From the Grand Master Edgar Award–winning author, a Golden Age mystery in which the "intensely logical" amateur sleuth discovers a crowded coffin ( The New York Times ). The scion of a famous New York art-dealing family, Georg Khalkis spent his final years housebound with blindness until he died of a heart attack. After his funeral, his will mysteriously vanishes. Following a thorough search, Inspector Richard Queen's son, Ellery, suggests checking the coffin, where they discover not one, but two corpses. When the second body is identified as an ex-convict, it becomes clear they have a murder case on their hands with links to the art world and a da Vinci forgery. It's up to young Ellery Queen to solve the case in "a lively and well-constructed yarn containing unusual setting, ingenuity of plot, a surprise solution and legitimate use of the analytico-deductive method" ( New York Herald Tribune ). Praise for the writing of Ellery Queen: "Ellery Queen clearly is, after Poe, the most important American in mystery fiction." —Otto Penzler, editor of The Best American Mystery Stories "A new Ellery Queen book has always been something to look forward to for many years now." —Agatha Christie "Ellery Queen is the American detective story." —Anthony Boucher, author of Nine Times Nine
