In the golden age of detective literature, there were many famous authors—Agatha Christie, Gilbert Keith Chesterton, and Josephine Tey among them. John Dixon Carr occupies a special place among them. He is known for intriguing plots where the circle of suspects narrows, and he draws readers into complex puzzles. One of his favorite works is “Murder in a Locked Room,” where there are no shootouts or chases, but the intrigue is maximized. His novel under the pseudonym Carter Dixon, “The Red Widow’s Mystery,” tells of the executioner’s descendants living in a mansion cursed: whoever remains alone in a sealed room is doomed to die. But the secret of the “Red Widow” was revealed at the cost of several lives—a dog, and a parrot.