Phoebe Atwood Taylor writing as Alice Tilton: Dead Ernest (1992)

From the Publisher:
Leonidas Witherall, Phoebe Atwood Taylor's "other" detective, inhabits a suburb of Boston named Dalton. One of its most colorful residents, he is the proprietor of a prestigious boys' school and instantly recognizable by all as William Shakespeare's remarkable look-alike. Few people, however, know him as "Morgatroyd Jones," author of the popular and flamboyant Lieutenant Haseltine adventure novels. But like his own fictional hero, Witherall's outrageous escapades mix slapstick and suspense like no one else's.

As Dead Ernest opens, Leonidas is bewildered by the unexplained delivery of a deep freeze chest by two utter strangers in a red truck. But this is only the prelude to the discovery of a very special corpse inside: none other than Meredith Academy's ultra dapper French master, Ernest Finger, a.k.a. lounge lizard Carlos Santos, singer at the somewhat sleazy Pomfret Inn, petty crook, con artist, and more.

On the eve of assuming the role of acting headmaster of Meredith's, this is a complication Leonidas Witherall could readily do without. And this is only the beginning.

A Foul Play Press Book

Phoebe Atwood Taylor writing as Alice Tilton: Dead Ernest. A Leonidas Witherall Mystery. Countryman Press / Foul Play Press, ISBN: 0881502421 (September, 1992), 218 p., $6.50.