Jean-paul Torok

The Riddle of Monte Verita Jean-paul Torok

Publisher Marketing: Monte Verita was once the site of a famous avant-garde community attracting celebrities such as Isadora Duncan, Carl Jung and Thomas Mann. Legend has it that its leader had himself sealed in a grotto in the hillside; when it was unsealed, he had vanished. It is now 1938, and nearby Ascona is hosting a conference on the locked room mystery. A number of the participants are secretly agents for the Great Powers, jockeying for position on the eve of World War II. One of them accepts a challenge to be sealed in the same grotto and escape, but before he can do so, he is himself the victim of a spectacular impossible crime. Bill Pronzini, one of the current masters of the genre writes: 'I enjoyed The Riddle of Monte Verita. The "impossible" situations are quite ingeniously devised, developed, and explained. The author's knowledge and love of the genre are admirable, and his skill would certainly have been applauded by the undisputed master of the impossible crime story, John Dickson Carr.' The author of this complex and elegantly written mystery has been honoured by the Acadamie Francaise and the Cannes Film Festival for his work. This is his first novel, and the fourth publication of Locked Room International, dedicated to bringing top-quality locked room and impossible crime stories to lovers of the genre. Previous books in this series: The Lord of Misrule, The Fourth Door, and The Seven Wonders of Crime, all by Paul Halter, France's master of the impossible mystery. Planned for later in 2012: The Demon of Dartmoor and The Invisible Circle, both by Paul Halter, and The Killing Needle by Henri Cauvin. For more information contact pugmire1@yahoo.com Contributor Bio:  Pugmire, John Paul Halter was born in Hagenau, Alsace, in 1956. He pursued technical studies in his youth before joining the French Marines in the hope of seeing the world. Disappointed with the lack of travel, he left the military and, for a while, sold life insurance while augmenting his income playing the guitar in the local dance orchestra. Upon discovering the writings of John Dickson Carr, he gave up the guitar for the pen. He has since written over 30 novels, almost all "locked room," including La Quatrieme Porte (The Fourth Door, ) which won the Prix du Roman Policier in 1987, and Le Brouillard Rouge (The Crimson Fog, ) which won the coveted French Prix du Roman d'Aventures in 1988, the prestigious Japanese Hunkaku Mystery Award in 2005, and was named as one of the Publisher's Weekly Top Mysteries of 2013. The Fourth Door and The Crimson Fog are both available in English, as are The Lord of Misrule, The Seven Wonders of Crime, The Demon of Dartmoor, The Seventh Hypothesis, The Tiger's Head and The Invisible Circle. M. Halter is a frequent contributor to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine: The Call of the Lorelei, The Tunnel of Death, The Night of the Wolf, The Robber's Grave, Nausicaa's Ball, The Gong of Doom, The Man With the Face of Clay and Jacob's Ladder and more to come. In 2006 his collection of short stories 'The Night of the Wolf' appeared in English, to critical acclaim. For more information and articles about Paul Halter, please go to: http: //lockedroominternational.com/