‘So who's the victim?’ asked Detective Inspector Jack Spratt, shaking his overcoat of the cold winter rain as he entered Usher Towers. ‘It's Locked Room Mystery,’ explained his amiable sidekick, Detective Sergeant Mary Mary. ‘He was found dead at 7.30pm. But get this: the library had been locked … from the inside.’

‘Locked Room killed inside a locked room, eh?’ murmured Spratt. ‘What was that tired old plot device doing out here anyway? I thought he was at the At the End of The Day retirement home for washed-up old cliches.’

‘It was the Mystery Contrivances Club annual dinner,’ explained Mary. ‘Locked Room was going to be given a long-service award—you know how they like to stick a gong on ideas before they die out completely. Last year it was the Identical Twins plot device.’

‘I always hated that one,’ said Jack.

They stepped into the spacious marble-lined entrance vestibule and a worried-looking individual ran up to them, wringing his hands in a desperate manner.

‘Inspector Spratt!’ he wailed. ‘This is a terrible business. You must help!’

‘Jack,’ said Mary, ‘meet Red Herring, president of the club and owner of Usher Towers.’

‘Perhaps you'd better show me the body,’ said Jack quietly, ‘and tell me what happened.’

‘Of course, of course,’ replied Red Herring, leading them across the vestibule to a large oak-panelled door. ‘We were about to present Locked Room with his award but he'd gone missing. We eventually found his body in the library. I swear, the room was locked, the windows barred, and there is no other entrance.’

‘Hmm,’ replied Spratt thoughtfully. ‘You knew him well?’

‘Locked Room and I have been friends for a long time,’ replied Red Herring, ‘despite the fact that he had an affair with my wife, fleeced me on a property deal in the 60s and has been secretly blackmailing me over my indiscretion with a Brazilian call girl named Conchita.’