Beware the Young Stranger

Ellery Queen

Aug. 2015 · Open Road Media

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When a diplomat’s daughter falls in love with a man suspected of murder, he goes in search of the truth in this classic from the legendary mystery author.

The kids call it spring break, but their parents know it by its true name: debauchery. Every Easter, hormone-crazed students pile into cars and drive thousands of miles to the beach to lose themselves in an orgy of beer, sand, and sex. Keith Rollins and Cheryl Pemberton are two such revelers: college sweethearts planning to marry the moment they graduate. But in the heat of a party, the couple gets separated; the next morning, the girl is found raped and murdered beneath the pier and Rollins is the prime suspect.
 
Though Rollins is never convicted of the crime, the cloud of suspicion lingers over him. Years later, he becomes engaged to the daughter of diplomat John Vallancourt, who resolves to find out the truth. When Vallancourt’s daughter disappears, he fears the killer has struck again.
 

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Ellery Queen was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty-two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age “fair play” mystery.
 
Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen’s first appearance came in 1928, when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that was later published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who uses his spare time to assist his police inspector uncle in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee’s death.