NCW Libraries

A lynch mob threatens to take over a small New England town after a shocking murder Homicide has never had a place in Shinn Corners. This backwater New England hamlet has seen three unlawful deaths in its 250-year history: infanticide in 1739, a political killing in the 1860s, and a forgettable murder some 15 years ago. In his long tenure on the bench, Judge Lewis Shinn has hardly seen any violent crime at all. His nephew, Johnny, is happy to settle...

When his daughter's fiancé is suspected of murder, a diplomat fights to learn the truth  The kids call it spring break, but their parents know it by its true name: debauchery. Every Easter, hormone-crazed students pile into cars and drive thousands of miles to the beach to lose themselves in an orgy of beer, sand, and sex. Keith Rollins and Cheryl Pemberton are two such revelers: college sweethearts planning to marry the moment they graduate. But...

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 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...

An on-set Hollywood romance marks a screenwriter for death Casey Blake is the only modest man in Hollywood, which is lucky, because an ego is something screenwriters can't afford. Blake makes his living churning out B movies for Joe Maddox, an actor turned producer who somehow got the strange idea that a well-written script is something worth paying for. Blake's latest is Ill Wind, a taut thriller that could bring in an Oscar-if Maddox can keep his...

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...

Ellery Queen must solve one mystery per month in a year of chilling crime Every new year, the seven remaining alumni of the first graduating class of Eastern University gather in Manhattan to reminisce. Within that group, there is a secret clique-the Inner Circle-forged around a crooked business arrangement, the profits of which will be collected by the last living member. When three of the Inner Circle die within a year, the remaining men fear for...

A novella and eight stories starring America's most clever detective Is it possible for a man to lift himself off the ground by his shoelaces and fly away? Can a water buffalo transform itself into a little boy? What is science to make of a dead man climbing out of his coffin, escaping his tomb . . . and breaking into song? Such incidents seem impossible, but stranger things have happened at the home of old Sylvester Mayhew. When Ellery Queen, the...

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...

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,...