This is the start of a new series of classic facsimile reprints selected, with a new introduction, by the internationally renowned editor and expert Otto Penzler. The authors are masters of the past, but many of their titles have not been available for decades. Most titles will have been written 50-70 years ago and all stand the test of time. "The Egyptian Cross Mystery" has justly been called 'Ellery Queen's weirdest adventure'. A good many fans have gone further; they consider it his very best story.On Christmas Eve, an eccentric schoolmaster in the little town of Arroyo, West Virginia was brutally murdered. He was found with his head cut off, crucified on a sign post at a cross roads near his house. In the course of the next year, three other men, in various places, were found with their heads cut off, crucified likewise in the form of a T. Everyone working on the case, including Ellery Queen, was completely baffled. But Ellery had the feeling that there was only one clue he didn't possess which would suddenly bring the whole tangled and eerie puzzle into line and give him the solution. That clue came to him with the fourth murder.
On Page 299 of this book you will find a Challenge to the Reader from the author. You will be very good indeed if you can, at this point, with every relevant fact and clue in your possession, name the murderer.
It is a clever story that plays fair, that works to keep the reader engaged throughout the whole novel and that builds to an exciting conclusion.
Read my full review on Mysteries Ahoy!
