"When Ellery Queen, described by the London Times as "the logical successor to Sherlock Holmes," is invited by his friend, a doctor, to witness an operation, he accepts the offer in hopes of furthering his capabilities as an amateur detective, but soon ends up testing those same skills. The patient who is about to undergo the delicate procedure is Abigail Doorn, the richest and most famous woman in America; the doctor who will perform it is her protégé,...

"The offices of foreign literature publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk are often host to strange activities, but the most recent occurrence the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty waiting room is unlike any that has come before. Nobody, it seems, entered or exited the room, and yet the crime scene clearly has been manipulated, leaving everything in the room turned backwards and upside down. Stuck through the back of...

Lured by the promise of fabulous wealth, six men and women arrive at the mansion of the aged millionare Hendrik Brass, but they've been enticed into a joke with a punch line of murder. Ellery Queen and his father, the Inspector, investigate.

New England naturalist painter Aunt Fanny Adams had only begun painting in her eighties, but sales of her work supported the Shinn Corners village school, the local church, and most of the other village institutions. When she is found murdered, the village people focus their rage on a wandering tramp. Only quick thinking by Judge Shinn and houseguest, Major Johnny Shinn, prevents a planned lynching. Judge Shinn sets up a trial by jury involving all...

A stylish puzzle mystery from the author who “took the intellectual game that was the formal detective novel to greater heights than any American writer” (The Weekly Standard).
The windows of French’s department store are one of New York’s great attractions. Year-round, their displays show off the finest in fashion, art, and home décor, and tourists and locals alike make a point of stopping to see...

"When a washed up Hollywood cowboy-turned-circus rodeo actor is shot dead in the midst of his performance at a New York sports-palace, in front of thousands of onlookers, it seems obvious that someone would have seen the perpetrator of the crime--or at the very least, recovered the gun. But when the ensuing investigation fails to turn up any evidence, even after the newsreels made in the moment are reviewed, the net of suspicion widens across the...

John Levering Benedict III had more money, mansions, cars, and women than most men. That included three ex-wives with extraordinary physiques. One of these beauties had bashed in Benedict's skull. The clues were many and all had been planted at the scene of the brutal crime. But by whom? For Ellery Queen the most important question was, who was the last woman in John Benedict's life?

The Godfrey family is vacationing among the picturesque rocky cliffs of the North Atlantic seaboard, expecting peace, quiet, and, perhaps, a bit of golf or tennis. But one dusky evening in an isolated spot on the grounds of Spanish Cape, Rosa and her uncle David get into an argument about her secretive romance with one of their guests, the roguish John Marco, a handsome cad with a yellow roadster and no visible source of income. That's when a towering...

Queen investigates the death of a fashion designer, focusing on her lover and his family.

Ellery Queen and his father discover a baffling murder on a private island Ellery Queen and his father are meandering through breakfast when their apartment is invaded. Without making a sound, 2 men appear in the Queens' living room, guns drawn, and proceed to search the place. When they're done, a 3rd man follows: a paunchy little professor-type who happens to be the brother of a king. King Bendigo doesn't rule a country, but his control of the international...