Challenge To The Reader Author:Ellery Queen The Ellery Queen mystery novels carefully laid out the clues before the readerand invited them to attempt to solve the mystery before Ellery Queen presented the solution. In the early Queen books, just prior to the presentation of the solution to the mystery, a "Challenge To The Reader" was issued, in which the suspects and clues were reviewed a... more »nd the reader challenged to guess the solution to the crime.
Contents:
Challenge to the Reader: In Which Mr. Ellery Quieen invents a new kind of Detective Story Anthology Challenging the Reader to Recognize the Great Detectives with Their Names Changed.
Bullets: In which Langford Madonini Uses Yankee Psychology to Save Slewfoot in the Deep South.
The Honour of Israel Gow: In Which Vicar Wells Puts Together Snuff, Steel, Candles, Diamonds and Strangely Mutilated Missals.
The Border-Line Case: In Which Alfred Lanier Explains When a Wall Is Not a Wall.
The Magic Flame: In Which The Comte de Voleurs Undertakes To Solve A Murder In Two Hours.
The Adopted Daughter: In Which Cousin Rufus Meets With a Chess Pawn, a Creole, a Pair of Deuling Pistols, and Vespatian Flornoy.
Footsteps: In Which Sir Robert Devon Combats the Powers of Darkness with the Powers of Mind.
The Poetical Policeman: In Which Mr. John Groat Demonstrates That Policemen and Poetry Do Not Mix During a Bank Robbery.
Scrambled Yeggs: In Which Bill Goslin Compounds a Felony to Save an Honest Crook.
The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax: In Which Mr. Pharaoh Jones Evinces a Curious Interest in Dr. Shlessinger's Left Ear.
"Challenge to the Reader" is at once a clever stunt book and an anthology of mystery stories that are much too good to be forgotten. -New York Times
Mercury Mysteries are chosen from the hundreds of mysteries published each year-for their pace, literary quality and readability. Sometimes they are reprinted in full, but more often they are cut in increase the speed of the story-always, of course, with the permission of the author or his publisher. These stories were not cut.« less