"The scene here is a small "one-pub" coastal town south of Brisbane. Napoleon Bonaparte, the brilliant half-caste Detective-Inspector, is sent out to look into the death of Mrs. Answerth of Venom House, found floating in the moat surrounding her home. Two previous murders can also be traced to the house. Bony finds enough psychological dynamite under Venom's roof to account for dozens of murders; a housekeeper, formerly a nurse for mental cases; a violent, mannish sister; a sly, feminine sister; and, locked away upstairs, a mentally retarded brother." - from the 1952 Berkley edition

"The Answerths live in extreme isolation in a lonely house surrounded by a moat. Bony becomes interested in the case when Mrs. Answerth is found strangled in the moat. Inspector Stanley was unable to solve the previous similar death of the local butcher, Ed Carlow. Mary Answerth is a tartar, a rough, tough woman who reckons there isn't a man or horse she can't master. Her sister ]anet is smooth and educated, speaking sweetly and with a slight lisp. Half-brother Morris is a great bear of a man with the mind of a child. He is kept locked in a room, plays with a toy train and is adept with a lasso... This is a strange, eerie and gripping mystery." – from "The Armchair Detective"

Location: Answerth's Folly, Edison (fictional), south of Brisbane, Queensland.

Venom House was published in 1952 by Doubleday as part of its Crime Club series. The first British edition was published by Heinemann in 1953. Pictured above is the Medallion edition of 1952, printed by Berkley in the United States.