The King Is Dead

Description

King Bendigo is the wealthiest man alive. He has an enormous security detail on his private island, quite capable of dealing with international aggression. But not threats from within his own family. Fearing for his life, he hires brilliant detective Ellery Queen. The King's brother Judah makes no secret of wanting him dead. He even gives a date and a time on which he will commit the crime. So when the day comes, the King is kept in a hermetically sealed room while his brother is guarded by Ellery himself. But the King is still shot...This is the ultimate in locked-door mysteries from a classic master of the genre.

Promotion info

'Ellery Queen IS the American detective story' Anthony Boucher.

Author description

Ellery Queen is both a fictional detective and the pen name shared by his creators, Brooklyn-born cousins Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay. The character first appeared in a book that won a mystery-writing contest and was eventually published in 1928 as THE ROMAN HAT MYSTERY. The amateur detective character of Ellery Queen shared an apartment with and assisted his father, the NYPD's Inspector Queen. As well as dozens of Ellery Queen novels, the cousins wrote numerous radio scripts and short stories featuring their detective, and were the joint recipients of several EDGAR AWARDs from the Mystery Writers of America, including the 1960 GRAND MASTER AWARD. In their time Lee and Dannay were considered to be the foremost American writers of the Golden Age 'fair play' mystery, with Dannay said to have largely provided the plots and Lee most of the writing. The cousins also founded ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE in 1941, which is still considered one of the most influential crime fiction publications of all time. While Frederic Dannay outlived his cousin and co-author by 11 years, he retired from writing at the time of Lee's death.