Ten Days' Wonder

The Ellery Queen Mysteries, 1948

By: Ellery Queen

Narrated by: Robert Fass

Ellery Queen is persuaded to accompany an old friend and sculptor to his ancestral home when the latter arrives at Ellery's house covered in blood and unable to remember anything from the past few weeks. Once there, tensions erupt and foul play results in the murder of one of the household's members. Among the many transgressions Ellery will uncover are adultery, blackmail, and deceit.

©2014 Ellery Queen (P)2014 Blackstone Audiobooks

A mystery within a mystery within a mystery

I was hating the story and the characters until whammo Ellery and the reader realize what is going on. Could be Ellery’s greatest case or his greatest failure

Ellery Queen!

I liked the narrator and storyline. As usual, it has a surprise ending. I’m rarely able to identify the culprit.

So many solutions.

this had so many twists and turns that you will find yourself thinking "not again".

The Self-made man, his wife and her step-son

For the third time, Ellery finds himself wrapped up in intrigue in the New England town of Wrightsville. Ellery had met Howard Von Horn years before in pre-War France. Now Howard begs Ellery to help him with his bouts of amnesia. Reluctantly, Ellery returns to Wrightsville. Here we meet Howard's rich, self-made father, a Renaissance man more demi-god than mortal. Howard's uncle is a cold calculating, miserly capitalist. His step-mother is young, elegant and beautiful. Ellery soon finds that Howard has not been completely truthful with him. There is a blackmailer bent on ruining the seemly peaceful tranquility of the Von Horn family. Ellery will find that he is being manipulated by several people acting in cross purposes.

The King of the Queens

Admittedly, by avoiding the ghastlier recordings of Ellery Queen, my listening has been spotty – mostly just those books performed by Robert Fass and Traber Burns. But of the Queens I have heard this is by far the best. Ellery is confronted with a series of jaw-dropping revelations leading to unprecedented decisions – and a finale that changes his own perception of himself.

True, that finale is a tad drawn-out for our hurried, modern tastes. But then, few of my tastes are modern. Robert Fass was the reason I picked this one up and, as usual, he does not disappoint.