I just finished reading "Invisible Green," a 1977 mystery by John Sladek, a writer who was better known for his science fiction books. He only wrote a couple of mysteries, which is a pity: "Invisible Green" is a well-plotted (and fairly convoluted) impossible crime mystery.
It's about a group of seven people who used to belong to a club called "The Seven Unravellers," a group which used to meet during the early days of World War II to discuss fictional murder mysteries. Many years later, one member of the group tries to pull the six surviving members together for a reunion. Before that can happen, though, one of them dies mysteriously, after babbling about visits and threats from a "Mr. Green."
It turns out that each of the members has had what might be considered a colorful warning: one member has an orange thrown through a window; another finds a page from the Yellow Pages pinned to the door with a knife; a third has violets stolen from her garden.
The police call it a natural death. But soon there will be more murders. And a freelance detective, Thackeray Phin, must try to solve what appears to be a motiveless string of impossible crimes. One death, for example, takes place in a locked room. Another took place in a house that was closely watched. Is the murderer, the elusive Mr. Green, really invisible?
Phin does eventually manage to solve the problem. Unfortunately, this is one of those books where the police behave with such overwhelming (and unrealistic) stupidity that the reader automatically discounts their intervention. But clues are fairly presented to the reader, who should be able to do better than the police and follow Phin to the right answer.
Unfortunately, "Invisible Green
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