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Ellery Queen
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The King Is Dead Kindle Edition

by Ellery Queen (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 126 ratings
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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 arms trade has made him one of the richest men in the world. It’s not surprising that somebody wants him dead.
 
Bendigo’s brother comes to the Queens to ask them to save the tycoon’s life—but they fail. The king is found dead in a hermetically sealed room, a bullet lodged in his heart. The murder is impossible to solve—that is, for anyone but Ellery Queen.
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  1. Print length
    302 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    MysteriousPress.com/Open Road
  5. Publication date
    September 29, 2015
  6. File size
    3530 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ellery Queen is a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn - Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay (1905-1982), and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee (1905-1971) - to write detective fiction. In a successful series of novels that covered forty-two years, Ellery Queen served as both the authors' name and that of the detective-hero. The cousins also cofounded and directed Ellery Queen's 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.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B013CUBZQM
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ MysteriousPress.com/Open Road (September 29, 2015)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ September 29, 2015
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3530 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 302 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 126 ratings

About the author

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Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen

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Ellery Queen was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty-two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death in 1971.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
126 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Charlene
5.0 out of 5 stars A Different sort of EQ
Reviewed in the United States on April 23, 2023
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This novel takes a look at absolute power, corruption, and the violence of politics. The view of personality, and the influence of fathers on sons comes to the fore. It is quite illustrative of modern problems.
2 people found this helpful
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Robert M. Harden
4.0 out of 5 stars Fast paced and interesting read. Better than I expected.
Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2016
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The puzzle at the heart of the story was very good. The "how" kept me guessing if not the "who." I was rather surprised how quickly everything was resolved at the end. I was expecting some more exciting.
2 people found this helpful
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Okemos56
3.0 out of 5 stars Passable
Reviewed in the United States on July 1, 2023
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There are enough twists in this EQ murder mystery to make it passable in the end, but there is a fair amount of so-so material in the middle. The story is set on set an island run by a rich armaments manufacturer like a kingdom and is fantastic. It is also (as pointed out in another review) James Bondian.
The King (the person's first name too) is shot and almost dies in a locked room par excellence. The basic means, for all the words and angst spent over it, is not that difficult to figure out, but some of the exact details and motives are. The psychology--and this is one of EQ's later works that focuses on psychology--is doubtful by today's standards and given in a report form. There's a tie-in to Wrightsville that seems unnecessary. Three-and-a-half stars for me: I spent several hours happily reading it (skimming parts), but I wouldn't read it again.
One person found this helpful
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Sally J. Riley
5.0 out of 5 stars natural solutions to things that bug you. the king is dead.
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2013
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I never received this one, Natural Solutions to Things That Bug You/. I received The King is Dead as ordered. I really enjoyed the book and my husband read it and enjoyed it also. It is the twist and turns, suspence and brain teaser that an Elery Queen always provides.
3 people found this helpful
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HRH Victoria IIR
4.0 out of 5 stars Ahead Of It's Time & near on to political turmoil tat still continues today.
Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2014
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A well plotted story with a parallel origin in the political diversity of the era which continues to manifest itself in the new headlines.
2 people found this helpful
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James M. Rawley
5.0 out of 5 stars Great best-seller, great mystery, great author[s]. Go for it!
Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2016
During the early fifties, when this book was written, Ellery Queen hit the best-seller lists over and over. He (they) had broken out of the mystery fan base and had broad popular appeal plus a reputation as the best mystery writer in America or the world. This is one of his best books from that period. It's simpler than his fans-only great works of the thirties, but a locked-room mystery from the best mystery writer in the country is not going to be bad, and this one is plain great. As a best-seller, it's by definition faster-moving and more involving than earlier Ellery Queen books, but the mystery is hard to solve anyway, and the influence of such classics as _1984_, which had just come out a couple of years earlier, is all to the good. This book was fun when I first encountered it as a teenager, and it holds up now.
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Sponte
3.0 out of 5 stars Three Stars
Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2017
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It's okay but not one of the better Ellery Queen novels.
2 people found this helpful
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Judy Mc
2.0 out of 5 stars Finally, the King is dead!
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2017
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This book just drags on and on! I just wanted to be finished with it! Glad the ordeal is over! I always like to finish a book and I thought it might get better, but it didn't.
One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

D M Robertson
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 8, 2015
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A good read. Intricate plot.
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NJ
3.0 out of 5 stars The Man with the Golden Gun
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2015
Verified Purchase
Give a man a gun containing no bullets and ask him to point it at a blank wall and pull the trigger. What happens? Well, in the world of Ellery Queen he manages to shoot another man who is in another room with a locked steel door and no windows or other points of ingress across the guarded hallway outside. It’s a lovely problem, and enticing enough for even the most casual crime reader before you mention that it flowed from the dual pens of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, two of the most important figures in the development of the crime story.

Before we get there, however, we must first endure what feels like a lampoon of a Roger Moore Bond, with Queen father and son taken to a reclusive, overweening oligarch’s secluded secret island, confronted by his immeasurable power, influence and wealth, his gorgeous trophy woman and his frank indifference to their mission of discovering who is threatening his life. What’s weird is that Bond himself was just a gleam in his author’s eye when this was published, with Casino Royale a year or so away still, so this setup is probably more original than the intervening years imply. It’s also a pretty fun context for an Ellery Queen detective novel, which is why it’s a shame there’s so little actual detection in it.

The vox populi would have it that (author) Ellery Queen can do no wrong but, while (detective) Ellery’s acumen once again comes to the fore and solves the underlying mysteries, this is really rather turgid once the detection begins (confined largely to one hideously over-long chapter, high on verisimilitude but low on narrative spice). The solution to the impossible shooting is also unfortunately rather tame, one that I had hoped would be a deliberate ploy before the fireworks began, and also slightly unusual in that it seems to regard such things as actual proof to be rather superfluous – surely an EQ first! The bigger mystery is how it takes Ellery and his father weeks and weeks to actually solve the thing...hardly demonstrating the precocious genius on show previously.

The King is Dead isn’t the most successful attempt at a locked room mystery, then, though many may prefer its understated directness to the histrionics of say John Dickson Carr’s grand guignol characters and tone (not me, though; Carr is a master). Remains a footnote in the history of impossible crime, and a weird one given its rightly-adored provenance; for completists only.
One person found this helpful
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Mrs. Crimble
1.0 out of 5 stars Good book, pity the last few chapters are missing
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 21, 2014
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Book as downloaded ends about two chapters short of the denouement. I have requested a refund. It is a shame you can't report errors like this to the publishers.
3 people found this helpful
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