Reading order
| # | Title | Published | Author | Buy on Amazon |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beginning with a Bash | 1937 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
| 2 | The Cut Direct | 1938 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
| 3 | Cold Steal | 1939 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
| 4 | The Left Leg | 1940 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
| 5 | The Hollow Chest | 1941 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
| 6 | File for Record | 1943 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
| 7 | Zu den Akten. Leonidas Witherall Serie. | 1943 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | N/A |
| 8 | Dead Ernest | 1944 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
| 9 | The Iron Clew | 1947 | Phoebe Atwood Taylor | Buy |
The Leonidas Witherall mysteries were published under the pen name Alice Tilton, though readers eventually learned that Phoebe Atwood Taylor was behind them. The nine books, published between 1937 and 1947, follow a retired professor whose resemblance to Shakespeare is his most noted feature.
The Witherall books are more overtly comic than the Asey Mayo series. The plots tend toward the absurd, with Witherall getting tangled in increasingly unlikely criminal situations. Taylor uses the academic setting and the professor’s befuddlement as sources of humor, making these mysteries as entertaining for their comedy as for their crime-solving.