Ellery Queen

A wealthy heiress dies. She jumped off the balcony of her elegant home (or did she?). Was it suicide... or was it murder? The twist: she was reading one of Ellery's own murder mysteries at the time and she died exactly the same way as the victim in the book.

On a fishing trip to the town of Wrightsville, Ellery and Inspector Queen are dragged into the case of the murder of a wealthy man who was whacked over the head with an ornamental dog figurine meant as a wedding gift for his daughter and worth nearly half a million dollars. It seems as though two rival candidates for sheriff want the Inspector to solve the town's first murder in decades so that they can grab the credit.

Ellery himself is a leading suspect in the murder of a comic book publisher with whom he'd clashed over how he was portrayed in the publisher's comics. It seems as though the man left a dying clue which apparently points to him. Ellery is forced to investigate in order to clear his name. Ole Frank Flannigan is on the scene too trying to steal some of the glory.

News mogul Henry Manners is murdered in an express elevator to the 12th floor of his building with nobody inside the elevator except the victim. The suspects include Manners' sister who had previously run the paper while her brother was absent in WW II, the right-wing columnist who was always getting the paper into legal hot water, the Editor being forced into retirement, and (yes, you knew this was coming) the paper's lawyer. Ole Frank Flannigan is on the scene too making the usual nuisance of himself and trying to beat Ellery to the solution. They'll have to take things one day at a time in this case.

Beloved Vera Bethune stars as Miss Aggie in a radio soap opera, but is about to be written out. One day she drinks water from a jug and is poisoned in a murder attempt. She is taken to the hospital and survives, but the killer returns.

A WW II spy, Colonel Alec Nivin, is on a book tour in New York concerning his memoirs in which he accuses a variety of people of war crimes and treasonous acts. Ellery's galpal, Jenny O'Brien, finds the erstwhile spy dead in his hotel room having been stabbed with an antique dagger. Everybody except Jenny is a suspect in this one.

Ellery and his agent, Howard Biggers, travel to the estate of the wealthy and eccentric Spencer Lockridge. It seems as though Biggers wants to turn one of Ellery's books into a play and is trying to get Lockridge to provide the financial backing. All goes for naught when Lockridge disappears while wearing a Mad Hatter's costume from the Alice in Wonderland theme party he was throwing. Whodunit? Could it have been someone from New York or maybe even Dallas?

Burlesque producer Sam Packer is found dead of an apparent heart attack but he leaves behind a video to be shown at his funeral in which he states that no matter what it looks like, he will be murdered. Packer, in the video, asks radio mystery star Simon Brimmer to solve his murder. Packer's widow, knowing that Simon can't figure out his butt from third base, goes to Ellery and asks for his help. Brimmer once again tries to best Ellery and once again is 100% wrong.

Norris Wentworth buys and brings an Egyptian sarcophagus to display at the world famous Tremane Museum. Wouldn't you know it, there's curse on the darn thing. The six previous owners have all kicked the bucket under mysterious circumstances. Needless to say, Wentworth becomes victim number seven but is he really the victim of a mummy's curse or is there some other motive in this wild, wild case?

An awards dinner sponsored by the Crime Writers of America is being held at the residence of writer Edgar Manning who is the recipient of the Blunt Instrument Award. Ellery is not present at the dinner due to the fact that he's home sick with a head cold. Nasty, egotistical Manning calls up Ellery on the telephone in order to gloat about his win and is murdered while speaking with our hero on the phone. It might take a quantum leap for our hero to solve this one.