Carolyn Wells 
Raspberry Jam (Annotated) 

• This edition includes the following editor’s introduction: Women writers in the origins of the mystery and detective genre

Originally published in 1920, “Raspberry Jam” is a novel by American author Carolyn Wells. The novel is a classic cozy locked-room mystery featuring Detective Fleming Stone and is widely considered to be one of the best of the Fleming Stone Mysteries.



Millionaire Sanford Embury, a successful titan of industry, is known to be a controlling husband, refusing to give his pretty young wife an allowance of cash or her own checking account. When he is found dead in his locked bedroom without evidence of natural death, the doctors and the police try to figure out who the murder is from among the suspects. And it isn’t an easy job, for each suspect either have a motive but no opportunity or have an opportunity but no motive. And to make matters worse, one of the victim’s relative claims to have seen the dead man’s ghost, whose appearance corresponded with a remarkable taste and smell of raspberry jam…