Mark Peckham
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At the tail end of the Roaring Twenties, a birthday bash for publishing heir John Sebastian, Jr., perfectly coincides with the twelve days of Christmas. Among the twelve invited guests is Ellery Queen, a newly published mystery writer planning to enjoy every last minute. But when an uninvited Santa Claus shows up on Christmas Eve and then mysteriously goes missing, the party takes a disturbing turn. Threatening clues masked as gifts begin to appear...
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Raised in Japan by American expatriates, Karen Leith now lives a reclusive life in New York, known chiefly for her highly regarded novels, of which the latest has won a major American literary award. When she is found on the floor behind her desk, surrounded by blood, it looks like foul play. But the only possible suspect is Leith's future daughter-in-law, Eva, who has recently become engaged. Eva swears by her innocence, even though she was the last...
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Ellery Queen leaps into action when a jet-setter is murdered in Wrightsville From New Year's in Málaga to Christmas in Hawaii, John Levering Benedict III-or Johnny-B, as everyone calls him-is the crown prince of the jet set. He has 3 ex-wives, a limitless fortune, and more frequent flier miles than he can count. When Johnny-B tires of life in the sky, he sneaks off to a quiet corner of New England called Wrightsville, where he has purchased a cozy...
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Inspector Richard Queen and his new wife engage in a manor house mystery Ellery Queen is vacationing in Istanbul when he learns that his aging father, the retired police inspector Richard Queen, is getting married. The world-famous sleuth rushes home to congratulate the happy couple and enjoy the unique experience of giving his father away to the bride. The honeymoon over, Richard and his new wife return home to find an envelope containing a $100...
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A talented but broke doctor finds the only cure for poverty is crime Harry Brown is a good doctor, but he doesn't know the antidote for the poison that has coursed through him for 2 decades-the poison of envy. Ever since his days in prep school, when this scholarship student looked longingly at the fine clothes and expensive cars showered on the other children, Dr. Brown has been desperate for wealth. Becoming an MD was supposed to be his ticket to...
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When a famous DJ is murdered mid-set, a reporter searches for the killer From 3:00 to 4:00 every afternoon, Tutter "Tut" King reigns supreme. The dreamy disc jockey is a favorite of the sock-hop set, spinning all the records that are too rocking for their parents to let them buy. When Tut is implicated in a payola scheme-taking as much as $100,000 under-the-table to push third-rate records-his teenage fans stand behind him. For Tut's last radio appearance,...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Inspector Omar Collins tracks a mad killer through California's Sierra Nevada mountains in this classic novel from the legendary mystery author.
A party of backpackers hikes along the silver strand of the river, in awe of the overwhelming beauty of King's Canyon. They are amateur hikers, coworkers at a chemical lab who came from Fresno to heed the call of the wild. They have endured blisters, bug bites, and sunburn, but no discomfort can prepare...
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With the help of actor Drury Lane, Inspector Thumm chases a stolen manuscript and a man with a rainbow beard Inspector Thumm has never seen such a marvelous beard. It is massive and pointed, a rainbow composed of all the colors of Joseph's biblical coat. He's so distracted by the beard that he hardly notices the man it belongs to: a prospective client with mysterious business. This bearded fellow hands over an envelope containing a million-dollar...
12) The Tragedy of Y
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Drury Lane investigates a suspicious suicide and a family of mad Hatters A ramshackle trawler, the Lavinia D rumbles into New York harbor with empty nets. When its crew spies something floating in the water, they drag it in, hoping for a profitable catch. Their prize flops on the deck, limp, cold, and bloody: the corpse of a man. His name was York Hatter, and he had disappeared from his house on the fashionable Washington Square several days before....
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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...
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An American spy dives into the Tokyo underworld to catch a defector Fred Wilkinson waits in a Tokyo alley, wishing he were James Bond. Paunchy, in his 50s, and oh-so-tired, Wilkinson has nothing in common with that world-famous man of mystery-except that they are both spies. He's already near the end of his career when he goes to Japan to meet with the Soviet defector Krylov, and some of his colleagues back in Washington think he's getting soft. They're...
15) The Four Johns
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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...
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Queen visits an operating theater to witness a surgery, but finds a murder instead The son of a police detective, Ellery Queen grew up in a bloody atmosphere. Since he started lending his deductive powers to the New York City homicide squad, he has seen more than his fair share of mangled corpses. Though he is accustomed to gore, the thought of seeing a living person sliced open makes him ill. So when a doctor invites him to sit in on an operation,...
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A murdered fashion designer draws Ellery Queen into a tangled family plot Ever since New York was Nieuw Amsterdam, the McKells have been building their fortune. Combining Scottish thrift with American know-how, they built an empire that, by the 1930s, stretched across the globe. No one in the family found more success than Ashton McKell, an entrepreneur who counts his wealth in the hundreds of millions, who smokes twenty cigars a day, and whose only...
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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 housetwelve 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...
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David Tully hunts for a burglar's killer in order to save his wife It's been 3 days since David Tully has seen his wife, and there's a homicide cop waiting at his front door. Someone has been murdered, but it's not Ruth Tully. The dead man is Crandall Cox. The name is unfamiliar, but he was killed with Tully's gun. At the time of the murder, Tully was hard at work at the state capital. His alibi may be airtight, but his wife's is not. There's a warrant...
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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. ...