The Roman Hat Mystery
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 1 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The French Powder Mystery
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 2 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The Dutch Shoe Mystery
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 3 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 protégé, 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 Greek Coffin Mystery
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 4 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
In one of his earliest cases, Ellery Queen confronts a murder in blue blood.<p>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.<p>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!
The Egyptian Cross Mystery
by Ellery Queen
read by Richard Waterhouse
Part 5 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
The Queens are intrigued when a grisly murder mars a small town's Christmas.<p>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. <p>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.
The American Gun Mystery
by Ellery Queen
read by Dan Butler
Part 6 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
When a Western star is gunned down at a rodeo, Ellery Queen saddles up to solve the mystery.<p>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.
QED
Queen's Experiments in Detection
by Ellery Queen
read by Traber Burns
Part 8 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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."
The Spanish Cape Mystery
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 9 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
On a seaside vacation, Ellery Queen is ensnared in a trio of strange crimes.<p>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.
Halfway House
by Ellery Queen
read by Fred Sullivan
Part 11 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 …
The Door Between
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 12 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 fiancé, 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.
The Devil to Pay
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 13 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The Four of Hearts
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 14 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The Dragon's Teeth
by Ellery Queen
read by Fred Sullivan
Part 15 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
Calamity Town
by Ellery Queen
read by Richard Waterhouse
Part 16 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 façade. 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.
There Was an Old Woman
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 17 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The Murderer Is a Fox
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 18 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
Ten Days' Wonder
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 19 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
Cat of Many Tails
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 20 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
Double, Double
A New Novel of Wrightsville
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 21 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The Origin of Evil
by Ellery Queen
read by Fred Sullivan
Part 22 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The King Is Dead
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 23 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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?
Inspector Queen's Own Case
November Song
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 25 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 … ?"
The Finishing Stroke
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 26 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
During the eleven nights before Christmas, the strange gifts and the warnings came. Ellery Queen was there. The police were there. But no one saw the messenger. Ellery Queen knew that the sinister gifts held the clue to the mystery. But what did they mean, and who was the intended victim? Then on the twelfth night of Christmas, the last clue led straight to the corpse …
The Player on the Other Side
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 27 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
A card with the letter "J" on it appeared in Robert York's mail, and a day later he was dead. Then another card showed up, and Ellery Queen knew he was up against a brilliant killer who made a game of death by warning his victims. The only clue was the signature "Y" and Ellery had to find him and stop his remorseless vendetta before "Y" won his mad game.
And On The Eighth Day
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 28 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The Fourth Side of the Triangle
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 29 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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, Lutecia, 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.
A Study in Terror
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 30 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
Ellery Queen and Sherlock Holmes match wits to reveal the identity of history's most infamous killerEllery 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.History's most depraved murderer, 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.
Face to Face
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 31 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
On her way home from a long holiday, famous writer Ellery Queen meets British private investigator Harry Burke, who has been summoned to New York at the behest of Inspector Queen, Ellery's father. Ellery offers Burke a room at the Queen residence, however, the duo is quickly drawn into a perplexing homicide investigation when a famous retired singer is found murdered.
The House of Brass
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 32 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.
The Last Woman in His Life
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 33 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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?
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part 34 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
Who is Malone? Just a little while ago he was 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 his nine-year-old daughter as insurance to cover their getaway. Now he's just a man. Scared. Not for himself, that would be easy. But for his child, the only thing in the world he loves enough to make him play ball with the kind of scum he's hated all his life.
A Fine and Private Place
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part 35 of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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!
The Three Students
by Ellery Queen
read by Traber Burns
Part of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 New Adventures of Ellery Queen
by Ellery Queen
read by Robert Fass
Part of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 piece de resistance. 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).
Dead Man's Tale
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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 …
The Copper Frame
by Ellery Queen
read by Mark Peckham
Part of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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?
The Adventures of Ellery Queen
by Ellery Queen
read by Traber Burns
Part of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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."
The Honest Swindler
by Ellery Queen
read by Traber Burns
Part of the Ellery Queen Detective series
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.