DIVIt’s fashion week at the Beaumont, and Chambrun must investigate a haute couture killing/divDIV Barrel-chested and twinkle-eyed, Nikos Karados is one of the jet-set’s most charming figures. A Greek shipping magnate with a philanthropic bent, Karados has a Midas touch that turns charities into gold. For the sake of cancer research, he comes to New York to stage a fashion show at the stately Beaumont Hotel. Beaumont press agent Mark Haskell is admiring the models when he sees Karados collapse and perish from an apparent heart attack. Inspecting the body, the house doctor discovers that Karados’s medication has been replaced by placebos./divDIV /divDIVTo avoid a high-fashion panic, Beaumont manager Pierre Chambrun has Haskell quietly investigate the murder. Among the models, designers, and photographers lurks a killer, and Chambrun and Haskell will see to it that this unscrupulous fashionista spends next season wearing pinstripes./div

DIVWhen its manager vanishes, the Beaumont Hotel spins towards disaster/divDIV For decades, Pierre Chambrun has maintained the enormous mechanism that is the Beaumont Hotel. He breakfasts in his office at nine, and spends his days and nights ensuring that the various problems that inevitably occur in a large hotel do not disrupt its overall operation. But one morning, the suave old hotelier does not appear for breakfast. Panic sets quickly once it is clear that Pierre Chambrun is missing, and his staff must manage without him. The first crisis comes before lunch: A socialite has been murdered in her suite. /divDIV /divDIVInvestigating the killing falls to Chambrun’s security chief, his secretary, and Mark Haskell, his indefatigable press man. Together they must find the assassin and search for Chambrun, all the while trying to keep the Beaumont on the rails. For whether their boss is dead or alive, nothing must bother the guests. /div

DIVDIVSoon after the Beaumont is sold, its new owner is found dead in Suite 912/divDIVWhen crushing debts force the proprietor of the world-famous Beaumont Hotel to offload his prized possession to the ruthless tycoon J. W. Sassoon, hotel manager Pierre Chambrun and his staff brace for change. But the threat isn’t J.W., it’s his son, Johnny-baby—a cigar-puffing playboy whose bright ideas for “modernizing” one of Manhattan’s most elegant destinations amount to nothing more than sleaze. When he suggests that the Spartan Bar’s cigarette girls go topless, Chambrun quits, leaving the hapless wannabe to fend for himself. /divDIV /divDIVChambrun retires to his penthouse to write his memoirs, waiting for the inevitable crisis to force his return. It comes in the form of a dead body, Johnny-baby’s father, who is found in Suite 912 with a tap on his phone and a call girl’s underwear on the floor. To save his hotel, Chambrun is happy to come out of retirement—and clean up Johnny-baby’s mess./div /div

Bruce Murphy's Encyclopedia of Murder and Mystery is a comprehensive guide to the genre of the murder mystery that catalogues thousands of items in a broad range of categories: authors, titles, plots, characters, weapons, methods of killing, movie and theatrical adaptations. What distinguishes this encyclopedia from the others in the field is its critical stance.

The origins of literature’s finest crime fighters, told by their creators themselves Their names ring out like gunshots in the dark of a back alley, crime fighters of a lost era whose heroic deeds will never be forgotten. They are men like Lew Archer, Pierre Chambrun, Flash Casey, and the Shadow. They are women like Mrs. North and the immortal Nancy Drew. These are detectives, and they are some of the only true heroes the twentieth century ever knew. In this classic volume, Otto Penzler presents essays written by the authors who created these famous characters. We learn how Ed McBain killed—and resurrected—the hero of the 87th Precinct, how international agent Quiller wrote his will, and how Dick Tracy first announced that “crime does not pay.” Some of these heroes may be more famous than others, but there is not one whom you wouldn’t like on your side in a courtroom, a shootout, or an old-fashioned barroom brawl.

DIVAs X-rated stars descend on the Beaumont Hotel, someone takes a shot at its owner/divDIV Terrified of flying, Beaumont Hotel owner George Battle hasn’t seen America in seventeen years, instead spending his days on the Riviera, counting his money. But pressing business calls him back to the United States: a seven million dollar investment in the latest epic directed by Maxwell Zorn, king of highbrow celluloid smut. It’s the kind of motion picture that even an old man will want to oversee personally./divDIV /divDIVAs Zorn’s outlandish entourage swarms the illustrious hotel, Battle takes residence in the penthouse suite of his infallible manager, Pierre Chambrun. On his first night there, a bullet splinters the headboard just inches from his face. Was the shot meant for him or Chambrun? The Beaumont’s top brass must tread lightly. Die, and the Beaumont dies with them—a blow from which the jet-set will never recover. /div

A catch phrase is a well-known, frequently-used phrase or saying that has `caught on' or become popular over along period of time. It is often witty or philosophical and this Dictionary gathers together over 7,000 such phrases.

A catch phrase is a well-known, frequently-used phrase or saying that has `caught on' or become popular over along period of time. It is often witty or philosophical and this Dictionary gathers together over 7,000 such phrases.