Puneet Varma (Editor)

The Sleeping Sphinx

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
7.2
/
10
1
Votes
Alchetron
7.2
1 Ratings
100
90
80
71
60
50
40
30
20
10
Rate This

Rate This

Language
  
English

Publication date
  
1947

Author
  
John Dickson Carr

Preceded by
  
He Who Whispers (1946)

3.6/5
Goodreads

Series
  
Gideon Fell

Originally published
  
1947

Country
  
United Kingdom

The Sleeping Sphinx t1gstaticcomimagesqtbnANd9GcSp9evn9jE6roQ496

Publisher
  
Hamish Hamilton (UK) & Harper (USA)

Media type
  
Print (Hardback & Paperback)

Pages
  
199 pp (Bantam paperback edition, 1966)

Followed by
  
Dr. Fell, Detective, and Other Stories

Genres
  
Mystery, Detective fiction

Similar
  
John Dickson Carr books, Detective fiction books

The Sleeping Sphinx, first published in 1947, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr which features Carr's series detective Gideon Fell. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a whodunnit.

Plot summary

Donald Holden, upon his release from the British Armed Forces, discovers that he had been pronounced as dead more than a year ago, which may complicate his love for the beautiful Celia Devereaux. When he announces the mistake to her, they are reconciled, but strange things have been happening to the Devereaux family. Celia's sister Margot died in mysterious circumstances more than a year ago, after an evening of spooky games during which each guest wore the death mask of a famous murderer. The London offices of a fortune teller have been abandoned, but someone still uses them. And someone or something has been moving the coffins around inside a sealed mausoleum. Some people think that Celia has inherited the family taint of hysteria, but it takes the combined efforts of Donald Holden and Gideon Fell to explain Margot's death and the moving coffins.

References

The Sleeping Sphinx Wikipedia