Young King Cole #10

Detective Larry Broderick attends a party at Mrs. Stephen Crane's home where the elegant hostess wears a distinctive strand of pearls—a wedding gift from her brother, Anthony K. Bedford, a poison expert—only to collapse and die under mysterious circumstances. With suspicion falling on both Bedford and Dr. Crane himself, Broderick must unravel the true cause of her death and unmask her killer, all while pursuing his deeper quest to solve the murder of his own father.

Inspector Klooz, a hapless detective, arrives in the Catskill Mountains to investigate strange disturbances that locals blame on mysterious small creatures—descendants, they claim, of the dwarfs who enchanted Rip Van Winkle centuries ago. As Klooz blunders through the hills questioning witnesses and setting traps, he tangles with ornery mountaineers, gets caught in a landslide, takes a dunking in a pond, and runs afoul of hornets, all while the real culprit continues to cause mayhem. It's a slapstick romp through rural superstition and detective incompetence that keeps the mystery alive right up until Klooz's bumbling ways get him into—and out of—one misadventure after another.

When a helper at Mike Short's ostrich farm is found murdered alongside a slaughtered bird, Dr. Drew and his animal-communicating companion investigate a string of mysterious killings—only to discover someone's been systematically destroying the ostriches searching for something valuable hidden inside one of them. With the help of his friends and his uncanny ability to understand the birds, Dr. Drew must set a trap to catch the killer before another ostrich pays the price.