Mark Peckham
3) Flashfire
Could murder really be hereditary? Davy Fox certainly thinks so. When he was only a boy, his father, Bayard Fox, was convicted of murdering Davy's mother in the small town of Wrightsville. Now that Davy has grown up and returned home from the war, he fears that it is only a matter of time until he kills his own wife. But could he really do such a thing? Desperate to find out the truth, Davy's wife, Linda, calls on Ellery Queen to investigate the
...Ellery Queen returned to Wrightsville to solve the mystery of a rich man—believed poor—who died of "old age," a poor man—believed rich—who committed suicide, and a scholarly drunk who disappeared. Shortly it occurred to Queen that the puzzle had a pattern. A twisted mind was committing murder according to an old nursery rhyme! Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief ... and to at least one person in town, the chief was Ellery Queen.
...It was a script that could only have come from Hollywood: the wedding of two superstars after a scandal-filled courtship ... a wild trip by private plane to a hideaway ... a deadly double overdose of drugs ...
These corpses weren't play-acting. Once again Ellery was cast in the role of master detective, as he found nothing was quite what it seemed in the never-never land of moviedom—except sudden, violent death ...
Here is a grand mystery
...