TEN DAYS' WONDER

Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1949. First Edition, Early Printing. . Hardcover. Good Plus/Good Plus. The 19th novel in the Ellery Queen mystery-crime series produced from the collaboration of cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee finds writer and detective Ellery Queen returning to Wrightsville, the scene of a pair of earlier books ("Calamity Town" and "The Murderer Is A Fox"). Queen has received a desperate cry for help from Howard Van Horn, a millionaire's son, who needs to know why and how he recently staggered out of a Bowery flophouse beaten bloody, robbed and concussed. Queen's investigation quickly involves him in a puzzling and bewildering maze of criminality centered on the Van Horn estate and an array of suspects ranging from Van Horn's father's young wife to a mysterious, hundred-year-old woman who sometimes seems more a ghost than a person. First Edition, Seventh Printing (all seven by February, 1949, within five months of first publication). Boards show mild fading along edges, light bumping at spine ends, o/w no significant flaws. The front end page shows damage where one previous owner apparently tried to cross out the name and address of the owner before him/her using a ball point pen and heavy hand, so that the next four pages are indented from the effort though it did not result in tears or holes in the pages. That noted, this is the only flaw in the text which is o/w clean and unmarked, tight and square. The dustjacket shows considerable wear, especially along the folds and edges with several tape-repaired tears, though the dj remains 95% whole with nearly all of the printing and design intact, including the unclipped original price. Makes a decent reading copy/place holder.