Suspense Amateur Detective

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-listen for mystery fans.

La prima esperienza con "Miss Marple" non partì sotto i migliori auspici. Avevo la febbre e, quando mia madre era uscita, le avevo chiesto di portarmi un Asterix; quindi mi aspettavo un fumetto. Appena lo vidi, con sospetto, chiesi che libro fosse. "Un giallo di Agatha Christie" rispose lei "di quelli che piacciono tanto a tuo fratello". Di bene in meglio. "Sai, il protagonista non è un poliziotto, e nemmeno un investigatore privato. È una vecchietta che risolve i casi mentre lavora a maglia". E mi lasciò il libro sul comodino. Dalla prefazione di Marco Malvaldi.

Joseph Timar soll für eine Handelsgesellschaft in Gabun arbeiten. In Libreville angekommen, erfährt er, dass es keine Aufgabe für ihn gibt. Der junge Mann fällt in eine quälende Lethargie, er trinkt, vertreibt sich die Zeit beim Billardspiel - und beginnt eine Affäre mit Adèle, der verheirateten Wirtin seines Hotels. Sie ist die Einzige, zu der er eine Beziehung an diesem fremden Ort entwickelt. Dann wird der Hotelboy ermordet, und bald stirbt auch Adèles Mann. Obwohl er einen schrecklichen Verdacht hat, reist Joseph mit Adèle ins Landesinnere.

Anna Marie St. Clair was a normal Wisconsin-farm-girl-turned-mistress when she was framed for the murder of her racketeer boyfriend, one of Chicago’s sleaziest politicians. Sentenced to death, and only hours from getting fried, a lucky hitch sets Anna Marie free, but she blackmails the corrupt warden into informing the tabloids that she took her volts like a real trouper. What better payback than to haunt the lives of those who tried to steal hers? As the shapeliest ghost in the Windy City, she’s going to prove that dying well is the best revenge.

It’s 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve, and criminal lawyer John J. Malone is nursing his blues in a Chicago dive bar. He’s been two-timed by his inamorata and abandoned by his favorite gumshoe partners, crime reporter Jake Justus and socialite Helene Brand, for their Bermuda honeymoon. But Malone’s not lonely for long. Suddenly, a stranger staggers into the bar, calls out the attorney’s name, and drops dead - stabbed in the back. In his possession is a key that could unlock the cold heart of Mona McClane, a wealthy and beautiful thrill-seeker.

Join Stevie, Win, and gang for another new adventure!

I've only been back home a few weeks and already strange events are happening all over town. Wishes are coming true to the delight of those affected. Despite the seemingly good fortune, I need to put on my federal bureau of magic badge and get to work. I can't let supernatural shenanigans disrupt the natural order of life here, no matter how awesome they seem. When their good luck starts to take a dark turn, I have to kick my efforts into overdrive. Can I crack the case before these dreams-come-true turn into nightmares?

I'm less than thrilled when the Federal Bureau of Magic sends a training instructor to make sure my skills are up to snuff. Agent Quinn Redmond is an uptight fae with a rigid approach to rules and regulations that even a do-gooder like me finds stifling. When an eerie fog settles over the town, residents begin acting out in response, resulting in overtime hours for Chief Fox and local law enforcement. Things take a deadly turn when one of the residents ends up dead and I worry his death is only the beginning.

December on the Inishowen Peninsula in County Donegal—and solicitor Benedicta "Ben" O'Keeffe is working flat out before the Christmas holidays. While on a trip to Dublin to visit her parents, she runs into Luke Kirby—the man who killed her sister—freshly released from jail. On the surface he appears remorseful, conciliatory even, but his comment as she walks away makes her realize he is as evil as ever. Back in Glendara, she finds chaos. The Oak pub has burned down and Carole Kearney, the Oak's barmaid, has gone missing.

While touring the Cotswolds of England, Viola Roberts and her boyfriend, Lucas Salvatore, are stranded by a downpour of epic proportions. The quaint village of Chipping Poggs has only one inn, and just their luck, it's a haunted mansion. Viola tries to make the best of her rainy vacation by "ghost hunting" and poking her nose where it doesn't belong. Until she pokes it right into the middle of a murder.

Mayor Parish is determined Silverlake should win the prestigious Best Fall Getaway award for Witch Reader's Magazine—especially since the town is already a top contender. But when the journalist covering Silverlake writes a scathing review and is found dead, things go from fall festive to fatal misfortune. The Mystic Inn guest had his fair share of critics, but the killer couldn't possibly be someone living in Silverlake, could they? Angelica and her friends are racing to find out.

Two dead students. A coded reference to Shakespeare. And the promise of darker things to come. Near a small college campus, a student is found strangled in an abandoned barn on the outskirts of town. She's been posed to look like a painting of Ophelia from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the scene...

As the 19th century draws to a close, reporter Emma Cross is sent by the Newport Observer to cover an elite house party at Rough Point, a "cottage" owned by her distant cousin Frederick Vanderbilt that has been rented as an artist retreat. To her surprise, the illustrious guests include her estranged Bohemian parents - recently returned from Europe - as well as a variety of notable artists, including author Edith Wharton.

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.

It is possibly the most repugnant piece of fiction in all of England. So why is Plumtree Press, one of the country's most respectable publishing houses, about to add the hotly controversial new novel to its list? Publisher Alex Plumtree isn't talking. Hardly anyone knows he has taken on the project as a favor to the Prime Minister. Forget the bad press and hateful reviews. Alex swiftly finds himself on the wrong side of a lawsuit, bugged, betrayed, roughed up, and implicated in murder. Suddenly Alex doesn't know who to trust.

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.

On a seaside vacation, Ellery Queen is ensnared in a trio of strange crimes. Spanish Cape is a dramatic promontory, its rocky cliff stopped 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.

When Lori Shepherd's husband, Bill, is summoned to a will reading at the Earl of Harrisford's resplendent Palladian home, Lori herself thinks she is just along for the ride. But this gathering of the entire Harrisford clan, all of them affected by the earl's new will, devolves into a dangerous family dispute. Burning topiaries, threatening notes, suspicious maids, and family intrigue lead Lori to seek her phantom aunt's help in identifying the culprit before he or she can torch the whole house and its guests within.

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.

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.