”That is the case. Alison has been murdered. His blazing body was seen running about the battlements of Castle Skull.”And so a dark shadow looms over the Rhineland where Inspector Henri Bencolin and his accomplice Jeff Marle have arrived from Paris. Entreated by the Belgian financier D`Aunay to investigate the gruesome and grimly theatrical death of actor Myron Alison, the pair find themselves at the imposing hilltop fortress Schloss Schadel, in which a small group of suspects are still assembled. As thunder rolls in the distance, Bencolin and Marle enter a world steeped in macabre legends of murder and magic to catch the killer still walking the maze-like passages and towers of the keep. This new edition of John Dickson Carr`s spirited and deeply atmospheric early novel also features the rare Inspector Bencolin short story `The Fourth Suspect`.