Trick IโThe first thing to vanish is a worthless doorstop. Then, in the twinkling of an eye, goes its rich and elderly owner. And, for the grand finale, both reappearโeach as dead as the other.
Trick IIโFrom the House of Darkness issues more bafflement. In total darkness and from a distance of twelve feet, four bullets are pumped within an inch of each other into a spectator's backโa feat utterly impossible to perform yet brazenly and undeniably done.
Trick IIIโThe piโยฟce de rโยฎsistance. This time it's an entire house, a real house, a solid house, which Ellery Queen had been in only the day before ... vanished from the face of the earth. And in its place emerges one of the most incredible conundrums ever to face the master crime solver.
EncoresโThe New Adventures of Ellery Queen is a classic collection of eight short mysteries and a remarkable short novel. First published in 1940, it has sold more than one million copies and continues to be "as good as they come" (New York Times).
Stories include "The Lamp of God," "The Treasure Hunt," "The Hollow Dragon," "The House of Darkness," "The Bleeding Portrait," "Man Bites Dog," "Long Shot," "Mind over Matter," and "The Trojan Horse."
Ellery Queen is a pseudonym used by two American cousins from BrooklynโDaniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay (1905โ1982), and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee (1905โ1971)โto write detective fiction. In a successful series of novels that covered forty-two years, Ellery Queen served as both the authorsโ name and that of the detective-hero. The cousins also cofounded and directed Ellery Queenโs Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential English crime-fiction magazines of the twentieth century. They were given the Grand Master Award for achievements in the field of the mystery story by the Mystery Writers of America in 1961.
Robert Fass is the two-time winner of the prestigious Audie Award, numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and a veteran actor who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks. He has worked on projects from authors such as Ray Bradbury, John Steinbeck, Saul Bellow, T.S. Eliot, Joyce Carol Oates, Carlos Fuentes, Jeffrey Deaver, and Lee Child, as well as bestselling and prize-winning nonfiction works in history, politics, health, journalism, philosophy, business, and memoir.