Wells, Carolyn - The Room with the Tassels (1918)

Occult detective and con artist Pennington Wise along with his eccentric silent movie actress sidetrack, Zizi, make their debut in this witty and strange book, one of Well's more entertaining and readable novels.  It's a locked room mystery but the impossibility of the crime is hardly a big mystery since it relies on Well's favorite gimmick of a secret passage. The majority of the book, an outrageous mix of the bizarre and sarcastic jibes from the detective duo, more than make up for her shortcomings in the "Ingenious Impossible Crime Department", a favorite subgenre of Wells' but one that was never her strength.

The book is discussed in detail in the article "The Carolyn Wells Technique" at the blog Pretty Sinister Books.  Click on the link below.

http://prettysinister.blogspot.com/2011/12/carolyn-wells-technique-or-how-i.html