The Man Who Loved Lions (The Man Who Wasn't There) by Ethel Lina White

This is a bonkers variant of the locked mansion mystery-country house party murder mystery subgenre where the country house is also a private zoo or menagerie! I have learned there is a Dickinson novel with one, and I've read a Nancy Drew with like... sneaking up to a mansion with the grounds patrolled by tigers, and there's the Philo Vance one with the fish and aquarium collection, and a Nero Wolfe one with the remains of a non-lethal menagerie, so there must be others. I admit that I have had to give up on some of the known golden era writers because they were too sexist or bad, but now I'm curious I'm going to have to try to look into that.

Anyway, this is the AMAZING plot of The Man Who Loved Lions.

( it's a college reunion in a gothic tower/private zoo murder/house party host murder/who-will-be-the-victim?-murder... mystery??? thriller )