The Reader Is Warned

{{Short description|1939 novel by John Dickson Carr}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2025}} {{infobox book |  | name = The Reader is Warned | title_orig = | translator = | image = File:TheReaderIsWarned.jpg | caption = First US edition | author = John Dickson Carr writing as "Carter Dickson" | cover_artist = | country = United Kingdom | language = English | series = Henry Merrivale | genre = Mystery fiction<br>Detective fiction | publisher = Morrow (US, 1939)<br/>Heinemann (UK, 1939, first edition) | release_date = 1939 | media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback) | pages = | isbn = | preceded_by = Drop to His Death | followed_by = And So to Murder }}

'''''The Reader is Warned''''' is a mystery novel by the American writer John Dickson Carr, who published it under the name of Carter Dickson.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Joshi |first=S. T. |author-link=S. T. Joshi |url=https://archive.org/details/johndicksoncarrc0000josh/page/154/mode/2up |title=John Dickson Carr: A Critical Study |publisher=Bowling Green State University Popular Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-87972-477-3 |pages=154}}</ref> It is a whodunit and features the series detective Sir Henry Merrivale.

==Plot summary== Sir Henry Merrivale must solve an impossible crime when a man dies in his home in such a way that it seems no one could have been sufficiently close to him to have committed murder, and it is unclear exactly how or why he died.

The circumstances are complicated by the presence of the victim's wife, a writer of clever detective stories, the disappearance of a book in which she jots down unusual methods of murder, and a strange house guest who believes that he can kill people at a distance by the use of something he calls "Teleforce".

== References == {{Reflist}}{{John Dickson Carr}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reader is Warned, The}} Category:1939 American novels Category:1939 English-language novels Category:Novels by John Dickson Carr Category:William Morrow and Company books Category:Heinemann (publisher) books Category:Novels set in 1938 Category:1930s mystery novels