This image is the cover for the book Death from Nowhere, The Don Diavolo Mysteries

Death from Nowhere, The Don Diavolo Mysteries

Trapped in a dead man’s office, Don Diavolo plans his greatest escape
 This collection brings together two adventures with Don Diavolo, the Scarlet Wizard.
 The first opens in his machinist’s workshop, where Diavolo perfects his newest feat: the Escape from the Double Crystal Water Casket. The men lurking outside have no interest in the magician’s secrets—they are detectives, tailing him on behalf of the police inspector. Giving them the slip is no trouble, but it proves a mistake, for Diavolo is about to be implicated in a murder. Diavolo is blackjacked as soon as he walks through the circus owner’s door, awaking just in time to be found standing over the corpse. To prove his innocence, the Scarlet Wizard must escape a trap more cunning than any crystal casket. His next adventure begins when an explorer lands at La Guardia airport, returning from India with a secret for which many men will die. Before Don Diavolo can unmask the killer, he must unlock the perplexing puzzle of the vanishing corpse.

Clayton Rawson

Clayton Rawson (1906–1971) was a novelist, editor, and magician. He is best known for creating the Great Merlini, an illusionist and amateur sleuth introduced in Death from a Top Hat (1938), a rollicking crime novel which has been called one of the best locked-room mysteries of all time. Rawson followed the character through three more adventures, concluding the series with No Coffin for the Corpse (1942). In 1941 and 1943 he published the short-story collections Death out of Thin Air and Death from Nowhere, starring Don Diavolo, an escape artist introduced in the Merlini series. In 1945 Rawson was among the founders of the Mystery Writers of America. He served as the first editor for the group’s newsletter, The Third Degree, and coined its famous slogan: “Crime Doesn’t Pay—Enough.” Rawson continued writing and editing for the rest of his life.

Open Road Integrated Media