left leg is missing. What is odder is that Leonidas' own rubbers are beside the victim. How he gets out of this jam is a tale that is both hilarious and hair-raising-never predictable for a second. Just as any Witherall fan might expect.

For all its ingenious plot, The Mystery of the Cape Cod Tavern is more than a mystery; it is a genuine New England novel, full of Yankee horse sense, Cape Cod culture, and solid characters. This classic is an apt accomplice for an evening's excursion into the world of crime for Asey Mayo fans and initiate mystery lovers alike.

The residents of West Weesit had good reason to start calling Crooked Cliff "Suicide Cliff." Four women's bodies had been found at its foot, Kay Truman's only last month. Her father, Dave Truman, had already been depressed after his wife left him and his business failed. So when the folks at the tea party across the bay saw him come out of his home with a gun and point it at himself, they naturally assumed the gunshot did him in. When it appeared that someone had actually stabbed him in the back with terrific force, however, it seemed time to send for Asey Mayo--who quickly became a ready target himself for a practiced and determined shooter

This time the mysterious arrival and subsequent disappearance of a brown paper package sets Witherall off on a furious chase around Dalton and environs, only briefly interrupted by the discovery of the corpse of banker Fenwick Balderston, bashed in the head by a small bust of Shakespeare a treasured gift from Leonidas himself. The reluctant sleuth suddenly becomes primary murder suspect as well, and a fascinating assortment of rescuers lines up to spirit Witherall from one precarious situation to another on the way toward a frenetic and quite surprising solution.

Back by popular demand for the first time in years, The Countryman Press is pleased to reissue four Cape Cod mysteries featuring the witty and salty Asey Mayo, "a local handyman who knows something about police work and everything about everybody's business" (Marilyn Stasio, "Mystery Alley. Set within the broding landscape of Cape Cod, these classic who-dunnits are sure to please dedicated Pheobe Atwood Taylor fans and newcomer mystery buffs alike. "Asey, what is an annulet?" This innocent query would soon lead to some not-so-innocent questions. And who could predict that before this was over, Asey would be tricked several times over, decoyed, robbed, and baffled by an elephant?

A classic Phoebe Atwood Taylor mystery.
Something must have scared the wits out of Jane Lennox to make her run right in front of Asey Mayo in his brand new Porter Sixteen. Could that something have been the sight of a corpse? And could it have been the body of politically ambitious Henry Slocum? The answer would have to wait, for the corpse in the old salt loft had vanished from sight.
This one would prove to be a real challenge for the Codfish Sherlock as further sinister and hilarious developments upset the normally tranquil Quashnet Township.

The spirit of Asey Mayo's homecoming is quickly dampened by the discovery of a body in the buttery. One fact is clear: Someone murdered Philemon Mundy with a blunt instrument. The sudden disappearance of the corpse is only the first of many baffling developments. And there is no guarantee that the killer won't strike again.

Set within the brooding landscape of Cape Code, these classic who-dunits are sure to please dedicated Phoebe Atwood Taylor fans and newcomer mystery buffs alike. First, a best-selling author turns up dead. Then Asey's best friend becomes the chief suspect and Asey knows he has to do something. There's only one clue: a sardine can. And only one weekend to clear it all up.

Set within the brooding landscape of Cape Code, these classic who-dunits are sure to please dedicated Phoebe Atwood Taylor fans and newcomer mystery buffs alike. Asey Mayo fans will be delighted to find the codfish Sherlock not once, but thrice perplexed in these incomparable novellas: Murder Rides the Gale, The Stars Spell Death, and The Third Murderer.

Set within the brooding landscape of Cape Code, these classic who-dunits are sure to please dedicated Phoebe Atwood Taylor fans and newcomer mystery buffs alike. When Asey Mayo happens upon the body of writer Carolyn Barton Boone in an antique railroad car, a punched ticket in her hand, things get interesting. But then the corpse disappears!

Asey Mayo fans, and newcomers, will have much to discover in Death Lights a Candle, with its special New England flavor and Cape Cod characters. As Marilyn Stasio, columnist for the New York Times writes, "Taylor's droll period whodunits are a special treat, thanks to the Codfish Sherlock, Asey Mayo, a salty Cape codger who entertains summer visitors by solving picturesque crimes."

An auction that begins as a treasure hunt ends in murder, and an incredible discovery sends our unlikely detective off an a hunt for a killer. Were there secrets between rival art dealers, Miss Pitkin and Mr. Harmsworth? And where does Quin Sharp, the auctioneer, fit in? Here's Asey Mayo in a classic who-dunnit--as mysterious and amusing as his fans have a come to expect.

Ominous things are taking place in the town of Skaket. A young couple is confronted with the threat of violence by the locals. A nationally wanted kills may be loose on the Cape. America's favorite radio personality, Rosalie Ray, is found dead in her bed, done in with a whale lance. And this is only the beginning of what may be Asey Mayo's wildest adventure.

One of its more colorful residents, Leonidas Witherall inhabits the fictional Boston suburb of Dalton and is the proprietor of a prestigious boys' school. Leonidas' bewilderment at the unsolicited delivery of a freezer turns to shock when he discover a body inside: Meredith Academy's ultra dapper French instructor Ernest Finger, a.k.a. lounge lizard Carlos Santos.

The familiar Cape Cod setting works its spell, and the cranky, colorful New England characters work their way through a deftly amusing and baffling story of plot and counterplot.
She had come every summer for twenty-nine years to stay at what used to be Mrs. Mercer's boarding house but was now Ye Olde Whale Inn. She knew all about Quisset, and Quisset thought it knew all about her. So when Miss Olive Beadle arrived for her thirtieth season, there was nothing to hint at disaster.
The murder at Ye Olde Whale Inn hung on a curious series of chance events: if Ann Joyce and Mrs. Hingham hadn't both been stage-struck; if departing ministers hadn't passed out group photos to the congregation; if Cousin Jenny hadn't found the stuffed tomato...and if a sprained ankle and a load of overdue clams hadn't put Asey Mayo on the scene, matters would have been very different.