| The Mystery of the Open Window | |
| Author: | Anthony Gilbert |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Scott Egerton |
| Genre: | Mystery thriller |
| Publisher: | Gollancz Dodd, Mead (US) |
| Release Date: | 1929 |
| Media Type: | |
| Preceded By: | Death at Four Corners |
| Followed By: | The Night of the Fog |
The Mystery of the Open Window is a 1929 mystery detective novel by Anthony Gilbert, the pen name of British writer Lucy Beatrice Malleson.[1] It is the fourth novel in a series featuring her amateur detective, the politician Scott Egerton.[2] Unlike the rest of the series it was published by Gollancz rather than Collins.[3] It takes the form of a locked room mystery, a popular branch of the genre during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
By coincidence, Egerton is at a disreputable inn in Paris when the proprietor is visited by the wealthy Sir Henry Archer, owner of the famous Archer Library, carrying several valuable books with him. Obviously in a state of terror, he demands that his room be locked and his window barred. Nonetheless the following morning he is found in bed, stabbed to death.