Sir Henry Merrivale Series by Carter Dickson, John Dickson Carr

The murderer sent a formal invitation to Scotland Yard telling them the time and place of the murder. Incredulous, and astounded at the audacity of such a note, the Yard recalled a similar, and still unsolved, case of two years previous.Sir Henry Merrivale and Chief Inspector Masters accepted the invitation and had the house surrounded. Upstairs in an otherwise empty house was a furnished room. A man entered the house. Promptly at the time set by the murderer a shot rang out... moreThe murderer sent a formal invitation to Scotland Yard telling them the time and place of the murder. Incredulous, and astounded at the audacity of such a note, the Yard recalled a similar, and still unsolved, case of two years previous.Sir Henry Merrivale and Chief Inspector Masters accepted the invitation and had the house surrounded. Upstairs in an otherwise empty house was a furnished room. A man entered the house. Promptly at the time set by the murderer a shot rang out. The police rushed in and discovered that same man on the floor with a bullet through the back of the head and another in his spine... but no one else had entered the house! It was an impossible situation, but it DID happen. less

A curse shall befall anyone who takes the bronze lamp out of Egypt, so a seer has said. Lady Helen Loring thinks such tales are sheer poppycock. She takes the lamp back to England, she places it on the mantelpiece at Serven Hall, and she disappears, just as the seer said.