Photo from a frontispiece -- Clayton Rawson and the Headless Lady
CLAYTON RAWSON
Clayton Rawson created one of the best "thinking detectives" there ever was in his quick-witted hero, Merlini the Magician. In four novels written between 1938 and 1942 he pitted his circus-loving sleuth against the most ingenious "impossible" crime fiends imaginable and of course, in the end, Merlini pulled the solution out of his hat.
The Footprints on the Ceiling (1939)
No Coffin for the Corpse (1942)