A Room to Die In

By: Ellery Queen

Narrated by: Traber Burns

How could a man have been murdered when he was found alone in his study, a gun in his hand, and the door locked from the inside? It had to be suicide, the police figured. Although there was no suicide note, there was a letter proving conclusively that Roland Nelson, over the last several months, was being blackmailed. But to his daughter, Ann, whom he had seen only spasmodically since he had left her mother when Ann was a baby, there were unanswered questions. She was convinced that her father could never have killed himself. Before she found the answers, two people were brutally garroted with a wire, one of them in her own apartment.

Could she find all the answers before the killer silenced her, too?

©1965 Ellery Queen. © renewed by Ellery Queen (P)2015 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The Ultimate Locked Room Mystery?

By 1965, when this novel appeared, Ellery Queen had become a brand name. It’s author, Jack Vance, won many laurels for his science fiction. Neither Inspector Queen nor his precocious son are to be seen. Granted, the writing was overseen by Manfred Lee, half of the original Queen team. But for a purist (like me) those can seem less than optimal circumstances for the writing of a good Ellery Queen yarn.

But I was wrong. The characters, situation, and storyline are undeniable. And the solution – perhaps the most satisfying kind of solution – will have you smacking your forehead and saying, “Of course!” If not the ultimate example of the Locked Room Mystery, this is surely an ingenious twist on the genre.

Another factor that persuaded me to try this one was Traber Burns. So many of the vintage Queen novels are read by people who are, frankly, hard to listen to. Here, as with every other book I’ve heard him perform, Burns is simply terrific.

Nice short story

Nice story short and sweet. I was not wanting to stop listening a good read

Good Story

The quality of play wasn't good. Kept stopping. Otherwise, it was a good story and enjoyable.

a lovely classic whodunit

perfect if you are looking for a nostalgic fix without taxing your brain too much