Phoebe Atwood Taylor: Spring Harrowing (1989)

From the Publisher:
Bart Paget, builder of bridges and collector of just about anything, was found clawed to death in his library, a skull resting in his lifeless hand. And Susan Remington's notorious wild cats had been let loose, presumably at the same time she disappeared. Quanomet could be rapidly overcome by panic and pandemonium.

But Asey Mayo comes up with a few ideas of his own when a strange and highly probable murder weapon fashioned from leopard's claws is found in Bart's collection. Then Susan turns up alive but dazed at the bottom of an old well. And Asey realizes he is being followed.

PHOEBE ATWOOD TAYLOR (1909-1976) lived in Boston and Cape Cod for most of her life. In addition to the Asey Mayo series, she wrote the Leonidas Witherall mysteries under the name "Alice Tilton," and, as "Freeman Dana," Murder at the New York World's Fair.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor: Spring Harrowing. An Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery. Countryman Press, ISBN: 0881501379 (April, 1989), 192 p., $5.95.

Phoebe Atwood Taylor: Spring Harrowing (1971)

From the Publisher:
One of America's
most popular mystery writers
On peaceful Cape Cod, the eccentric collector lies dead on his study floor, his body ripped by a deadly claw. Outside a wealthy young widow scours the dark countryside for her missing wild cats, and down the road the neighbors play a strange game, a game they can't easily explain to the police.

Where was everyone around nine that night? Which of them knew the ancient scandal in Bart Paget's life? Which of them hated the beautiful Susan Remington? And who knew Paget's sprawling collections well enough to unerringly lay hands on the wagh nakh -- the murderous claw used by leopard men?

The most bizarre case in the career of that wily, ornery, homespun ex-sailor and handyman Asey Mayo "...a detective who may soon enter that gallery of eccentric originals... Dr. Fell, Poirot, Peter Wimsey, Father Brown, and the great Sherlock himself." -- The Spectator

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A PYRAMID BOOK

Phoebe Atwood Taylor: Spring Harrowing. An Asey Mayo Cape Cod Mystery. New York: Pyramid Books, 1971, Pyramid Books #T2581 192 p., 75¢.