Beginning with a Bash (American Mystery Classics)

Leonidas Witherall, the sleuth who looks like Shakespeare, must prove a man innocent after he is discovered in a second-hand bookshop beside the murdered body of a local professor in this humorous and fast-paced mystery from the author of the beloved Asey Mayo series.

Leonidas Witherall, commonly called “Bill” due to his remarkable likeness to portraits of William Shakespeare, also has an extraordinary ability to solve mysteries. But his skills are put to the test when a former student is accused of murder under damning circumstances.

On a bitterly cold night in the Boston suburbs, young Martin Jones is dressed only in thin flannels as he flees the police, who believe he has stolen a fortune from the Anthropological Society where he works. When he spots Peters Second-Hand Bookstore, he can’t resist taking a moment to get warm while eluding his pursuers.

Unfortunately, local professor John North is also in the bookshop, sprawled on the floor with his head bashed in. The crowded layout of the store, with its nooks, narrow aisles, and numerous corners, and the scarcity of customers, suggests that no one but Jones could have assaulted the victim without being seen. Luckily, Leonides Witherall, the down-on-his-luck former headmaster of the Boston academy Martin once attended, is also on the scene. Jones is promptly arrested but Witherall is convinced that he is innocent. Also optimistically believing in Martin’s innocence is the pretty young owner of the shop. The only problem is proving it, which may be more difficult than expected.

Though Phoebe Atwood Taylor is best known for her mysteries starring Asey Mayo, the “Cape Cod Sherlock,” she also wrote a number of books featuring “the man who looks like Shakespeare” Leonidas Witherall, published under the pseudonym Alice Tilton. Beginning with a Bash is Witherall’s first case.