Dr. Harry Brown discovers the corpse of an unknown woman in his apartment and the detective, Ellery Queen, investigates the baffling murder of a scientist

Trapped on a burning mountain, the Queens take refuge with a killer Dashing detective Ellery Queen and his father are driving over the pothole-scarred Arrow Mountain road when they come face to face with a wall of flame. They tear back in the other direction, fire at their fenders, and finally find safety in a clearing, at the home of Dr. Xavier, a renowned surgeon. He is a genial man, but his distracted, mysterious smile conceals dark secrets. Passing through one of the drafty hallways, Ellery’s father is startled by a pair of eyes burning in the darkness—the eyes of a monster. Could they be trapped on some kind of mountain of Dr. Moreau? Dr. Xavier introduces them to the rest of his household, including his wife, brother, and medical assistant. Everyone’s welcoming, but they also seem anxious and cagey. When the good doctor is found shot to death in his study, Queen realizes that he and his father have more to fear than a pair of sinister eyes. The Queens may have escaped the forest fire, but they have leapt into a situation that is every bit as hot.

Ellery Queen takes refuge from a wildfire at a remote mountain house — and arrives just before the owner is murdered... When Ellery Queen and his father encounter a raging forest fire during a mountain drive, the only direction to go is up — up a winding dirt road that leads to an isolated hillside manor, inhabited by a secretive surgeon and his diverse cast of guests. Trapped by the fire, the Queens settle into the uneasy atmosphere of their surroundings. Things become even more tense the following morning when the doctor is discovered dead, apparently shot down while playing solitaire the night before. The only clue is a torn six of spades. The suspects include a society beauty, a suspicious valet, and a pair of conjoined twins. When another murder follows, the killer inside the house becomes as threatening as the mortal flames outside its walls. Faced with a complex set of alibis, motives, and evidence, Ellery Queen must rely on his powers of deduction and logic to uncover the murderer’s identity — but can he solve this whodunnit before the fire devours its subjects? Featuring bizarre circumstances, eerie atmosphere, and a dazzling solution, The Siamese Twin Mystery is a fair play mystery in which the reader has all the necessary information needed to solve the puzzle. The seventh Ellery Queen novel (which can be read in any order), it finds the legendary sleuth facing one of the most memorable cases of his career.

A desperate doctor finds that crime is the best cure for poverty—unless it gets him killed—in this novel from the legendary mystery author. Harry Brown is a good doctor, but he doesn’t know the antidote for the poison that has coursed through him for 2 decades—the poison of envy. Ever since his days in prep school, when this scholarship student looked longingly at the fine clothes and expensive cars showered on the other children, Dr. Brown has been desperate for wealth. Becoming an MD was supposed to be his ticket to the good life, but after 2 years’ practice, his savings are nearly exhausted and the good doctor is staring poverty in the mouth. It will take a miracle to save him—but the one that arrives could get him killed. Hired as the private physician for millionaire Kurt Gresham, Dr. Brown is horrified to learn that his new employer is a heroin kingpin. But the money is good, Gresham’s wife is beautiful, and Brown would rather be dead than poor.

Essays taken from Salem Press's Critical survey of mystery and detective fiction, published in 1988.