Deadly Nightcap (LIN)

John Piper #3

by Harry Carmichael

Mrs. Esther Payne was a very unpopular lady - right up to the night when she took two sleeping tablets and died. Sleeping tablets don't kill, nor does hate - even so much of it - but when traces of strychnine were discovered in the tube of pills that had lulled her to her last, long sleep, it seemed that hate had found a way. Of motive there was plenty, but four people only had the opportunity to obtain the poison for Esther's deadly night-cap.

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Hartley Howard (1908–1979) was the pen name of Leopold Horace Ognall, a British crime novelist. Ognall was born in Montreal and worked as a journalist before starting his fiction career. He wrote over ninety novels before his death in 1979. As Harry Carmichael, Ognall's primary series characters were John Piper (an insurance assessor) and "Quinn," a crime reporter.

Ognall's son Harry became a high court judge and conducted the hearings regarding former Chilean leader Augusto Pinochet.

Ognall created the pseudonym "Harry Carmichael" as an amalgam of the names of his immediate family: His son Harry, his wife Cecilia, his daughter Margaret, and his son Michael.