The Smiling Corpse

The Smiling Corpse was written in 1935 by Philip Wylie and features as characters in a murder mystery many of the big names of literature. In fact, S.S. Van Dine, Sax Rohmer, G.K. Chesterton and Dashiell Hammett are the detectives! J. Randolph Cox provides an introduction that places the book in its place historically and you provide the result: enjoyment of a wonderful period when murder was fun.