The Iron Clew
The Iron Clew (also published as The Iron Hand) is a 1947 mystery novel by Phoebe Atwood Taylor, writing as Alice Tilton. It is the eighth and last book in the Leonidas Witherall series. The story follows Leonidas Witherall, “the man who looks like Shakespeare,” as he plans to write the latest adventures of Lieutenant Hazeltine. His housekeeper interrupts with her “candied opinion,” and he attends a dinner as a bank director at Fenwick Balderston’s house. There he discovers a brown-paper parcel of bank papers has disappeared, and Balderston has been struck down with a bronze Shakespeare bust.
Witherall, helped by plucky housewife Liz Copley and other assistants, races around the town of Dalton to solve the case. Their clues include a missing dinosaur footprint, a copy of the book Tamerlane, the stolen bank documents, and finally the murderer. The book mixes mystery with humor, and a contemporary review praised its suspense and laughs. Around this time, Witherall’s adventures also inspired a short-lived radio series. In the novels, Witherall is also the author of stories about the adventures of Lieutenant Hazeltine. The UK edition title is The Iron Hand.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 09:16 (CET).