A collection of suspense stories, puzzle stories, whodunits and tricky whydunits involving police detectives, private eyes, talented and sometimes lucky amateurs, armchair detectives, and ethnic detectives

Given its extraordinary span, its international scope, and its variant styles and groundbreaking stylists, A Century of Great Suspense Stories is a singular achievement. A bestselling master of suspense himself Jeffery Deaver had the enviable task of selecting from the thousands of stories written over the past one hundred years those which best represented the classic form, as well as the justly celebrated authors whose ironic twists and stunning payoffs left a lasting, vivid, and unnerving impression. The result is a triumph. In this ambitious anthology you’ll revel in the sardonic, overtly amoral plotting of Patricia Highsmith. You’ll rediscover the strangely poignant and surprising turns of Stanley Ellin, and the profoundly underrated Margaret Millar, a genius who mixed savage social satire with brooding horror. You’ll be treated to Stephen King at his chilling best. You’ll find yourself on the violent urban streets of Ross Macdonald and Mickey Spillane, and seeped in the ominous regional flavor of Sharyn McCrumb and Tony Hillerman. You’ll marvel at the cunning webs spun by Lawrence Block, Ruth Rendell, Anthony Boucher, and Sara Paretsky, all of whom defy expectations as they reinvent the genre. And you’ll understand the awesome reputations of those authors who set the standard, such as the legendary Harlan Ellison, Fredric Brown, the master of the twist ending, and James M. Cain, uncannily skilled at knowing what went on between men and women behind closed doors. (The darker the room the better.) Delivering everything from the one-two punch of the detective story to the ingeniously precise trappings of the police procedural, from the disquieting corners of the criminal mind to sheer dread-inducing horror, A Century of Great Suspense Stories is a rich anthology of this popular literary genre, a stunning tribute to the art of storytelling, and to the men and women who have done it best

The 9-word clue was one of 9 cryptic notes that had been sent to taunt Inspector Queen and Ellery 9 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 9th-floor penthouse at No. 99 East was camouflaging his identity in a jungle of 9s. And daring Ellery to find him. The case was destined to be a dazzling contest of wits-to the 9th degree!

How could a man have been murdered when he was found alone in his study, a gun in his hand, and the door locked from the inside? It had to be suicide, the police figured, for although there was no suicide note there was a letter proving conclusively that Roland Nelson, over the last several months, was being blackmailed. But to his daughter, Ann, whom he had seen only spasmodically since he had left her mother when Ann was a baby, there were unanswered questions. She was convinced that her father could never have killed himself. Before she found the answers, two people were brutally garroted with a wire, one of them in her own apartment. Could she find all the answers before the killer silenced her, too?

It all begins when Ellery Queen receives a manuscript that appears to be a genuine Sherlock Holmes novel written by John H. Watson, M.D. Where did it come from? The manuscript itself tells the long-concealed story of how Holmes stalked Jack the Ripper—and discovered who he was! Now you can follow Ellery Queen—the logical successor to Sherlock Holmes—as he literally follows the greatest detective of them all. The story of “Sherlock Holmes vs. Jack the Ripper” is presented with the full approval of the estate of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and is a legitimate addition to the Holmes canon

Recipe for a backyard cookout: one guest skewered by another

At last another full-length mystery story by Ellery Queen — his first in three years. Observe Queen, detective, as he realizes that a murder is to be committed, as he watches the supposed murderer before the crime, as be sees the death but even then isn’t sure of the who and the why. Follow the intensely dramatic trial scene, then unravel with Queen the solution which bring happiness to those who should be happy and punishment to those who deserve it. Of course, Ellery Queen didn’t want to get into all this trouble, for the went to the small town of Wrightsville under a pseudonym to write a novel. Neither did he intend to fall for Patricia nor did he want to get in the middle of malicious gossip with wicked results in a town turned topsy-turvy by a murder. “Calamity Town” has action, excitement, novelty, atmosphere. With some security, the publisher queries: “Will this be considered a minor classic in the field of the American mystery novel?”

January Janus, the god of two faces, and a college alumni class introduce Ellery to a secret society... February Ellery wrestles with the ghost of a President of the United States to solve a buried coin mystery... March A stolen income-tax form, a kleptomaniac, a bookie, and an artist become the ingredients of a murder... April Ellery unravels an old crime with the help of the Roman Emperor, Caligula, and a pair of dice... May A battle-scarred bugle and three Civil War veterans almost baffle Ellery... June The goddess Juno, shades of the Borgias, and a modern Helen of Troy play havoc with a June wedding... July A stone gargoyle, falling from a gloomy, Gothiclike tower, nearly causes sudden death... August In the moonstone month, Ellery hunts for buried treasure... September A Missouri professor, interested in Edgar Allen Poe, leads Ellery to a frightening conclusion... October A Halloween party turns out to be more grim than expected... November Ellery and Nikki deliver Thanksgiving baskets to the needy and discover a dangerous secret... December The famous jewel thief, Comus, nearly outwits Ellery in a Christmas mystery of dolls, danger and deception

Ellery Queen’s subtle attack on his longest and most complicated ease to dale developed out of a baffling series of murders in New York City. Victim followed victim with no apparent connection except that each was found strangled by a cord of India silk. The city’s tension mounted to mob hysteria. First in a cartoonist’s drawing, then in the feverish minds of the citizens, especially in that of Ellery himself, stalked the CAT, adding a new tail with each new murder, brandishing also a huge question mark — who would be the next victim? Clues were nonexistent. Ellery had to employ all his canny skill and play every hunch before he could find even a hopeful direction in which to move. Then he opened the throttle, using the police, the mayor, the psychiatrists, even the enamored heirs of two of the CAT’S victims, to speed into a climax as astounding as it is incontrovertible

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 9-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

"Zufall?" Ellery seufzte. "Würden Sie es auch als Zufall bezeichnen, wenn ich Ihnen erzählte, daß vor einem halben Jahr in West Virginia ein Mord verübt worden ist, zu dessen Besonderheiten die Kreuzigung des zuvor enthaupteten Opfers an einem T­förmigen Wegweiser zählte, der widerum an eine T-förmigen Kreuzung stand. Nicht zu vergessen das T, das der Mörder mit dem Blut des Toten an die Tür seines kaum hundert Meter entfernten Hauses geschmiert hat?" Ellery Queen ist das gemeinsame Pseudonym von Frederic Danney (1905 - 1982) und Manfred Bennington Lee (1905 - 1971), die zu den einflussreichsten und produktivsten Kriminalromanautoren gehören. Die der Übersetzung zugrundeliegende amerikanische Originalausgabe erschien 1932 unter dem Titel »The Egyptian Cross Mystery« bei Frederick A. Stokes, New York

Tutter King had it made. Every time he spun a platter on “The King’s Session,” gold came out: TV earnings, returns on his secret holdings in recording companies, the old payola that some bright young men think only their rightful due. Tutter was a gay young man-around-town. He was also involved in some highly romantic hanky-panky with his pretty blond assistant, Lola Arkwright. And then the roof started to cave in. Senate Investigating Committees. The angry emergence of the wife who Lola never knew existed. The canceling of his network contract. Poor Tutter, it looked like he was going to lose everything. Even his life!

»Laßt uns über die Verdienste von Mr. Field zu einem passenderen Zeitpunkt reden«, sagte der Inspektor ernst. »Ich weiß eine Menge über ihn, und nichts ist besonders erfreulich.« Er drehte sich um und wollte schon weggehen, als Ellery, der die ganze Zeit angestrengt auf die Leiche und den Sitz starrte, fragte: »Ist hier schon etwas entfernt worden, Dad – irgend etwas?« Inspektor Queen wandte sich um. »Wie kommst du zu dieser klugen Frage, junger Freund?«  »Wenn mich nicht alles täuscht«, antwortete Ellery leicht blasiert, »liegt der Zylinder von dem Knaben weder unter dem Sitz noch auf dem Boden neben ihm oder sonstwo in der näheren Umgebung.«  »Das ist dir also auch aufgefallen, Ellery?« sagte der Inspektor grimmig. Es war das erste, was ich sah, als ich mich runterbeugte, um ihn zu untersuchen – oder vielmehr das erste, was ich nicht sah.« Ellery Queen ist das gemeinsame Pseudonym von Frederic Danney (1905-1982) und Manfred Bennington Lee (1905-1971). Sie gehören mit zu den einflußreichsten und produktivsten Kriminalromanautoren. »Der mysteriöse Zylinder«, der erste Band der Reihe der Ellery-Queen-Romane, liegt hier erstmals in ungekürzter deutscher Übersetzung vor. Von Ellery Queen ist in der DuMont’s KriminalBibliothek ebenfalls erschienen: »Sherlock Holmes und Jack the Ripper« (Band 1017). © 1929 by Ellery Queen

Über Langeweile konnten sich die sechs geladenen Gäste ganz sicher nicht beklagen. Dem einen wurde Gift serviert – da waren’s nur noch fünf. Ein anderer wurde aufgespießt – da waren’s nur noch vier. Rechnet man den verflixt gut aussehenden Gastgeber Dr. Jack Richmond und seine Gattin noch dazu, dann waren’s wieder sechs. Detektivleutnant Masters begann aber gar nicht erst zu rechnen – er kombinierte. Er kam der Lösung auch verteufelt nahe, aber erst ein vergessener Hausschlüssel half ihm, das Rätsel zu lösen. Titel der amerikanischen Originalausgabe BLOW HOT BLOW COLD Copyright © 1964 by Ellery Queen Deutsche Übersetzung von Gisela Stege

Heredera que huye, padre implacable, madre angustiada, novio en un aprieto. ¿Qué más se puede pedir para empezar?`. Pues aún hay más: una escritora empeñada en contar una buena historia, un hombre dedicado a la adoración del cuerpo, a quien le diagnotican un cáncer, quizás, un impostor, un cadáver fugitivo y un detective kantiano de los que piensan que la razón pura es el bien esencial para descubrir las trampas de este caótico mundo

Ellery Queen y su padre deben poner todo su ingenio a trabajar para resolver un caso en el que todo parece duplicado: los muertos, los hermanos, las claves, las soluciones y quizá incluso los culpables. Pero no hay nada que se resista a la sagacidad e imaginación de los Queen

No suspense collection is complete without this anthology. Originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, the stories in this volume represent many of the biggest names in detective and suspense fiction: Ellery Queen, Harold Q. Masur, Celia Fremlin, Jack Ritchie, Patricia Highsmith and Bill Pronzini are only a few of the prize-winning authors in this amazing volume

a book to remember... In this book you will investigate crime with such Famous Detectives as Perry Mason Nero Wolfe Ellery Queen and read stories of detection and suspense by such Famous Mystery Writers as Agatha Christie John Dickson Carr George Harmon Coxe Charlotte Armstrong Hugh Pentecost and be surprised at tales of mystery and crime by such Famous Literary Figures as W. Somerset Maugham Ben Hecht, John Van Druten A book to remember, a book to read and reread — a book to treasure and keep permanently in your library

For just over fifty years, Ellery Queen has dominated the American detective and mystery story scene. His annual collections of short and not-so-short stories by the cream of writers in the field have appeared for nearly forty of those years. Including a complete short novel by Erle Stanley Gardner, The Clue of the Screaming Woman, and seventeen novelettes and short stories by masters of mystery Robert Bloch, Hugh Pentecost, Victor Canning, Lloyd Biggie, Jr. and Ellery Queen himself, amongst many others

In his spirited Introduction to a topnotch collection of Great American Detective Stories, Anthony Boucher says: “The detective short story belongs to us. It started in America and it started off magnificently. In five stories, Edgar Allan Poe created the form and almost all its possible variants... There are as many kinds of detective short stories as there are of detective novels — and you’ll find most of them here, from the ethical poetry of Melville Davisson Post to the brash foolery of Frank Gruber.” A glance at some of the titles of the stories included confirms Boucher’s modest words and guarantees that you’ll find plenty of good reading here

Aleksei Vassilievich Krylov, we want you on our side... Let's face it, Alex: you were the KGB's top assassin, and they paid you off. Just as we might. A cushy lieutenant-colonelcy in Tokyo; riding pour le sport, a yacht, your pick of Eurasian dolls... Like? We can do better in the U.S.A., Alex — come on over, and bring your secrets with you... That was FACE's pitch to the would-be defector, and it got results. Witness one hell of a nice courier slashed and dumped in a Tokyo alley. Maybe agent Pete Brook could make jolly Alex's dream come true. Except what did Krylov really long for in America — wine, women and song... or a dramatic return to the murderer's trade? You’ll find out in Ellery Queen’s GUESS WHO’S COMING TO KILL YOU — a superlative new thriller by the great suspense novelist

Halfway House, where a strange man finds final rest on his tortured journey through life... Halfway House, where under the grim shadow of a sensational murder, opposites meet and clash — common peddler and financier, young housewife and cold society woman, struggling lawyer and millionaire debutante... Halfway House, where Ellery Queen, crime consultant to the world-at-large, returns to his old love of pure and pungent deduction in what is unquestionably his most fascinating narrative of real people and subtle violence to date — a modern Tale of Two Cities by the master mystery-teller

A quarter of a century’s requests from many thousands of Ellery Queen fans all over the world have finally borne fruit. At long last, here is a full-fledged murder mystery investigated and solved by Inspector Richard Queen without so much as a single deduction’s help from his celebrated son. But Inspector Queen’s Own Case is far more than a baffling murder mystery. It is also a tender, understanding story of middle-aged people everywhere who find themselves put out to pasture on a pension to face an empty old age. Ellery’s father was spending the summer with friends at their beach house on the Connecticut shore. It should have been a golden summer, but all the Inspector could think about was his enforced uselessness. The old pro had been retired — the Administrative Code made no exceptions when a New York police officer reached the age of 63. How was he to occupy the endless days? He was still vigorous, still useful. A man needed more than security. He needed something to do. Richard Queen found one man’s answer on Nair Island, and he was soon plunged into the most challenging and dangerous case of his long career. And he found something else, too — that life can even be sweet at 63. Her name was Jessie Sherwood, a registered nurse in her late 40s, lonely, still pretty, and all woman. Jessie had been hired by the blueblood Humffreys to take charge of their newborn infant. When queer, frightening things began to happen in that multimillionaire home... A helpless baby, a unique romance, and a tensely plotted tale of multiple murder mounting to a shocking climax make Inspector Queen’s Own Case one of the most superb novels to come from Ellery Queen’s typewriter

Dr. Harrison Brown, Healer or Heel? Competent, respectable practitioner of the time-honored art of medicine. Dr. Harry Brown — failure! Until the day old man Gresham, with his bum ticker, his millions, and his voluptuous young spouse, Karen, became Dr. Brown’s benefactor and major patient. Then it was money, luxury — and Karen. But what about the corpse someone slipped into Dr. Brown’s tightly locked apartment? And what can a man say when he finds himself a member of an organized crime ring? And how do you tell his richest patient that you’re having an affair with his wife? It was enough to give a man a heart attack. But which man?

Something entirely new in the field — a Wild West mystery in the heart of NYC. Ellery Queen's now-famous and much-imitated analytico-deductive method of solving crimes is brought to the acme of its development. Through logical reasoning and brilliare deduction, Mr. Queen narrows the field from literally thousands of potential suspects to the one and only possible murderer — the ultra-clever plotter who performed the seeming miracle of causing a gun to vanish before the eyes of twenty-thousand spectators!

Have yourself a crooked little Christmas with The Big Book of Christmas Mysteries. Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler collects sixty of his all-time favorite holiday crime stories — many of which are difficult or nearly impossible to find anywhere else. From classic Victorian tales by Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Thomas Hardy, to contemporary stories by Sara Paretsky and Ed McBain, this collection touches on all aspects of the holiday season, and all types of mysteries. They are suspenseful, funny, frightening, and poignant. Included are puzzles by Mary Higgins Clark, Isaac Asimov, and Ngaio Marsh; uncanny tales in the tradition of A Christmas Carol by Peter Lovesey and Max Allan Collins; O. Henry-like stories by Stanley Ellin and Joseph Shearing, stories by pulp icons John D. MacDonald and Damon Runyon; comic gems from Donald E. Westlake and John Mortimer; and many, many more. Almost any kind of mystery you’re in the mood for — suspense, pure detection, humor, cozy, private eye, or police procedural — can be found in these pages. FEATURING: — Unscrupulous Santas — Crimes of Christmases Past and Present — Festive felonies — Deadly puddings — Misdemeanors under the mistletoe — Christmas cases for classic characters including Sherlock Holmes, Brother Cadfael, Miss Marple, Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, Rumpole of the Bailey, Inspector Morse, Inspector Ghote, A.J. Raffles, and Nero Wolfe

Who bludgeoned the co-ed and killed the dean? To find out, McCall had to risk riots. Yippies and the dark mysteries of today’s student unrest

After seven consecutive best-sellers — Ellery Queen poses an eight problem more bizarre than “The Egyptian Cross Mystery”, more ingenious than “The Siamese Twin Mystery”; more amazing than any crime ever conceived in fiction. We do not hesitate to predict that THE CHINESE ORANGE MYSTERY will be hauled by Mr. Queen’s thousand of ardent fans as the most original of his analytico-deductive novels. What Inspector Richard Queen wanted to know was the identity of the murdered man. How could he be expected to solve a murder mystery without knowing who was murdered? The body of the slain man was found on the 22nd floor of the Hotel Chancellor in a private room; no one even remotely connected with the investigation had ever seen the man before. His name, where he came from, why he was there — remain a baffling mystery to the end. Yet all who found themselves enmeshed in the web of the tragedy — Donald Kirk, millionaire publisher and collector; his invalid father; his younger sister; the young novelist from China; the adventurers from abroad — found their lives warped and changed by the death of this nameless nobody from nowhere! But what perplexed Ellery Queen even more was the incredible appearance of the scene of the crime. Everything had been turned backwards! The victim’s clothing had been turned backwards, the rug upside down, the pictures facing the wall — everything movable in the room had been turned backwards. And what was the explanation of those grotesque ramrods stack up the victim’s back?

Somebody had killed his father, then framed him. He knew who that somebody was, but how could he prove it?

An exotic movie actress, the swivel-hipped blonde, Winni Moon, and her scented chimpanzee; a murder which, already precious, became a managing editor’s dream; Pink, who came from Flatbush, Brooklyn; Solly Spaeth who was spawned in New York... These are only some slight hints of what you will find in THE DEVIL TO PAY and it is fair to say that here again is evidence that for ingenuity, surprise and original setting no mystery writer today can equal Ellery Queen. He never has failed to play fair with his reader. The amazing deductions of his stories are always in accord with the science of the streamlined murder. If crime is the subject of reader interest no mystery fan can commit a greater crime than to neglect the two-to-three-hour revel which THE DEVIL TO PAY provides

Police Captain Bartholdi sometimes indulged himself in a harmless fantasy. His thoughts, he would imagine, were irresponsible imps that wriggled out of his head and scampered around with an abandon that was often embarrassing. A woman had been kidnapped. That woman was dead. Bartholdi was convinced that a murderer was at that moment having a grim laugh at his expense. He knew who the murderer was. He would have bet his pension and his sacred soul that he knew. But he could not, knowing, prove what he knew. He needed confirmation on one critical point. From among his antic imps he culled the three that had directed his mind to its present state: One newspaper too many. A girl who slept too soundly. And, most important of all, a ragout with too many onions

In THE DOOR BETWEEN Ellery Queen again achieves this apparently impossible and produces something entirely new in the mystery field. The weapon he was in the most deadly, most universal and the head known among all the wide variety of weapons ever employed by criminals and murderers. The subject and the theme of THE DOOR BETWEEN give the thousands of Queen readers yet another kind of trill. The skill and brilliance Queen’s writing show in each succeeding Queen novel the steady growth of a master hand

Ellery Queen has now opened his own detective agency, Ellery Queen, Inc., on Times Square, New York, and his very first case develops into a complex and spell-binding tale of crime, intrigue, and extraordinary deduction. In its telling, the author has returned to the style and method of such earlier great successes as THE DUTCH SHOE MYSTERY, THE SIAMESE TWIN MYSTERY, etc. Here again we meet Inspector Queen, Sergeant Velie and other earlier favorites and again Ellery Queen applies his analytical deductive methods to one of the most puzzling murder plots ever uncovered in the annals of crime. Six months after paying Ellery a handsome retainer, a retired munitions magnate, worth many millions, dies on his yacht in the Caribbean. Peculiar circumstances! An important man is quickly buried at sea with no medical certificate and no autopsy! Crew quickly dispersed before they can be questioned! Only Ellery’s diamond sharp wits could cut through the web of tangled events and arrive at the dramatic solution

An eccentric millionairess is lying in a diabetic coma on a hospital bed in an anteroom of the surgical suite of the Dutch Memorial Hospital, which she founded, awaiting the removal of her gall bladder. When the surgery is about to begin, the patient is found to have been strangled with picture wire. Although the hospital is crowded, it is well guarded, and only a limited number of people had the opportunity to have murdered her, including members of her family and a small number of the medical personnel. The apparent murderer is a member of the surgical staff who was actually seen in the victim’s vicinity, but his limp makes him easy to impersonate. Ellery Queen examines a pair of hospital shoes, one of which has a broken lace that has been mended with surgical tape. He performs an extended piece of logical deduction based on the shoe, plus such slight clues as the position of a filing cabinet, and creates a list of necessary characteristics of the murderer that narrows the field of suspects down to a single surprising possibility

The Egyptian Cross Mystery has been characterized as “Ellery Queen’s weirdest adventure.” The shuddery, breathless plot plus Ellery Queen’s brilliantly logical solution mark the peak of Mr. Queen’s new famous “analytico-deductive” method. Ellery Queen has pitted his brain against many murdered but nowhere in his career has be applied his diamond-keen with to a murder as eerie and as puzzling as the crime which open The Egyptian Cross Mystery

John who? It all began simply enough, God knows. Mary Hazelwood suddenly decided to go away for the weekend and left a note for her sister Susie, with whom she shared an apartment, that she was off for Los Angeles and that John was driving her to the airport. It was only when she didn’t return that the problem arose. John, obviously, had been the last person known to have seen Mary. But the difficulty was that Mary knew four different men named John, and each of them denied even having seen her that day. Which John? Susie hadn’t a clue. And when she turned for help to a young professor named Mervyn Gray, who was half in love with her sister, he found a very disturbing warning in his mailbox. In block letters sprawling across a torn sheet of cheap note paper was this terse message — Confess or tomorrow you die!

A STATEMENT TO THE PUBLIC Since 1929 we have the exclusive privilege of publishing the detective stories of Ellery Queen in the United States. In our years publishing Queen’s thirteen books we have refrained from the usual and monotonously extravagant publishers’ claims, preferring to let the books speak for themselves. They have spoken so eloquently — each has been an instant best-seller here and abroad — that Queen is now recognized by the world’s press and public as one of the greatest writers of detective stories. Now, with our publication of Ellery Queen’s fourteenth book and latest novel, THE FOUR OF HEARTS, we feel compelled to break our silence. We honestly believe that THE FOUR OF HEARTS is not only Ellery Queen’s finest novel to date, but is destined to be ranked as a classic by those familiar with this type of fiction. We ask you to compare it mercilessly, point for point — in plot, in characterization, in atmosphere, in style, in ingenuity, in excitement and bafflement and as a source of sheer reading pleasure — with any detective story you have ever read. We ask you to judge for yourself whether our claim is even slightly overmagnified. We feel confident that your judgement will substantiate our opinion