The Dragon's Teeth
First US edition | |
Author | Ellery Queen |
---|---|
Language | English |
Series | Ellery Queen |
Genre | Mystery fiction |
Publisher | Stokes (US) Gollancz (UK) |
Publication date | 1939 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type | |
Pages | 325 |
Preceded by | The Four of Hearts |
Followed by | Calamity Town |
The Dragon's Teeth (also published as The Virgin Heiresses) is a mystery novel published in 1939 featuring the popular fictional character Ellery Queen, which is also the pseudonym of the book's authors, Daniel Nathan and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky. It is primarily set in New York City, United States.
Plot summary
An eccentric millionaire, Cadmus Cole, visits the newly founded offices of Ellery Queen, Confidential Investigations, in a rare incidence of disembarkation from his yacht. The investigation company is actually the brainchild and sole responsibility of Ellery's partner, "Beau" Rummell, an established private eye. The eccentric Mr. Cole pays $1,500,000 as a retainer to hire Ellery Queen for an investigation—the details of which he refuses to divulge, saying only "You'll know when the time comes." Upon his departure, he leaves behind a well-chewed fountain pen with which he's signed the retainer cheque. Almost immediately, Ellery's appendix bursts, and Cadmus Cole is reported dead and buried at sea. Rummell, in the guise of Ellery Queen, begins to investigate both the circumstances of Cole's death and his heirs; he soon meets two beautiful young women and the case becomes complicated by romance and the appearance of a claimant under the will. When the claimant is murdered, and Rummell married to one of the beauties, the real Ellery Queen must take a hand and solve the case, using the vital clue of the chewed fountain pen.
Literary significance & criticism
After many popular mystery novels and a number of movies, the character of Ellery Queen was at this point firmly established. This novel in the Ellery Queen canon was perhaps influenced by the Ellery Queen radio show and films that were popular at the time; Beau Rummell is never seen again in the canon, and Ellery Queen never opens another detective agency in the books (although he maintains an office in more than one film). "Ellery directs his partner in a vague investigation of a recluse millionaire's death at sea. Full of exaggerations and rank dialogue, and guilty of the old fallacy that a body must be shown to establish murder."[1]
External links
- "Ellery Queen is the American detective story."
Footnotes
- ^ Barzun, Jacques and Taylor, Wendell Hertig. A Catalogue of Crime (revised edition) New York: Harper and Row, 1989 (first published 1971). ISBN 0-06-015796-8
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- The Roman Hat Mystery (1929)
- The French Powder Mystery (1930)
- The Dutch Shoe Mystery (1931)
- The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932)
- The Egyptian Cross Mystery (1932)
- The American Gun Mystery (1933)
- The Siamese Twin Mystery (1933)
- The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934)
- The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935)
- Halfway House (1936)
- The Door Between (1937)
- The Devil to Pay (1938)
- The Four of Hearts (1938)
- The Dragon's Teeth (1939)
- Calamity Town (1942)
- There Was an Old Woman (1943)
- The Murderer Is a Fox (1945)
- Ten Days' Wonder (1948)
- Cat of Many Tails (1949)
- Double, Double (1950)
- The Origin of Evil (1951)
- The King Is Dead (1952)
- The Scarlet Letters (1953)
- The Glass Village (1954)
- Inspector Queen's Own Case (1956)
- The Finishing Stroke (1958)
- The Player on the Other Side (1963)
- And on the Eighth Day (1964)
- The Fourth Side of the Triangle (1965)
- Face to Face (1967)
- The House of Brass (1968)
- Cop Out (1969)
- The Last Woman in His Life (1970)
- A Fine and Private Place (1971)
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