The Mystery Of The Boule Cabinet

The Mystery of the Boule Cabinet; A Detective Story by Burton Egbert Stevenson written 1911, is a bit on the sensational side, with stupid policeman, clever amateur sleuths, and a villain who is just a bit too...much of everything. However, the greatest thing in this book is the murder weapon.

Forget Professor Peacock in The Library with The Revolver. Or even a frozen leg of lamb or a toaster. In this story the murder weapon is…wait for it. A piece of furniture. A rather large cabinet to be precise. Not a built-in, free standing. No it doesn’t fall on anybody, it’s a little more complicated than that of course.

The plot is basically a locked room mystery, which is basically that someone is murdered in a locked room. The door isn't locked in this, but it still applies. You see there’s no way the person or persons could have been murdered in this room, and yet there’s this dead body. Then another one. And another one. Plus some near misses, but no one realizes that until later. The only commonality is this cabinet, and it’s definitely the murder weapon.

No spoiler there that’s established almost immediately. But how is the murderer using it to kill people?

Well that’s the mystery, and if I told you, you'd be mad. So I won't do that.