A millionaire ... murdered as she was about to be saved...''A new Ellery Queen book has always been something to look forward to for many years now'' Agatha Christie''Ellery Queen is the American detective story'' New York TimesThe son of a police detective, Ellery Queen is no stranger to death, and has seen more than his fair share of dead bodies. Yet the thought of seeing a living person sliced open makes him ill. So when a doctor invites him to sit in on an operation, Queen braces himself. The patient is a millionaire in a diabetic coma. To prepare her for surgery, the hospital staff has stabilised her blood sugar level and wheeled her to the operating theatre - but just before the first incision, the doctors realise she is dead, strangled while lying unconscious.Now Ellery Queen moves from observer to detective in his most mysterious case yet.

Voted one of the top ten Best Locked Room Mysteries of all Time''Ellery Queen IS the American detective story'' New York Times''One of the most bizarre puzzles in crime fiction'' Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)The offices of publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk has seen many things - but this is the most bizarre: the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty room. Nobody entered or exited - and yet everything inside the room has been manipulated, and left upside down and backwards. Stuck through the back of the corpse''s shirt are two long spears - and a tangerine is missing from the fruit bowl. Amateur sleuth Ellery Queen arrives just in time to witness the discovery of the body - and realises that even the smallest clues could be crucial to solving this most extraordinary murder...

A group of strangers are forced to take shelter in a remote house - and then the murders begin...''A new Ellery Queen book has always been something to look forward to'' Agatha Christie''Ellery Queen is the American detective novel'' Anthony BoucherWhen Ellery Queen and his father take shelter from wildfires in an isolated manor, they don''t expect their detective skills to be required. But the next morning a body is discovered. The suspects include a society beauty, a highly secretive valet, and a pair of conjoined twins.When another murder follows, and the only clue is a torn playing card, Queen must use all his powers of deduction to unpick a web of alibis, motives and evidence, before the killer strikes again.

''Murder on Christmas day'' is the newspaper headline no one wanted to read...A true classic from the golden age of crime fiction.''Brilliant'' PUBLISHERS WEEKLYWhen a small-town schoolteacher is discovered dead, beheaded, and tied to a T-shaped cross on December 25th, Ellery Queen is intrigued enough to take a closer look. But when he arrives, Queen is met with too few clues and too little evidence to produce a satisfactory verdict, even for a master sleuth such as himself, and so returns home, defeated.But when an identical murder occurs - followed by several more - Queen discovers a horrific connection to a strange cult. This is a disturbing puzzle unlike anything he''s encountered before, and it will take all of his powers of deduction to uncover the killer.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

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."

A millionaire ... murdered as she was about to be saved...''A new Ellery Queen book has always been something to look forward to for many years now'' Agatha Christie''Ellery Queen is the American detective story'' New York TimesThe son of a police detective, Ellery Queen is no stranger to death, and has seen more than his fair share of dead bodies. Yet the thought of seeing a living person sliced open makes him ill. So when a doctor invites him to sit in on an operation, Queen braces himself. The patient is a millionaire in a diabetic coma. To prepare her for surgery, the hospital staff has stabilised her blood sugar level and wheeled her to the operating theatre - but just before the first incision, the doctors realise she is dead, strangled while lying unconscious.Now Ellery Queen moves from observer to detective in his most mysterious case yet.

Voted one of the top ten Best Locked Room Mysteries of all Time''Ellery Queen IS the American detective story'' New York Times''One of the most bizarre puzzles in crime fiction'' Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)The offices of publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk has seen many things - but this is the most bizarre: the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty room. Nobody entered or exited - and yet everything inside the room has been manipulated, and left upside down and backwards. Stuck through the back of the corpse''s shirt are two long spears - and a tangerine is missing from the fruit bowl. Amateur sleuth Ellery Queen arrives just in time to witness the discovery of the body - and realises that even the smallest clues could be crucial to solving this most extraordinary murder...

A group of strangers are forced to take shelter in a remote house - and then the murders begin...''A new Ellery Queen book has always been something to look forward to'' Agatha Christie''Ellery Queen is the American detective novel'' Anthony BoucherWhen Ellery Queen and his father take shelter from wildfires in an isolated manor, they don''t expect their detective skills to be required. But the next morning a body is discovered. The suspects include a society beauty, a highly secretive valet, and a pair of conjoined twins.When another murder follows, and the only clue is a torn playing card, Queen must use all his powers of deduction to unpick a web of alibis, motives and evidence, before the killer strikes again.

''Murder on Christmas day'' is the newspaper headline no one wanted to read...A true classic from the golden age of crime fiction.''Brilliant'' PUBLISHERS WEEKLYWhen a small-town schoolteacher is discovered dead, beheaded, and tied to a T-shaped cross on December 25th, Ellery Queen is intrigued enough to take a closer look. But when he arrives, Queen is met with too few clues and too little evidence to produce a satisfactory verdict, even for a master sleuth such as himself, and so returns home, defeated.But when an identical murder occurs - followed by several more - Queen discovers a horrific connection to a strange cult. This is a disturbing puzzle unlike anything he''s encountered before, and it will take all of his powers of deduction to uncover the killer.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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!

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.

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.

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."