The Finishing Stroke (An Ellery Queen Mystery)

by Ellery Queen

Immediately after the publication of his first novel, detailing his investigation and solution of The Roman Hat Mystery, fledgling author Ellery Queen is invited to a house party to be held over the Christmas holiday period (late 1929 and early 1930) by his publisher. The party is large and contains a number of people connected for business or social reasons with a wealthy young man who is about to come into a large inheritance on his imminent birthday. In the days leading up to his birthday, a number of strange little gifts are left anonymously for him, one, two or three daily, together with some cryptic notes describing them. The gifts are sized as for a doll's house and are things like a tiny house, a post, a camel, a fish, an eye, a fence -- seemingly without any rhyme or reason behind them. The cryptic notes become more and more threatening and ominous, and some of them have little doodles on the back that seem to represent the gift associated with them. Ellery continues to invest