The North Side neighborhood of Allegheny West usually serves up its best ghost stories on a Halloween walking tour. This year, the Allegheny West Civic Council will offer chills of a different sort: a murder mystery set in three of the neighborhood's beautiful old Victorians.

"A Murder Mystery in Old Allegheny" will begin at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1 in the exquisitely restored Beech Avenue house where famed mystery writer Mary Roberts Rinehart penned her first novel, "The Circular Staircase," published in 1908.

The new mystery was written and produced by Steve Fatla, a North Side resident who heads up the Carlow University Theatre Group. At the Beech Avenue house and two others on Brighton Road, amateur sleuths will meet their fellow guests and enjoy drinks and hors d'oeuvres prepared by caterer Linda Iannotta. But they'll really sink their teeth into the mystery at the second stop, a high Victorian brick townhouse at 913 Brighton Road that Carole and Bob Malakoff have spent nearly 30 years restoring.

Inside the couple's 10-room home, guests will discover a "body" (one of their fellow guests) and begin trying to figure out which of them is the "murderer" by the time they reach the third stop, a long and narrow Romanesque-style house industrial magnate Harry Darlington built in 1890, back when the North Side was the independent city of Allegheny.

The Malakoffs' house, which overlooks West Park, has had some distinguished owners, too. Constructed in 1871 by saddler John Davidson, it was sold in 1880 to George McMurtry, president of Apollo Steel. Jacob Kaufmann, whose mercantile store on the South Side would become one of the city's most famous department stores, also owned (and expanded) the house in the 1890s.

Not surprisingly, the house had been carved into apartments in the years following the Great Depression, when few families could afford to maintain such large homes. It had fallen into disrepair by the time it came on the market in an estate sale in 1979, with no central heat, antiquated plumbing and electric, and a fair share of remuddled renovations. Not only had the intricately carved bird's-eye maple fireplace in the front parlor been painted, but its slate surround was painted pink. Pink!

Enough of its original architectural elements remained intact, however, that the Malakoffs, who had already rehabbed a house on Beech Avenue, immediately made an offer -- despite seeing just the first floor.

"We didn't know what we would do with it," admits Mrs. Malakoff, a retired art teacher who now coordinates Pittsburgh History & Landmarks' historic religious properties program.

They eventually decided, selling their home in Shadyside and moving into the first floor, with the goal of renovating it back to a single-family home once all the tenants were gone. The couple loved its paneled ceilings, a built-in buffet in the dining room and the original fireplaces, plaster moldings and intricate inlaid floors. All were in desperate need of work.

One of the house's loveliest features wasn't revealed until two years after they moved in. While removing a wall that had divided the living room into two rooms, their contractor discovered a lattice-like screen woven from strands of twisted wood between the panels of drywall. It was, they learned, a rare piece of Moorish fretwork crafted in the 1890s by CS Ransom & Co.

Other architectural stunners had to be acquired elsewhere: The great mirrored mantel opposite the baby grand piano in the living room's bay was gleaned from a mansion in Washington, Pa. (Neighbor John DeSantis had it in his basement.) Extra spindles in the staircase came from Construction Junction and the panel of glass in the front door from the old Meadows antiques fair.

North Side contractor Ed Pinto faced some of the biggest challenges. He had to re-create ceiling medallions from the faintest of outlines on the plaster. He also made the newel post on the stair, built the oak windowseat under a stained-glass window off the kitchen, and replicated the chair rail in the hallway from tiny pieces left on the wall.

Tying it all together are the Malakoffs' lovely collection of period antiques and contemporary prints, all of which are displayed in antique frames hung from a picture rail. They include several of Mexican artist Leticia Tarrago's color etchings from her "grandmother" series. A revamped powder room displays Mrs. Malakoff's collection of antique Whiting & Davis wire mesh handbags.

She admits there's plenty of work still to be done; Mr. Pinto's latest project is turning a small back porch into a sitting room off the kitchen and building a new porch that cleverly camouflages a wheelchair ramp. Needless to say, they're committed.

"We're staying," says Mrs. Malakoff.

Even if it means putting up with the occasional dead body.

'A Murder Mystery in Old Allegheny'

• When: 6:30 p.m. Nov. 1

• Tickets: $75 per person; limit 60 people. Reservations must be made by Oct. 28.

• Information: www.alleghenywest.info or 412-323-8884