Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Penguin Pool Murder | 1931 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 2 | Murder on Wheels | 1932 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 3 | Murder on the Blackboard | 1932 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 4 | The Puzzle of the Pepper Tree | 1933 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 5 | The Puzzle of the Silver Persian | 1934 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 6 | The Riddle of the Blueblood Murders | 1934 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 7 | The Puzzle of the Red Stallion | 1936 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 8 | The Puzzle of the Blue Banderilla | 1937 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 9 | The Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan | 1941 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 10 | Miss Withers Regrets | 1947 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 11 | Four Lost Ladies | 1949 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 12 | The Green Ace / At One Fell Swoop | 1950 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 13 | The Monkey Murder | 1950 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 14 | Nipped in the Bud | 1951 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 15 | Cold Poison / Exit Laughing | 1954 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 16 | Trap for a Redhead | 1955 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 17 | Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene | 1969 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
| 18 | Hildegarde Withers: Uncollected Stories | 2002 | Stuart Palmer | Buy |
The Hildegarde Withers series is one of the longest-running mystery series from the Golden Age of detective fiction. Stuart Palmer introduced Miss Withers in The Penguin Pool Murder (1931), where a school field trip to the New York Aquarium turns deadly and the sharp-tongued schoolteacher finds herself drawn into a homicide investigation. From that first case onward, she becomes an unlikely but effective partner to Inspector Oscar Piper of the NYPD, and their bickering, affectionate dynamic runs through all eighteen books.
Miss Withers is a lean, angular woman known for her unusual hats and the black cotton umbrella she carries everywhere. She has no patience for nonsense, but underneath the prickly exterior she is a romantic who goes out of her way to help people in trouble. Palmer set the novels across a range of locations, from New York City classrooms and aquariums to Hollywood studios and Mexican bullrings, giving each book a distinct backdrop while keeping the puzzle-driven plotting consistent.
The series spans decades, from the early 1930s through the posthumously completed Hildegarde Withers Makes the Scene in 1969. Several of the novels were adapted into popular B-movies by RKO Pictures in the 1930s, with Edna May Oliver becoming the definitive screen Miss Withers. Palmer also collaborated with Craig Rice on short stories that paired Hildegarde Withers with Rice’s lawyer-detective John J. Malone, adding a fun crossover element for fans of classic mystery fiction.