The Wedding-Chest Mystery: A Chief Inspector Pointer Mystery - Paperback

by A. E. Fielding (Author)

It was to be a fitting centerpiece of the Chinese themed suite in the new home of the financier, Boyd Armstrong, an ornate Chinese wedding chest, a gift of the explorer Major Hardy. When the chest is opened at the party held for the unveiling of the chest, to the surprise and horror of all those in attendance, the chest was found to contain the body of their host, victim of a gunshot to the head. Chief Inspector Pointer is promptly called in, but he finds himself presented with a baffling puzzle. Not only must he discover who amongst the many suspects killed Armstrong, he must first discover where he was killed, and how (and why) his body came to be placed in the wedding chest when the chest was either under observation or within the locked suite the entire time. The Wedding-Chest Mystery is one of the most intriguing of the Inspector Pointer mysteries.

Author Biography

The identity of the author is as much a mystery as the plots of the novels. Two dozen novels were published from 1924 to 1944 as by Archibald Fielding, A. E. Fielding, or Archibald E. Fielding, yet the only clue as to the real author is a comment by the American publishers, H.C. Kinsey Co. that A. E. Fielding was in reality a "middle-aged English woman by the name of Dorothy Feilding whose peacetime address is Sheffield Terrace, Kensington, London, and who enjoys gardening." Research on the part of John Herrington has uncovered a person by that name living at 2 Sheffield Terrace from 1932-1936. She appears to have moved to Islington in 1937 after which she disappears. To complicate things, some have attributed the authorship to Lady Dorothy Mary Evelyn Moore nee Feilding (1889-1935), however, a grandson of Lady Dorothy denied any family knowledge of such authorship. The archivist at Collins, the British publisher, reports that any records of A. Fielding were presumably lost during WWII. Birthdates have been given variously as 1884, 1889, and 1900. Unless new information comes to light, it would appear that the real authorship must remain a mystery.