1
of
1
The Penguin Pool Murder
Series: An American Mystery Classic
Ratings/reviews counts are updated frequently.
Check link for latest rating. ( 821 ratings, 133 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still
learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Summary
Read More
Format: Hardback
TEMPORARILY OUT OF STOCK
Please add to wishlist to be notified when back in stock
Sorry, we're currently out of stock of The Penguin Pool Murder. Please add to your Wishlist and we'll send you an email as soon as it's back in stock.
Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
In this classic whodunnit, crime-solving teacher Hildegarde Withers discovers a dead body while on a trip to the New York Aquarium with her third-grade class.
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
For the third graders at Jefferson School, a field trip is always a treat. But one day at the New York Aquarium, they get much more excitement than they bargained for. A pickpocket sprints past, stolen purse in hand, and is making his way to the exit when their teacher, the prim Hildegarde Withers, knocks him down with her umbrella.
By the time the police and the security guards finish arguing about what to do with Chicago Lew, he has escaped, and Miss Withers has found something far more interesting: a murdered stockbroker floating in the penguin tank. With the help of Detective Oscar Piper, this no-nonsense spinster embarks on her first of many adventures. The mystery is baffling, the killer dangerous, but for a woman who can control a gaggle of noisy third graders, murder isn't frightening at all.
The Penguin Pool Murder is part of the Hildegarde Withers Mysteries series, which also includes Murder on the Blackboard and Murder on Wheels.
Series: An American Mystery Classic
View all-
The Birthday Murder
A successful writer and a B-movie director seem like the perfect match in the Hollywood Hills. With him working to produce her novel for an upcoming film, the pair's recent marriage isn't the only way that they're connected. When the husband is found murdered on the wife's birthday, using a method of poisoning described in one of her books, Victoria...Paperback$4600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Waltz into Darkness
When New Orleans coffee merchant Louis Durand first meets his bride-to-be after a months-long courtship by mail, he's shocked that she doesn't match the photographs sent with her correspondence. But Durand has told his own fibs, concealing from her the details of his wealth, and so he mostly feels fortunate to find her so much more beautiful than expected. Soon...Paperback$4700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Rim of the Pit
"I came here to make a dead man change his mind." So begins a creepy and unusual mystery celebrated to this day as one of the greatest "impossible crime" novels of all time. When a family's promise to protect the beloved pine grove of their dead father creates a financial strain, a séance is suggested to summon the ghost of...Paperback$4600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Adventures of Ellery Queen
For Ellery Queen, there is no puzzle that reason cannot solve. In his time, he has faced down killers, thugs, and thieves, protected only by the might of his brain—and the odd bit of timely intervention by his father, a burly New York police inspector. But when a university professor asks Queen to teach a class, the detective finds there...Hardback$6400Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Golden Age Bibliomysteries
Of crime fiction's many sub-genres, none is so reflexive and intriguing as the "bibliomystery": stories that involve crimes set, somehow, in the world of books. In Vincent Starrett's A Volume of Poe, a bookseller is murdered; in Ellery Queen's The Adventure of the Three R's, the detective tracks the disappearance of a local Missouri author; and a killer stalks the...Paperback$5100Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Great Mistake
In an elaborate house known as the Cloisters, Maud Wainwright rules supreme. The queen of society in the small town of Beverly, she has a table long enough to seat one hundred, and she keeps an iron grip on the guest list. Her right-hand woman is Pat Abbott, a local girl who is beautiful, innocent, and kind. Pat has no...Paperback$4600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Headed for a Hearse
Robert Westland's date with the executioner is just around the corner when he finally decides to fight the murder rap sending him to the electric chair. Framed for his wife's grisly demise, Westland is in a bind, and his last hope is Bill Crane, a booze-soaked detective who's as ruthless with a quip as he is when trawling the streets...Paperback$4500Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Alarm of the Black Cat
A strange encounter with a little girl named Claudia and a dead toad sparks elderly detective fiction fan Rachel Murdock's obsessive curiosity, and she winds up renting the house next door just to see how things play out. But soon after she and her cat Samantha move in, Rachel realises they've landed right in the middle of a deadly love...Paperback$4700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
The Widening Stain
For the staff of the library at the centre of The Widening Stain, it's easy enough to dismiss the death of a woman who fell from a rolling ladder as nothing more than an unfortunate accident. It's more difficult, however, to explain away the strangled corpse of a man found inside a locked room, surrounded by rare and obscure erotica....Paperback$4700Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Vultures in the Sky
The journey of the Mexico City-bound Pullman seems ill-fated from the outset, with engine troubles and the threat of an impending railway strike. However, no one aboard expects the terror that will descend upon the luxury train between Laredo and its destination. First, a man dies as the vehicle passes through a dark tunnel, and then, just as United States...Paperback$4600Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
Golden Age Bibliomysteries
Of crime fiction's many sub-genres, none is so reflexive and intriguing as the "bibliomystery": stories that involve crimes set, somehow, in the world of books. In Vincent Starrett's A Volume of Poe, a bookseller is murdered; in Ellery Queen's The Adventure of the Three R's, the detective tracks the disappearance of a local Missouri author; and a killer stalks the...HardbackSold Out -
Golden Age Detective Stories
Sometimes, the police aren't the best suited to solve a crime. Depending on the case, you may find that a retired magician, a schoolteacher, a Broadway producer, or a nun have the necessary skills to suss out a killer. Or, in other cases, a blind veteran, or a publisher, or a hard-drinking attorney, or a mostly-sober attorney… or, indeed, any...PaperbackSold Out
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
The Penguin Pool Murder by Stuart Palmer is praised for its clever protagonist, touted as one of the shrewdest and most entertaining detectives by The New York Times. Midwest Book Review finds it an enjoyable read for fans who love 'whodunnit' mysteries, especially those featuring amateur female detectives.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781613163894
Publisher: Penzler Publishers
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 17 January 2023
Country: United States
Imprint: American Mystery Classics
Contributors:
- Introduction and notes by Otto Penzler
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 25.0mm
Width: 145.0mm
Height: 211.0mm
Weight: 395g
Pages: 288
About the Author
Stuart Palmer (1905–1968) was an American author of mysteries. Born in Baraboo, Wisconsin, Palmer worked a number of odd jobs—including apple picking, journalism, and copywriting—before publishing his first novel, the crime drama Ace of Jades, in 1931. It was with his second novel, however, that he established his writing career: The Penguin Pool Murder introduced Hildegarde Withers, a schoolmarm who, on a field trip to the New York Aquarium, discovers a dead body in the pool. Withers was an immensely popular character, and went on to star in thirteen more novels, including Miss Withers Regrets (1947) and Nipped in the Bud (1951). A master of intricate plotting, Palmer found success writing for Hollywood, where several of his books, including The Penguin Pool Murder, were filmed by RKO Pictures Inc. Otto Penzler, the creator of American Mystery Classics, is also the founder of The Mysterious Press (1975); MysteriousPress.com (2011), an electronic-book publishing company; and New York City’s Mysterious Bookshop (1979). He has won a Raven, the Ellery Queen Award, two Edgars (for the Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, 1977, and The Lineup, 2010), and lifetime achievement awards from NoirCon and The Strand Magazine. He has edited more than 70 anthologies and written extensively about mystery fiction.
Also by Stuart Palmer
View all-
The Penguin Pool Murder
For the third graders at Jefferson School, a field trip is always a treat. But one day at the New York Aquarium, they get much more excitement than they bargained for. A pickpocket sprints past, stolen purse in hand, and is making his way to the exit when their teacher, the prim Hildegarde Withers, knocks him down with her umbrella....PaperbackSold Out
More from Crime & Thriller
View all-
New ReleaseEvery Lake
Scary stories are fun... until your life becomes one. When Alice was fifteen, her father killed Mia Heywood in their lakefront cottage before vanishing into the trees. At least that's what the locals think happened. Over a decade later, Alice has lost her job as a journalist, she's going through an expensive divorce and she desperately needs to sell the...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseIt Could Have Been Her
PREPARE TO BE HOOKED: The no. 1 Sunday Times and MULTI-million-copy bestselling author is back with a brand-new spine tingling thriller. It was the night she almost died. Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New Release26 Beauties
The twenty-sixth thrilling novel in the globally bestselling Women's Murder Club series. Beautiful young women are disappearing by the dozen. A celebration is cut short when a concerned father crashes Detective Inspector Lindsay Boxer's party. His daughter is missing - and she's not the only one. DI Lindsay Boxer has been tracking a chilling pattern: a Jane Doe washed ashore,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Secrets We Hide
The stunning new North Falls thriller by the bestselling author of We Are All Guilty Here 'Quite simply, Karin Slaughter is the best of us' Dervla McTiernan Welcome back to North Falls -- a small town with big secrets. The house at 1601 Iris Drive looks like any other in the quiet, residential street. But rumours are rife about the Vickery...Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseThe Parkwood Murders
They came for an escape, but can they escape a killer? Detective Nicola Bridge returns in another gripping and immersive mystery For its loyal guests, Parkwood Holiday Village in west Dorset is a haven- woodland walks, a tranquil lake, service around the clock. Until, just after midsummer, a body is found floating in the swimming pool. Detective Nicola Bridge, exhausted...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
Hope Rises
'BALDACCI IS STILL PEERLESS' - THE SUNDAY TIMES REVENGE IS A DISH BEST SERVED COLD . . . Walter Nash, working under the alias of Dillon Hope, is on the road to revenge after becoming an informant for the FBI against a global criminal operation headed up by Victoria Steers. Steers has ripped everything Nash held dear away from him....Paperback$3099Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New Release
Slash
A year after a brutal shootout left her lover dead, ex-police sergeant Honey Chalmers is a hot mess, drinking too much and eating too little, working casual gigs for a shady firm of private investigators — while holding conversations with a ghost. A desperate father asks her to investigate his missing son — a double-murder suspect last seen during the...Paperback$3200Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseA River Red With Blood
The players call it the Game, and its aim is simple: to abduct and kill a stranger without getting caught. They're very good at it. They've been playing it for a long time. And they can keep playing as long as everyone sticks to the rules: No Killing Close to Home and No Killing Outside the Game. But those rules...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
The Shadow Step
The new Detective Miller thriller from bestselling author Mark Billingham, full of tension, wit and incredible twists. The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards ('in the shadow') Typically, such a step perfectly demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3799Unit price /UnavailableBackorderShips mid August -
New ReleaseBlue Lightning
Blue Lightning The fourth Shetland novel A remote island on lockdown. A killer on the loose . . . Shetland detective Jimmy Perez knows it will be a difficult homecoming when he returns to Fair Isle to introduce his fiancée to his parents. With the autumn storms raging, the island is cut off from the rest of the world. Then...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseRed Bones
Red Bones is the third Shetland novel featuring detective Jimmy Perez. Sometimes the dead won't stay buried... When a young archaeologist uncovers a set of human remains, the island settlers are intrigued. Is it an ancient find—or a more contemporary mystery? Then an elderly woman is shot in what appears to be a tragic accident in the middle of the...Paperback$3000Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow -
New ReleaseSome Sort of Justice
The first time in print for the million-copy-selling crime writer. This time, a cast of good coppers, a wily ex-detective and a shadowy, well-connected operative are brought together by an aristocratic fatality. Only there's no body, no forensics—and enemies in the highest places. When Caroline Thorpe succeeded in casting doubt on the verdict of the inquest into her brother's death,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3800Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips tomorrow
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
Crime & Thriller lists from the team
Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!
