The Sleeping Sphinx

infobox Book |
name = The Sleeping Sphinx
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = John Dickson Carr
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series = Gideon Fell
genre = Mystery, Detective novel
publisher = Hamish Hamilton (UK) & Harper (USA)
release_date = 1947
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages = 199 pp (Bantam paperback edition, 1966)
isbn =
preceded_by = He Who Whispers (1946)
followed_by = Below Suspicion (1949)

"The Sleeping Sphinx", first published in 1947, is a detective story by John Dickson Carr which features Carr's series detective Gideon Fell. This novel is a mystery of the type known as a whodunnit.

Plot summary

Donald Holden, upon his release from the British Armed Forces, discovers that he has been announced as dead more than a year ago, which may complicate his love for the beautiful Celia Devereaux. When he announces the mistake to her, they are reconciled, but strange things have been happening to the Devereaux family. Celia's sister Margot died in mysterious circumstances more than a year ago, after an evening of spooky games during which each guest wore the death mask of a famous murderer. The London offices of a fortune teller have been abandoned, but someone still uses them. And someone or something has been moving the coffins around inside a sealed mausoleum. Some people think that Celia has inherited the family taint of madness, but it takes the combined efforts of Donald Holden and Gideon Fell to explain Margot's death and the moving coffins.