The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players

John "Red" Gilpin, the magician, was irresistible to the women. lie was good at pullling rabbits out of hats, but he may have had a few other tricks up his sleeve. For when he met up with the other travelling players on the Cape, someone promptly put a bullet in his head.

What was the end for Red was only the beginning for Asey Mayo, here confronted with possibly the oddest array of clues and suspects of his long career. The words of a New York Times critic about one Phoebe Atwood Taylor mystery are true of The Mystery of the Cape Cod Players as well: "As is usual with the Asey Mayo stories, this one is as amusing as it is baffling, and as baffling as it is amusing."