Ellery Queen investigates a mobster whose bizarre death is marked by the number 9 Nino Importuna has a soft face, but when he smiles, it's terrifying. His Central Park penthouse is lavish, but it was bought with the blood of his enemies. His criminal empire controls mining, electronics, and food-legitimate corporations that he runs with a murderer's touch. When he catches one of his capos stealing from him, Importuna could either kill the man or...

A teaching assistant knows that a man named John is out to kill him-but which John is it? Mervyn Gray sits at the college coffee shop scowling at his notes. The waitress assumes he's just another overworked Berkeley undergrad, but she is dead wrong. Gray is a teacher's aide fighting for his life. Two days ago, he was nearly poisoned. Yesterday, a bullet missed him by inches. Unless he can guess who is trying to take him out, and why, Gray will be...

Ellery Queen and his father discover a baffling murder on a private island Ellery Queen and his father are meandering through breakfast when their apartment is invaded. Without making a sound, 2 men appear in the Queens' living room, guns drawn, and proceed to search the place. When they're done, a 3rd man follows: a paunchy little professor-type who happens to be the brother of a king. King Bendigo doesn't rule a country, but his control of the international...

An American cop stumbles across a drug ring on a tropical island No matter how hard she tries, Tracy can't seem to kill herself. Her hands shake too much to cut her wrists. Wading into the ocean, her body refuses to be drowned. Even the heroin she has been shooting for years has failed to kill her. Her joints aching, she takes another hit, promising herself that she'll attempt suicide again tomorrow. But she won't get the chance. Tracy's just sinking...

The 1-eyed detective Tim Corrigan tears New York apart in search of an assassin Tim Corrigan was the toughest detective in the NYPD before he joined the army, and fighting in Korea didn't make him any softer. He returned with an eye patch and a sidekick: a tough-as-nails GI named Chuck Baer, who picked up a private investigator's license in order to keep an eye on his old foxhole buddy. In a fair fight, these 2 veterans could take down any hoodlum...

A series of cryptic notes announce a death in a bizarre wealthy family. York Square is a tidy private garden surrounded by 4 matching castles, each inhabited by a different branch of the York family. There's Robert, commanding and icy; Myra, gentle and ill; Emily, who would prefer to live in a cottage; and Percival, who has many personal secrets. Watching them all is the gardener, Walt, who sees more than any of them realize. When an anonymous scribe...

A college student's disappearance threatens to upend the race for governor Tisquanto is a quiet college town, and its chief of police wants to keep it that way. For years, the only trouble the students gave the locals was the occasional fraternity party that got out of hand. But now there are kids on campus calling for revolution. When the governor's right-hand man, Mike McCall, comes to Tisquanto, the chief of police promises he'll keep the students...

The search for a pornographic film director draws Mike McCall into a chase for a killer The film is called The Wild Nymph, and it may be the finest pornographic movie ever made. A relic of the 1950s, when erotic cinema was more artistic than smutty, it was filmed on a shoestring budget by the enigmatic genius Sol Dahlman. But 20 years later, the film has been forgotten and Dahlman has become a recluse. Finding him will be a deadly proposition.  ...

Inspector Thumm's daughter, Patience, investigates a political murder with the help of actor Drury Lane Patience Thumm has just traveled the world. She turned heads in London, sipped absinthe in Tunis, and debated philosophy on the Left Bank of Paris. When she returns home to New York with a smuggled copy of Lady Chatterley's Lover in her bag, her father, the NYPD's Inspector Thumm, is quite unprepared to handle her. At first, it seems they have nothing...

A small-town police chief is framed for a heinous crime  Andy Saxon has run the Iroquois police force for as long as anyone can remember. At 62, he's as strong as an oak and hasn't even given a thought to retirement. When a national crime syndicate wants to turn his small village into a haven for gamblers, Chief Saxon is the only thing standing in their way. And so, on a country road outside of town, a car full of hit men pulls alongside the chief's...