A fine silk custom top-hat is missing from a crooked lawyer who was poisoned by lead alcohol in the Roman theater at the close of the second act, 9:55 pm. Inspector Richard Q, sneezing snuff; a thin, multi-faced, small "Old Man"; and the Inspector's large writer son Ellery, puffing cigarettes, investigate.

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 would soon discover a viper's nest of fear and hatred.

Queen visits an operating theater to witness a surgery, but finds a murder instead.

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.

A new series of classic facsimile reprints selected and introduced by the internationally renowned editor and mystery expert Otto Penzler. - The Egyptian Cross Mystery has justly been called Ellery Queens weirdest adventure. On Christmas Eve, an eccentric schoolmaster in the little town of Arroyo, West Virginia was brutally murdered.

In the arena of a vast New York sports palace, a man lay dead, murdered during the opening scene of a spectacular rodeo.

THE SIAMESE TWIN MYSTERY finds Ellery and his father, the irascible Inspector Queen, trapped in a mountain retreat by a raging forest fire. The members of the household are a strange lot, and the mysterious murder of the retreat's host indicates to the Queens that not only are they isolated with an odd assortment of characters, but a dangerous killer as well!

An unknown dead man is found in the office of a prosperous publisher. His clothes are on backward, and all of the furniture in the room has been reversed. Ellery Queen continues to uncover "backward" clues--leading him to the identity of this puzzling victim.

THE SPANISH CAPE MYSTERY is a study in jealousy, revenge and mistaken identity. The setting is a brooding headland called the Spanish Cape. The cast contains the monstrous Captain Kidd, the ill-fated David Cumer and his beautiful niece Rosa, and Rosa's suitors. Into this scene drives Ellery Queen, intent on a holiday. Instead he must solve a baffling kidnap-murder!

Another lesser known, and rarer, edition from Ellery Queen

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 at love to bait a trap to tempt the bizarre tastes of an extraordinary murderer