The Skeleton at the Feast

'The Skeleton at the Feast' is a mystery-horror novel written by Carolyn Wells. The story unfolds with twelve people sitting at supper in the spacious dining room of Manning Carleton, in his Fifth Avenue home. Not an apartment. Even the most modern apartments, with their penthouses and terraces, had no charm for a Carleton. No, he lived in one of the few remaining mansions on the Avenue, and his corner lot, facing Central Park, was the despair of all realtors and the hope of the construction companies. The house was a double one, with rooms on each side of its central entrance hall, and it extended to a great depth along the side street. Next to the house, on Fifth Avenue, was a smaller house, whose architectural details proved it to have been built at about the same time. This house also was owned by Manning Carleton, and there was no slightest chance that either of the two homes should fall into the hands of a wrecking company during the owner's lifetime. The larger house had been the home of Manning Carleton and his forebears for three generations, and the smaller house had been in the family an equally long time.The last Carleton to occupy the smaller house was Roger Carleton, brother of Manning. But he had died ten years ago, and since his death the house had been rented to strangers. At present it was occupied by Jack Mortlake and his wife, most satisfactory and exemplary tenants.