From page 188 of The Riddle of the Traveling Skull by Harry Stephen Keeler, 1934.

From Ovation By Death by Dorian Yeager.

We double-checked, and there are indeed worse ways to go than to be buried in discarded buttercream.  From Buried in Buttercream by G. A. McKevett.

Here's a way you can still give a fruitcake and not be reviled: give a fruitcake-themed mystery novel.

The promise of a happy ending, right on the front cover.  The House of the Lost Court by Alice Muriel Williamson, 1908.

The Mystic Ball by Margaret Sutton, 1934.

The Phantom Friend by Margaret Sutton.

The Haunted Fountain by Margaret Sutton.

The Vanishing Shadow by Margaret Sutton.

The Mysterious Half Cat by Margaret Sutton.  You, too, can be half a cat, if you follow just the first half of How to Be Your Own Cat.

Reblog if you, too, don't like doing things at regular times, like having odd meals with odd people in odd places, and like meeting strangers in little pubs who produce the philosopher's stone from their pockets.  From The Immaterial Murder Case by Julian Symons, 1945.  [Thanks Jonathan Caws-Elwitt for the recommendation!]

Today, we call it a "whodunit," but back when grammar was still a subject, such a mystery novel was a "who did it?"  ;-)