The final novel by the legendary Ellery Queen, A Fine and Private Place ranks with Queen’s incomparable best.

The nine-word clue was one of nine cryptic notes that had been sent to taunt Inspector Queen and his son Ellery nine days after the murder. Nino Importuna had been obsessed with the number. He had lived by it. Now the killer who brought a trio of gory deaths to Nino’s ninth-floor penthouse at Number 99 East was camouflaging his identity in a jungle of nines—and daring Ellery to find him. The case was destined to be a dazzling contest of wits—to the ninth degree!

How could a man have been murdered when he was found alone in his study, a gun in his hand, and the door locked from the inside? It had to be suicide, the police figured. Although there was no suicide note, there was a letter proving conclusively that Roland Nelson, over the last several months, was being blackmailed. But to his daughter, Ann, whom he had seen only spasmodically since he had left her mother when Ann was a baby, there were unanswered questions. She was convinced that her father could never have killed himself. Before she found the answers, two people were brutally garroted with a wire, one of them in her own apartment. Could she find all the answers before the killer silenced her, too?

Ellery Queen and Sherlock Holmes match wits to reveal the identity of history’s most infamous and depraved killer.

Ellery Queen and Sherlock Holmes are the undisputed masters of analytical deduction–their talents and methods strikingly, almost uncannily, alike. Through the strange interlocking of events past and present, the two celebrated detectives meet to focus their razor-sharp intellects–and their brilliant powers of observation–on the mystery of Jack the Ripper.

Jack the Ripper’s victims were the whores of Whitechapel. Lurking in narrow, fog-shrouded alleys, he crept forth night after night to murder–and mutilate. Eluding Scotland Yard’s most heroic efforts to track him down, the Ripper continued to satisfy his unnatural appetites, unrestrained and unidentified. Can Queen and Holmes unmask the notorious killer?

Uniquely imaginative, A Study in Terror is a masterpiece of mystery and suspense.

While stranded in the desert, Ellery Queen stumbles across a religious cult.

It’s 1943, the war is raging, and sleuthing scribe Ellery Queen wants to do his bit. After a tortuous cross-country drive, he takes a job writing scripts for a Hollywood propaganda house—twelve hours a day of hack work that quickly turns his mind to jelly. After a few weeks, he is so worn down that he can type nothing but gibberish, and he decides to drive home. The trouble starts as soon as he reaches the desert.

His ancient roadster breaks down on the edge of Death Valley. Wandering in search of help, he is saved by a man known as the Teacher, who takes him to an oasis called Quenan. Here, Queen finds a bizarre, reclusive cult that seems to have come straight out of the ancient past. A murder has been committed in the desert, and the Quenanites plan on delivering some Old Testament justice. Queen is just the detective they’ve been waiting for.

John Vallancourt, the cool, calm diplomat, is worried stiff. A dear friend is dead and his daughter Nancy is missing. John fears the worst–and the worst is Nancy’s sweetheart Keith Rollins. Keith is the prime suspect in the case and he is running scared, dragging Nancy into danger with him. If Keith is a murderer, John is certain of one thing: he has to catch Keith before the cops do, or he might find himself with one very dead daughter!

There is an epidemic of death in the town. Lila Connor, neighborhood flirt and sex goddess, lay dead in her home, victim of an ill-placed letter opener. Larry Connor, successful accountant and distraught husband, lay dead in his office, slain by the giant Mickey Finn. And at Shady Acres, Nancy Howell is crazy wondering who killed Lila and Larry. Is a killer even now hidden in Shady Acres, waiting for a chance to slay again?

Looking for trouble, Ellery Queen descends on a small town.

At the tail end of the long summer of 1940, there is nowhere in the country more charming than Wrightsville. The Depression has abated, and for the first time in years the city is booming. There is hope in Wrightsville, but Ellery Queen has come looking for death.

The mystery author is hoping for fodder for a novel, and he senses the corruption that lurks beneath the apple pie fa+oade. He rents a house owned by the town’s first family, whose three daughters star in most of the local gossip. One is fragile, left at the altar three years prior, never to recover. Another is engaged to the city’s rising political star, an upright man who’s already boring her. And then there’s Lola, the divorced, bohemian black sheep. Together, they make a volatile combination. Once he sees the ugliness in Wrightsville, Queen sits back–waiting for the crime to come to him.

In the merry month of May, Ellery Queen made a trek to Gettysburg to witness an annual celebration—and an annual murder. February found the ingenious Ellery locked in a furious battle of wits with a dead US president. These are but two of the twelve appointments with crime that make up Queen’s baffling calendar of conundrums. Each elegant enigma ticks off all the surprise and excitement that have made Queen the dean of American detective fiction.

Stories include “The Inner Circle,” “The President’s Half Dime,” “The Ides of Michael Magoon,” “The Emperor’s Dice,” “The Gettysburg Bugle,” “The Medical Finger,” “The Fallen Angel,” “The Needle’s Eye,” “The Three R’s,” “The Dead Cat,” “The Telltale Bottle,” and “The Dauphin’s Doll.”

The silent rush of footsteps, the muffled shriek, the ever-tightening noose of exotic silk … the mark of the Cat. The Cat had claimed number nine.

The Cat had nine kills, but Ellery Queen found number ten alive and offered the victim temptingly to the killer. The trap was baited, and Ellery and the police poised for the strike that had to come. But the strangler struck elsewhere—and Queen’s heart chilled at the thought of what he would find.

Who are you, Malone? Just a little while ago you were a cop. That was before the two punks and their girl hit town. That was before they boosted a payroll and shot down a man and took your nine-year-old daughter as insurance to cover their getaway. Now you’re just a man. Scared. Not for yourself–that would be easy. But for your child, the only thing in the world you love enough to make you play ball with the kind of scum you’ve hated all your life.

When Barney Street, the fixer, was in Holland in World War II, his life had been saved by a German soldier.

Now Barney is dead and his two million dollar estate is left entirely to the soldier who saved him, Milo Hacha. But that fortune comes with a death sentence, for Barney’s widow, Estelle, won’t rest until she gets back everything that is rightfully hers.

She sends Steve Longacre, once one of Barney’s boys, to Europe to find Hacha, trailing him from Holland to Switzerland, to Vienna, and finally to Prague. Longacre has Hacha on the run, fleeing love, money, and a velvet-lined coffin …

Disc jockey Tutter King has it made. Every time he spins a platter on King’s Session, gold comes out: TV earnings, returns on his secret holdings in recording companies–the old payola that some bright young men think only their rightful due.

Tutter is a gay young man-around-town who has the world dancing to his tune. He is also involved in some hanky-panky with his pretty blond assistant, Lola Arkwright.

And then the roof starts to cave in: Senate investigating committees; the angry emergence of the wife who Lola never knew existed; the canceling of his network contract. Poor Tutter, it looks like he is going to lose everything–even his life!

Ellery Queen returned to Wrightsville to solve the mystery of a rich man–believed poor–who died of “old age,” a poor man–believed rich–who committed suicide, and a scholarly drunk who disappeared. Shortly it occurred to Queen that the puzzle had a pattern. A twisted mind was committing murder according to an old nursery rhyme! Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief … and to at least one person in town, the chief was Ellery Queen.

Ellery Queen challenges you to solve these clues to death. A thin envelope—worth a man’s life. A shattered display case—whose stolen contents a thief replaced with a strange manuscript. The murder symbol: 3HS wM … the queer cipher found to be an old mark of death. These are but a few of the baffling signs Drury Lane follows down a path of deception and murder to one of the most startling climaxes in mystery fiction.

Gloria Guild is the singing “glory” of the thirties and the millionairess wife of Count Carlos Armando, renowned only for his succession of wealthy wives. When she is murdered, her husband is the obvious suspect, but he has a perfect alibi. So who could he have got to do it for him? The only clue is the word “face,” penned in her dying scrawl. But whose face? And why? Ellery Queen pursues the glory riddle from the Bowery to a way-out wedding–and a surprise climax that will jolt you into cold shock. Anyone who nails this killer before Queen is either a genius or a cheat.

“Let’s face it, Alex: you were the KGB’s top assassin, and they paid you off. Just as we might. A cushy lieutenant-colonelcy in Tokyo, riding pour le sport, a yacht, your pick of Eurasian dolls … Like? We can do you better in the USA, Alex—come on over, and bring your secrets with you.”

That was FACE’s pitch to the would-be defector, and it got results. Witness one hell of a nice courier slashed and dumped in a Tokyo alley.

Maybe Agent Pete Brook could make jolly Alex’s dream come true. Except what did Krylov really long for in America: wine, women, and song—or a dramatic return to the murderer’s trade?

The victim had lived two lives, but a single knife thrust ended both of them. The trail of suspicion led into the guilt-edged world of the beautiful people–and climaxed in a vicious courtroom battle that ended with a shattering verdict. It seemed that for the first time Ellery had met his match–until the sleuth blended his usual impeccable logic with a most unusual fling …

Tim Corrigan is up to his eye-patch in scandal, intrigue, and wide-open murder

The banners waved, the crowd cheered, the reporters rushed toward the candidate as he made his way to the speaker’s platform. And then a shot rang out, the candidate clutched at his chest, screamed, and fell dead. It was a pretty kettle of fish for Tim Corrigan, the crime solver with the eye-patch and the stainless steel nervous system. The suspects included the candidate’s voluptuous widow, his handsome bodyguard, and a breathtaking young thing with every reason to want the candidate dead. And pretty soon Corrigan was a candidate himself—for murder.

For years, Inspector Richard Queen had been outshone by his writer son. Now, with Ellery away, he had a case all his own–or did he? The verdict had been accidental death, and only the victim’s nurse had seen the one thing that made it murder. Recruiting a senior citizens corps of retired cops, Dick Queen tracked a murderer–and found himself courting his only witness! No wonder he kept muttering, “What’s Ellery going to say … ?”

An exciting mystery by the masterly Ellery Queen

Dr. Harry Brown is a competent, respectable practitioner of the time-honored art of medicine–until the day old man Gresham, with his millions of dollars, failing heart, and young spouse, hires him. Suddenly it’s money, luxury, and love. But what happens to a doctor when someone slips a corpse into his locked apartment? What can a man say when he finds himself a member of an organized crime ring? How can Harry tell his richest patient that he’s having an affair with a man’s wife? It’s enough to give a man a heart attack–but which man?

The nice mild man named Edward Tollman had a problem. His lovely wife was missing, and he wanted her back–fast. So he went to a fellow whose specialty was solving problems like that–a very private detective called Barney Burgess. Burgess’ methods were not pleasant–but they got results. Burgess was used to sordid scenes and secrets. But after four quick corpses, a wild ride to Mexico, and a blonde sex bomb who threatened to blow the case wide open at the first wrong move, Barney began to wonder how such a nice guy got him into something so nasty.

Who killed Cox, the robber? Was it Ruth Tully, who visited Crandall Cox on the night of his death, and who might have decided to quench a torrid past with a spray of bullets? What about Sandra Jean, the knock-’em-dead beauty, who knew more than she was telling about the sudden demise of blackmailer Cox? Or had some past scandal driven lawyer Ollie Hurst and his wife, Norma, to claim the blackmailer’s life? Dave Tully didn’t know who the killer was, but if he didn’t find out fast, the price of failure could be death …

Queen’s Bureau of Investigation is now open for business–and in each department of this new enterprise Ellery finds ample opportunity to exercise the brilliant, ingenious, and at times startling talents of his crime-lab mind. For to the bureau come some of the most plaguey cases in Queen’s career.

In “The Three Widows,” two of Theodore Hood’s wealthy, widow daughters, as well as his own widow, are caught in a murder that Ellery reluctantly relegated to the Impossible Crime Department.

In “The Myna Birds,” old Mrs. Andrus’ bequest of a million dollars to thirty-eight observant and talkative birds sets off a chain of violent events leading straight to the Embezzlement Department–and the only bird-detective on record!

A Question of Honor” is a matter of considerable international delicacy, involving indiscreet letters, a Shakespearean scholar from Scotland Yard, and a crime at once assigned to the Suicide Department.

Numerous other criminals, crimes, follies, and felonies find their way to the bailiwicks of the QBI as well. From the files of the Buried Treasure Department comes “Miser’s Gold”; from the Narcotics Department, “The Black Ledger”; from the Kidnapping Department, “Child Missing!”; and many others. In each case, Ellery Queen demonstrates the powers that make him unique among detectives.

Let Ellery Queen clue you in on his special brand of high tension, brain-teasing mystery! This collection consists of novelettes and short stories from Queen’s many escapades. Stories include “Mum Is the Word,” “Object Lesson,” “No Parking,” “No Place to Live,” “Miracles Do Happen,” “The Lonely Bride,” “Mystery at the Library of Congress,” “Dead Ringer,” “The Broken T,” “Half a Clue,” “Eve of the Wedding,” “Last Man to Die,” “Payoff,” “The Little Spy,” “The President Regrets,” and “Abraham Lincoln’s Clue.”

Since his first novel, Ellery Queen has been in the top ranks of the world’s detective-story writers. He has been equally successful with short stories and novelettes written for magazines. This rare volume is a collection of some of Queen’s best, containing three novelettes and two short stories. The stories include “The Death of Don Juan,” “The Wrightsville Heirs,” “The Case against Carroll,” “E = Murder,” and “Diamonds in Paradise.”

Ellery Queen stars in all of them, making this collection a must-read for mystery fans.

“Come on baby. This has to look real,” Casey said. “Relax.”

Immediately Sally’s body went stiff. “Do I have to?”

“You’ve got to. Now loosen up, get into the spirit of the thing before—”

She slid her arms around his neck. Suddenly they were kissing wildly, clinging to each other as if it were a matter of life or death—because it was …

Joe Maddox was one of moviedom’s most successful producers. But could he produce $200,000 in time to save his wife, his scriptwriter, and his leading lady? They didn’t know, all three were held at gunpoint in a deserted California beach house, but they’d find out, one way or another …

Ellery Queen is persuaded to accompany an old friend and sculptor to his ancestral home when the latter arrives at Ellery’s house covered in blood and unable to remember anything from the past few weeks. Once there, tensions erupt and foul play results in the murder of one of the household’s members. Among the many transgressions Ellery will uncover are adultery, blackmail, and deceit.

Previously part of a collection, this rare Ellery Queen mystery is available as a stand-alone audiobook for the first time.

In “Terror Town,” the small New England town of Northfield is deftly sketched as the background for a series of violent deaths, all on the exact same spot: the muddy gravesite where the first body, that of a farmer’s son, had been found.

In these ripping short stories, the mystery genre’s greatest sleuth shows his chops.

For Ellery Queen, there is no puzzle that reason cannot solve. In his time, he has faced down killers, thugs, and thieves, protected only by the might of his brain—and the odd bit of timely intervention by his father, a burly New York police inspector. But when a university professor asks Queen to teach a class, the detective finds there are people whom reason cannot touch: college students.

Queen’s adventure on campus is only the first of this incomparable collection of short mysteries. In these pages, he tangles with a violent book thief, an assassin who targets acrobats, and New York’s only cleanly shaven bearded lady. Criminals everywhere fear him, whether they work in mansions or back alleys. No mystery is too difficult for the man with the golden brain.

This story collection includes “The African Traveler,” “The Mad Tea-Party,” “The Seven Black Cats,” “The Hanging Acrobat,” “The Two-Headed Dog,” “The One-Penny Black,” “The Bearded Lady,” “The Three Lame Men,” “The Invisible Lover,” “The Teakwood Case,” and “The Glass-Domed Clock.”

When a Western star is gunned down at a rodeo, Ellery Queen saddles up to solve the mystery.

Buck Horne has roped thousands of cattle, slugged his way out of dozens of saloons, and shot plenty of men dead in the street–but always on the backlot. He’s a celluloid cowboy, and his career is nearly kaput. The real box office draw is his daughter, Kit, a brawling beauty who can outshoot any rascal the studio has to offer. Desperate for a comeback, Buck joins Wild Bill Grant’s traveling rodeo for a show in New York, hoping to land one last movie contract. But he has scarcely mounted his horse when he falls to the dirt. It wasn’t age that made him slip–it was the bullet in his heart. Watching from the stands are Ellery Queen, debonair sleuth, and his police detective father. They are New Yorkers through and through, but to solve the rodeo killing, the Queens must learn to talk cowboy.

When there’s a bank robbery in the country village where Djuna lives, and one of his dog’s best friends gets shot in the escape, the boy makes up his mind he’ll find out who did it. His chum and his dog Champ are in on the hunt and two heads and a keen nose are better than one. The boys remember something queer they noticed about a truck with a covered load that passed them on the road when they were going fishing. Clue follows clue, and when the Scottie gets himself all smeared with fresh paint, and Clarabelle spoils a picture, Djuna emerges as a regular Ellery Queen!

Where is Harlan James?

He is the indicted, bail-jumping leader of Banbury’s militant Black Hearts who has gone underground … but whose rage, still heard on tape, is edging the city towards interracial terror.

Harlan James calls for violence–for black protests, demonstrations, drastic political action against the city’s white leaders.

But did he also call for–or commit–murder?

It is a top priority job for Mike McCall, a new breed of crime-fighter, whose cases plunge him into the crises of modern America. When a prominent white official is shot to death, McCall must find the killer–or face open racial warfare!

Mysteries have a way of finding Djuna, and this time a missing page from an old ship’s log and the dead captain’s haunted house start the ball rolling. Djuna has learned that Captain Beekman brought a treasure from his whaling trips. Who can have an interest in letting the boy get lost? Was Djuna close to the answer of the mystery?

Blue film and blood-red murder!

All Hollywood producer Ben Sloane had wanted was to find Sol Dahlman, the mysterious film genius who had made The Wild Nymph—and now Sloane is dead. “Go up to Rockview,” the governor tells Mike McCall, “and get me the killer!”

But it isn’t quite that easy. The Mann Photo Service, long rumored to be a center of the blue-movie industry, is torn by a strike, and nobody is talking to strangers—not Xavier Mann, not Mayor Jordan, not beautiful April Evans, who refuses even to tell who she is or why she, too, is investigating the murder.

Then, just to make the job a little harder, Cynthia Rhodes and her women’s liberation raiders hit town—and a man named Carry Tanner decides McCall has lived too long …

When those two enthusiastic fishermen, Djuna and his friend Tommy, are offered a chance to spend the summer at fish-filled Silver Lake as the guests of Miss Annie Ellery, they are overjoyed. But great as the fishing proves to be, there is more in store: Silver Lake holds a mystery and the boys find themselves swept up in a series of exciting and dangerous adventures, including an abandoned ice-house and two fires, as they help to solve it.

The coed missing from Tisquanto State is the daughter of Governor Sam Holland’s rival for reelection–and best friend. But she is more than that. She is Laura Thornton, a human being–somehow the pawn and victim of angry student upheavals not even the governor understands …

Who is behind Laura’s disappearance? Who is inciting Tisquanto’s protests and riots–a madcap prankster, an earnest reformer … or a conspiracy sworn to the college’s destruction?

It is a case for Mike McCall, the governor’s special assistant, a two-fisted troubleshooter who finds his crimes in the crises of modern America … Mike McCall, who finds on Tisquanto’s campus not only the raging hatreds of rebelling youth–but murder!

A puzzling publishing murder attracts the eye of Ellery Queen.

Mandarin Press is a premier publishing house for foreign literature, but to those at the top of this enterprise, there is little more beautiful than a rare stamp. As Donald Kirk, publisher and philatelist, prepares his office for a banquet, an unfamiliar man comes to call. No one recognizes him, but Kirk’s staff is used to strange characters visiting their boss, so Kirk’s secretary asks him to wait in the anteroom. Within an hour the mysterious visitor is dead on the floor, head bashed in with a fireplace poker, and everything in the anteroom has been quite literally turned upside down. The rug is backwards; the furniture is backwards; even the dead man’s clothes have been put on front-to-back. As debonair detective Ellery Queen pries into the secrets of Mandarin Press, every clue he finds is topsy-turvy. The great sleuth must tread lightly, for walking backwards is a surefire way to step off a cliff.

This was cold-blooded murder!

The Syndicate—led by gangster Larry Cutter—is trying to take over Iroquois. They want the town, mayor, and police chief in their pocket. So they kill chief Andy Saxon and one of his top men. Then they move in to clean up. But they hadn’t reckoned on the chief’s son, Lieutenant Ted Saxon.

And to stop him, they will have to frame him with his own father’s murder!

Suspended from the force, facing trial, the whole town against him, how could Ted hope to beat Cutter’s hands?

When Hollywood bigwig Solly Spaeth is murdered, thousands cheer. He is a most popular corpse, for Solly’s stock manipulations have ruined many, including his partner. A cut-and-dried case–or so it appears. Enter master detective Ellery Queen, whose embarrassing questions uncover a maze of conflicting alibis and motives, and ultimately reveal a deadly face lurking beneath the glittering mask of Tinseltown.

An exciting mystery by the masterly Ellery Queen

Police captain Bartholdi sometimes indulged himself in a harmless fantasy. His thoughts, he would imagine, were irresponsible imps that wriggled out of his head and scampered around with an abandon that was often embarrassing. A woman had been kidnapped. The woman was dead. Bartholdi was convinced that a murderer was at that moment having a grim laugh at his expense. He knew who the murderer was. He would have bet his pension and his sacred soul that he knew. But he could not, knowing, prove what he knew. He needed confirmation of one critical point. From among his antic imps, he culled the three that had directed his mind to its present state: one newspaper too many, a girl who slept too soundly, and, most important of all, a ragout with too many onions.

When Ellery Queen first meets the award-winning novelist Karen Leith, it is at a party held to celebrate her most recent prize in literature. The next time he hears of her, she is dead–murdered, so the police suspect, by the daughter of her fianc+(r), the eminent cancer researcher Dr. John MacClure. With no other suspects and only circumstantial evidence at hand, master detective Ellery Queen delves into the reclusive writer’s past to uncover the startling method and motive of an intricate crime.

Eccentric multimillionaire Cadmus Cole hires Ellery Queen to investigate a case but won’t say what it is. When Cole dies mysteriously at sea, Queen and his partner, Beau Rummell, must navigate a thicket of complications that includes a fifty-million-dollar legacy, two beautiful but avaricious women vying for the inheritance, a will with some odd provisions, and even a phony Ellery Queen.

When Abigail Doorn was wheeled into the operation room at the Dutch Memorial Hospital, her face was strangely blue and bloated. A wire had been tightly wound around her neck. The strongest suspect, because he stood to benefit by the death of this wealthy old woman, was her protege, the famous Dr. Janney. Just before her death he received a strange caller–one whose name he would not divulge.

Ellery Queen, having come to the hospital to visit his old friend Dr. Minchen, had been present during the time of the murder. He immediately took over the case. Besides the problem of Dr. Janney and his caller, Ellery found himself confronted with still another–why had Abby Doorn and her housekeeper quarreled continuously for twenty years? The housekeeper admitted she hated the old woman, and with a religious fanaticism declared she was an evil old woman who had received only what she deserved.

The Queens are intrigued when a grisly murder mars a small town’s Christmas.

It’s Christmas in Chicago, and Detective Richard Queen is enjoying a busman’s holiday at a conference on gangland violence–but his son, amateur sleuth Ellery, is bored silly. Until, that is, Ellery reads of an unusual killing in rural Arroyo, West Virginia. A schoolmaster has been found beheaded and crucified. Ellery hustles his father into his roadster and heads east, since there is nothing he’d like better for Christmas than a juicy, gruesome puzzle.

When the Queens arrive in Arroyo, they learn that the victim was an eccentric atheist, but not the sort to make enemies. What initially looks to be the work of a sadistic cult turns out to be something far more sinister. In the months ahead, more victims will turn up all over the world–all killed in the same horrifying manner. It will take several bodies before Ellery divines the clue that unlocks the mystery of the Christmas crucifixion.

It’s Christmastime, and young Ellery Queen has been invited to spend the holidays at a house party. During the eleven nights before Christmas, a series of anonymous gifts begin to arrive, each with increasing menace. Ellery tries to discover their source and meaning but to no avail. Finally, on the twelfth night, things turn deadly. Unable to solve the murder, Ellery returns to it decades later when he happens upon his diary. Will he finally be able to deduce the identity of the killer?

An exciting mystery by the masterly Ellery Queen

The four of them had only two things in common–their name and a love for the ladies. John Boce was a no-account accountant who lusted after food, drink, cars, and women. John Thompson was a secretive librarian who liked his books and his women well-stacked. John Viviano was a fashion photographer with a great feel for a body–any body! And John Pilgrim was a poetic bum who had the girls hanging on his every stanza. All of them wanted the same woman, but which one wanted her enough to kill?

It was a script that could only have come from Hollywood: the wedding of two superstars after a scandal-filled courtship … a wild trip by private plane to a hideaway … a deadly double overdose of drugs …

These corpses weren’t play-acting. Once again Ellery was cast in the role of master detective, as he found nothing was quite what it seemed in the never-never land of moviedom–except sudden, violent death.

Here is a grand mystery with an extremely ingenious, intricate, and watertight plot. The setting is Hollywood, and something is happening all the time. It’s fantastic and uproarious, and full of Hollywood patter at its lushest. It’s expertly solved, with an effective extra turnover at the end resulting in a surprising and thrilling finish.

Frightfully rich and awesomely respectable, the McKells had never been touched by scandal. At least, not until the handsome Dane McKell discovered his father’s secret affair. Determined to protect his mother, he forced a meeting with the other woman.

But Dane didn’t count on falling in love with her himself. Nor did he count on the front page murder that engulfed them all. Sheila, exotic young international leader of haute couture, is found murdered in her Park Avenue penthouse. Two floors down, the distinguished middle-aged millionaire—Ashton McKell—is hauled off to jail. Next to go, Lutetia, his shy patrician wife. And then Dane. Together, a triangle of murder suspects.

Ellery Queen, immobilized, can trick the police into becoming his “legmen” if he discovers the fourth side of the triangle before the blackmailer squeals.

French’s department store was famous for the rare merchandise it offered its elite clientele. But no one there could be proud of its latest exclusive window display: the bloodstained corpse of the owner’s wife. Ellery Queen and his father, Inspector Richard Queen, soon discover that this palace of commerce is a viper’s nest of fear, jealousy, suspicion, and hatred, where love is cheap and the price of honor marked down. But worst of all is the mysterious mocking mastermind who is out to turn the glittering store into a bargain basement of murder.

When mere accusation takes the place of evidence, freedom is in peril. What happens after the murder is the story of what Johnny Shinn—late of Army Intelligence and veteran of two wars—in spite of himself, does about it. The tense lynch trial that is the focus of the action is really the trial of Johnny Shinn as an American.

Djuna and his dog Champ go to Stony Harbor to spend what he thinks will be a quiet and uneventful holiday in a seaside village. But little does Djuna know what is in store!

First he meets Billy Reckless and his dog Alberto. Then there’s the mystery which enshrouds Djuna’s Aunt Patty. Things begin to happen! Djuna has a grand time with his newfound friend, lobstering, sailing, and exploring, until Aunt Patty’s motorboat, the Patagonia, mysteriously disappears.

Ellery Queen Jr. has created a likeable character in Djuna the junior sleuth, not forgetting, of course, his black Scotty, Champ. Their adventures are told in clear, bright language, and they hold interest from start to finish.

Old Slater O’Shea, the golden goose, was ruler of a peculiar roost. A gaggle of free-loading O’Sheas were lazing around the mansion, letting Slater foot the bills, while they waited for him to die and leave them his money. But Uncle Slater was in fine health, and someone got tired of waiting. When Slater went upstairs for a little nip before his nap, his bottle of bourbon was labeled “Rest in Peace.” It was up to Cibola City’s finest to find out who’d cooked Uncle Slater’s goose … before the charming O’Sheas could play any more gruesome games in their battle for the goose’s gold.

In one of his earliest cases, Ellery Queen confronts a murder in blue blood.

From the very beginning, the Khalkis case struck a somber note. It began, as was peculiarly harmonious in the light of what was to come, with the death of an old man. Georg Khalkis, internationally famous art dealer and collector, died of heart failure. After his funeral, his attorney found that the will was missing and immediately called in the district attorney.

When Inspector Queen and his son, Ellery, are brought in to solve the mystery, Ellery mentions the one place they have not searched for the will: the coffin. Upon exhumation of the Khalkis coffin, they find that it contains not one body–but two!

Djuna and Ben weren’t sure they believed in ghosts. The little girl who opened the door of the haunted house didn’t look like a ghost yet she vanished into thin air. They had to find out what happened to her. And they had to rescue Waterbury, the time-telling turtle who walked into the deserted house—and didn’t walk out. Djuna found clues and he added them all up to solve a case the secret service couldn’t crack!

Previously part of a collection, this rare Ellery Queen mystery is available as a stand-alone audiobook for the first time.

In “The Honest Swindler,” Ellery is challenged to solve an imaginary riddle devised by three members of the Puzzle Club. He must explain how an old prospector could have spent five years on a fruitless uranium hunt and still have returned every penny of his backers’ money.

You are invited to a murder.

That was how the invitations should have read when aged millionaire Hendrik Brass sent out his messages to six oddly assorted men and women who knew neither him nor each other. All arrived at the isolated Brass mansion, lured by the tantalizing promise of fabulous wealth. But from the moment the shining brass doors of the grotesquely constructed house swung shut behind them, they began to realize they had been enticed into playing parts in a monstrous joke–the joke of a twisted, brilliant mind … a joke whose punch line was murder.

Ellery Queen’s latest adventure is a satirical murder-comedy that combines hilarity with the deadly macabre and, of course, the full Queen-quota of fair-and-square deduction and endless surprise.

All police sergeant Burt March wanted was a chance to recover from a recent brush with the Grim Reaper. Sun, fun, and a willing broad—that was all he needed. But the broad had along a sugar daddy with his own private squad of goons with guns. And when the fun began, Burt found himself the gunmen’s number one target.

Armed men invade the Queen apartment, led by Abel Bendigo, brother of one of the world’s most powerful men. King Bendigo of Bodigen Arms is an industrial monster whose tentacles embrace the planet. Someone is threatening to kill the King, and Ellery must take on the task of saving his hated life. Virtual prisoners, Ellery and his father are whisked away to an island “somewhere in the Atlantic.” In a frightening atmosphere of industrial slavery and brute militarism, Ellery comes to grips with a baffling murderer who calmly announces the exact moment of the assassination. The trouble is, Ellery is with the confessed murderer at the time of the crime—so how could he have possibly done it?

Leslie Gibson was a wealthy, beautiful, seventeen-year-old brat—out for kicks at any price. And Leslie had decided that Reid Rance, adventurer and travel guide extraordinaire, was just the man to show her the hot spots of Mexico. But touring led to trouble with a capital T, and Reid was soon minus one debutante, plus several unwanted corpses, and desperately wanted by Mexican and American police … as well as the Mexican underground. Could Reid evade the cops and rescue Leslie from her underground abductors before time ran out for them both?

John Lovering Benedict had more than most men—more money, more mansions, more cars, but most of all more women, including three ex-wives with little in common but their extraordinary physiques. For Ellery Queen the question was which one of them had bashed in Benedict’s skull with a hunk of iron statuary? The clues were many … but puzzling. All had been planted at the scene of the crime, but by whom, and for what purpose? And who was the last woman in John Benedict’s life?

An exciting mystery by the masterly Ellery Queen

Madman or murderer? That was the question and it was Police Inspector Omar Collins who had come up with the answer. All he had to go on was: the victim—Earl Genneman, wealthy president of Genneman Labs; the scene—right in the middle of a busy state park; the murder weapon—a shotgun that was still missing; the witnesses—Myron Retwig, Red Kershaw, Bob Vega, and Buck James, all friends or employees of the deceased; the motive—unknown; the suspects—everyone!

Could murder really be hereditary? Davy Fox certainly thinks so. When he was only a boy, his father, Bayard Fox, was convicted of murdering Davy’s mother in the small town of Wrightsville. Now that Davy has grown up and returned home from the war, he fears that it is only a matter of time until he kills his own wife. But could he really do such a thing? Desperate to find out the truth, Davy’s wife, Linda, calls on Ellery Queen to investigate the twelve-year-old murder of Jessica Fox.

Gulliver Queen, nephew of the famous detective, Ellery Queen, doesn’t want to be a detective. But when Gully and his new friend, Fisty Jones, investigate the strange underwater noises in the Hudson River, they suddenly find themselves deep in a mystery that Gully can’t resist tackling. The menacing tattooed man, the weird one-eyed figure in the abandoned building, the strange but merry Magnus Merlin, magician extraordinaire—all add up to an exciting tale of danger and suspense on and under New York’s waterfront.

“Katal!” The black bird repeated the two syllables again and again. “Katal! Katal!” As Gulliver Queen seeks out the meaning of the strange word, he is drawn into the world of international diplomacy—and dangerous espionage! As he follows the trail of clues, Gully acquires two friends from India who aid him in the search for a missing embassy guard. Treachery and intrigue meet the young sleuths at every turn, and flying bullets lead to flying spies as Gully and his friends uncover a fantastic plot that threatens the very future of the United Nations!

Trick I–The first thing to vanish is a worthless doorstop. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, goes its rich and elderly owner. And, for the grand finale, both reappear–each as dead as the other.

Trick II–From the House of Darkness issues more bafflement. In total darkness and from a distance of twelve feet, four bullets are pumped within an inch of each other into a spectator’s back–a feat utterly impossible to perform yet brazenly and undeniably done.

Trick III–The pi+?ce de r+(r)sistance. This time it’s an entire house, a real house, a solid house, which Ellery Queen had been in only the day before … vanished from the face of the earth. And in its place emerges one of the most incredible conundrums ever to face the master crime solver.

Encores–The New Adventures of Ellery Queen is a classic collection of eight short mysteries and a remarkable short novel. First published in 1940, it has sold more than one million copies and continues to be “as good as they come” (New York Times).

Stories include “The Lamp of God,” “The Treasure Hunt,” “The Hollow Dragon,” “The House of Darkness,” “The Bleeding Portrait,” “Man Bites Dog,” “Long Shot,” “Mind over Matter,” and “The Trojan Horse.”

Previously part of a collection, this rare Ellery Queen mystery is available as a stand-alone audiobook for the first time.

In “The Odd Man,” Ellery is challenged to solve an imaginary riddle devised by three members of the Puzzle Club. With very little information to go on, he must correctly answer to his confreres which of their three imagined suspects is a secret criminal.

Having escaped New York with the hopes of finishing his latest mystery novel in peace in Los Angeles, Ellery Queen is shocked when a knock on his door lands him right in the middle of yet another mystery.

Leander Hill, a prominent Hollywood jeweler, recently died of a heart attack after receiving a package containing a dead dog, a sight that literally frightened him to death. Hill’s daughter is convinced the act was premeditated murder and enlists Queen’s help to catch the killer. Now Queen must harness all of his skills to prevail over this unscrupulous mind.

A five-sided card with the letter “J” stamped on it appeared in Robert York’s mail, and a day later he was dead, crushed by a boulder. It was no accident. Someone knew York would be under that rock wall at precisely 7:30. Then another card showed up for Emily York, stamped with the letter “H,” and Ellery Queen knew he was up against a brilliant killer who made a game of death by warning his victims. The only clue to the murderer’s identity was the signature “Y,” and Ellery had to find him and stop his remorseless vendetta before “Y” won his mad game.

What is the connection of “Fowl Relief” and an English golf-playing king? Does the nickname of Jimmy Douglas’ great-great-grandfather have any significance? Tie these answers with the other clues and the mystery of the purple bird is solved, but not until Djuna, the brilliant young sleuth, and his pal Jimmy go through an ordeal that almost takes their lives. The boys tangle with an antique dealer and a tiger-skin diary–just to name a few of the events–in their struggle to solve the mystery.

This is the wonderful adventure story of Djuna, a young boy who uses his eyes and his head and his little Scottie dog, Champ, who uses his nose to sniff out clues. There is also Mr. Scissors, the traveling knife grinder, who is driving though the country in a wonderful caravan with his young granddaughter, Joan. There are also two wicked men who are cruel to Mr. Scissors, a reporter named Socker Furlong, and Miss Annie Ellery, who plays a surprising part at the end.

Despite the dismal Broadway season, Gunplay continues to draw crowds. A gangland spectacle, it’s packed to the gills with action, explosions, and gunfire. In fact, Gunplay is so loud that no one notices the killing of Monte Field. In a sold-out theater, Field is found dead partway through the second act, surrounded by empty seats. The police hold the crowd and call for the one man who can untangle this daring murder: Inspector Richard Queen. With the help of his son Ellery, a bibliophile and novelist whose imagination can solve any crime, the Inspector attacks this seemingly impenetrable mystery. Anyone in the theater could have killed the unscrupulous lawyer, and several had the motive. Only Ellery Queen, in his debut novel, can decipher the clue of the dead man’s missing top hat.

Ellery had a simple case. A few days of discreet snooping, some choice advice, and the inimitable sleuth would blithely restore domestic harmony to the millionaire couple Dirk and Martha Lawrence. Then came the scarlet letters. And finally the cryptic clue, scrawled in a murdered man’s blood. A simple case? Unless Ellery did some super-fast sleuthing, he’d have nothing to show but a very scarlet face. The case will drag him all over New York as he hunts for the truth.

Trapped on a burning mountain, the Queens take refuge with a killer.

Dashing detective Ellery Queen and his father are driving over the pothole-scarred Arrow Mountain Road when they come face to face with a wall of flame. They tear back in the other direction, fire at their fenders, and finally find safety in a clearing, at the home of Dr. Xavier, a renowned surgeon. He is a genial man, but his distracted, mysterious smile conceals dark secrets. Passing through one of the drafty hallways, Ellery’s father is startled by a pair of eyes burning in the darkness–the eyes of a monster. Could they be trapped on some kind of mountain of Dr. Moreau? Dr. Xavier introduces them to the rest of his household, including his wife, brother, and medical assistant. Everyone’s welcoming, but they also seem anxious and cagey. When the good doctor is found shot to death in his study, Queen realizes that he and his father have more to fear than a pair of sinister eyes. The Queens might have escaped the forest fire, but they have leapt into a situation that’s every bit as hot.

On a seaside vacation, Ellery Queen is ensnared in a trio of strange crimes.

Spanish Cape is a dramatic promontory, its rocky cliffs topped with a picturesque hacienda. This isolated spot belongs to millionaire Walter Godfrey and it should be a peaceful family getaway–but one summer evening, Rosa Godfrey argues with her uncle David as he tries to convince her not to run away with one of their guests, the roguish John Marco. Suddenly, a one-eyed gunman appears out of the twilight. He seems to mistake David for John, and forces the pair to the mainland, where he clubs David on the head and locks Rosa in an empty vacation cottage. The next day, Rosa is rescued by the renowned sleuth Ellery Queen, who had come to the coast for a holiday. For a moment, it seems her luck has changed, but then the universe delivers another crushing blow. John has been found stone dead and stark naked. This will not be the first working vacation for the unfailingly logical Ellery Queen, but to unravel the mystery of the undressed man, he will have to make sense of what happened on the worst night of Rosa Godfrey’s life.

Previously part of a collection, this rare Ellery Queen mystery is available as a stand-alone audiobook for the first time.

In “The Three Students,” Ellery is challenged to solve an imaginary riddle devised by three members of the Puzzle Club. He must decide which of the titular trio (handily named Adams, Barnes, and Carver) stole a valuable ring from a university president’s desk.

The Tragedy of Errors is the lengthy and detailed plot outline for the final but never published Ellery Queen novel, containing all the hallmarks of the greatest Queen mysteries–the dying message, the succession of false solutions before the astonishing truth is revealed, and scrupulous fair play to the listener. And the theme is one that Queen had been developing for many years: the manipulation of events in a world going mad by people who aspire to the power of gods.

The Tragedy of Errors also contains the six hitherto uncollected Ellery Queen short stories–“Terror Town,” “Uncle from Australia,” “The Three Students,” “The Odd Man,” “The Honest Swindler,” “The Reindeer Clue,” and “Wedding Anniversary.”

In New York City in the early 1930s, a man is poisoned on a crowded streetcar during rush hour. Everyone sees Longstreet die—but no one sees the killer. Inspector Thumm’s few clues all lead up a blind alley. He finally seeks the aid of Drury Lane—retired Shakespearean actor, master of disguise, and amateur sleuth. Seated amid the splendor of the vast medieval halls of his castle on the Hudson, Drury Lane hears the story from the inspector. He knows who the murderer is right away, but he refuses to reveal his identity until he has sufficient evidence for the police to arrest him.

Some bizarre things have been happening to the eccentric Hatter family. First, the body of York Hatter is recovered from the ocean. But he didn’t drown. He died of poison. Next, another poisoning occurs in the Hatters’ old mansion in New York’s Greenwich Village. This time the police have a witness. But what a witness! She is a blind, deaf mute. Naturally the authorities call in Drury Lane—retired Shakespearean actor, matinee idol, master of disguise, and amateur sleuth.

In this third Drury Lane novel, the elderly detective is aided by Patience Thumm in the investigation of the mysterious death of a corrupt state senator. Senator Fawcett, a man with many enemies, is found stabbed to death in his study. Patience and her father, Inspector Thumm, try to unravel the web of circumstantial evidence that has enmeshed an innocent man. Patience refuses to be beaten by a lack of evidence and, with the help of Drury Lane, finally stops an execution and brings the true criminal to justice.

Free passes to the circus seemed pretty exiting to Djuna and his friend Tommy Williams, and things promised to be even more exiting when they met their old friends Socker and Cannonball at the entrance gate, but they were only the start of a hair-raising experience.

The boys soon learned that the newspaper reporter and the state trooper were trying to uncover a pack of tricksters who were cheating the circus audiences; and as one strange and frightening event follows another, Djuna and Tommy are caught up in the glittering, upside-down world of the circus, and find themselves in the middle of one of the most weird and dangerous mysteries they have ever encountered!

In The Yellow Cat Mystery, amateur sleuth Djuna visits his friend Tommy in Florida. His yellow cat has a sore tooth, and they set off to see the dentist. The dentist is new to the town and doesn’t seem to be able to help them. They do, however, notice two persons who came from a mysterious black-lacquered ship at sea—and a normal day suddenly becomes an unusual adventure.

Once upon an evil time, there was a wicked old woman with a mammoth shoe company worth many millions of dollars, a henpecked husband, and six miserable children. Then one day death came visiting the vast Potts mansion—and began claiming its inhabitants one by one. It was then that Ellery Queen was invited to sup on this nightmare brew of diabolical murder and baffling mystery—in a case that made the most horrific crimes in his entire career seem like fairy tales. As he endeavors to solve the case, he tries to make sense of this family that defies rationality.

Previously part of a collection, this rare Ellery Queen mystery is available as a standalone audiobook for the first time.

In “Uncle from Australia,” a typical fun-and-games short story, Ellery interprets the dying message of an uncle from down under and must determine which of his greedy relatives skewered him for an inheritance.

Previously part of a collection, this rare Ellery Queen mystery is available as a stand-alone audiobook for the first time.

In “Wedding Anniversary,” Ellery returns to Wrightsville just in time to witness the poisoning of his kindly host, the jeweler Ernst Bauenfel. To solve the puzzle of Ernst’s death, Ellery must carefully analyze the dying man’s last words.

The killer is an expert. He has climbed ten stories in the Manhattan blackout, found and dispatched his victim amidst the men and women trapped in the building. The night drags on. Nerves wear thin and inhibitions disappear. Anyone, including a beautiful secretary with a yen for eye-patched detective Tim Corrigan, could be the lurking killer.

An exciting mystery by the masterly Ellery Queen

Is the lovely young heiress hiding somewhere among the shiny steel towers of Manhattan? Or is she the horribly mutilated corpse hauled up from the sewers of the city? Captain Timothy Corrigan, the cool cop with the eye patch, sets out to solve the puzzle and finds himself playing a fantastic game of hide-and-seek in a glittering world where everything is make-believe—except sudden, shocking death.

An exciting mystery by the masterly Ellery Queen

They are two brilliant madmen who think killing is fun. A freak of the law has set them free, and now a hidden killer, acting as judge, jury, and executioner, threatens them both. Enter Tim Corrigan, assigned to protect the pair against the fatal harvest of their own violence. Corrigan soon takes their place on the deadly spot.

An exciting mystery by the masterly Ellery Queen

The horribly crushed body that crashed onto the Manhattan pavement has at least two names, several passports, and an address book full of important friends—among them, a millionaire roué; his exotic, deadly mistress; and his coolly beautiful wife—all of whom seem to have forgotten him very abruptly when he became a corpse. No one is talking, so it is up to Captain Corrigan, the man with the eye patch and a way with crime, to solve a violent puzzle of lust, greed, high espionage—and the worst kind of murder.

Tim Corrigan, the eye-patched detective with the knack for murderous situations, plunges into the wildest, farthest-out caper of his career. His assignment leads him to a splendid but terrified harem of veiled beauties, a millionaire sultan with a roving eye, and a gang of turbaned mystery men with a lust for violence. Corrigan’s job: protect a priceless ruby as red as the color of murder.

Angel was a voluptuous child-woman, bouncing in and out of every bed in town, until she landed in the wrong one and found death was her lover. Then the town that had played voyeur to her indiscretions pounced upon Angel’s husband, Jim, branding him cuckold and killer and screaming for blood. But what could Jim do when even the DA, last in a parade of Angel’s lovers, was out to pin the murder on him? He had to find the one who had played Angel false or let an avenging Angel cheat him again. Only this time he might pay with his life!