In 1929, cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee created the author Ellery Queen. This also became the name of their sleuth, a young, Harvard-educated New Yorker who solves crimes out of intellectual curiosity. Forming a distinct set, the duo's first nine novels refined the mystery genre, and we are pleased to present four of them.

It's Christmas in Chicago, and Inspector Richard Queen is at a conference on gangland violence, but his son, amateur sleuth Ellery, is bored silly—until he hears that in Arroyo, West Virginia, a schoolmaster has been found crucified. When the Queens arrive in Arroyo to tackle their fifth case (following The Greek Coffin Mystery), they learn that the victim was an eccentric atheist, but not the sort to make enemies. What initially looks to be the work of a cult turns out to be something far more sinister, as victims will turn up all over the world, and the Queens need to act fast to prevent further crucifixions.