Reading Order
Ellery Queen Detectiveseries.seoTitleShort
Start with The Roman Hat Mystery and continue through all 55 books in the listed reading order.
About This Series
The Ellery Queen Detective series is a captivating collection of mystery novels featuring a brilliant amateur sleuth, Ellery Queen, who is both a character and a pseudonym for the writing duo of cousins Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky. Known for their intricate plots and clever puzzles, these novels blend classic whodunit elements with a unique narrative style that draws readers into a world of deduction and intrigue.
What sets the Ellery Queen series apart is its commitment to intellectual challenge and the exploration of moral dilemmas. Each book invites readers to engage their detective skills, presenting them with clues and red herrings that lead to a satisfying conclusion. Themes of justice, the complexities of human nature, and the art of deduction are masterfully woven throughout the series, making it an ideal read for mystery enthusiasts and armchair detectives alike.
For those new to the series, starting with Book 1 is highly recommended, as it establishes the character of Ellery Queen and the signature style of the authors. Although each mystery can stand alone, experiencing the progression of Queen's character and the evolution of the narrative techniques enhances the reading journey.
Influential figures like Judd Apatow have praised the series for its clever storytelling and intricate plots, making it a must-read for anyone who appreciates a well-crafted mystery. Whether you're a seasoned fan of detective fiction or a newcomer eager to dive into a classic series, the Ellery Queen Detective books offer an engaging and thought-provoking experience that is sure to resonate with readers across generations.
Start Here
Start with The Roman Hat Mystery
Book 2 by Ellery Queen • Published 1929
During a packed Broadway play, a shady lawyer is found stabbed in his seat, and the only obvious clue, his missing top hat, has vanished. Ellery Queen and his NYPD father trace that hat through a maze of suspects and...
Complete List
Ellery Queen Detective reading order
Ends with Ellery Queen, Master Detective
- 2
Book 2:The Roman Hat Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1929
During a packed Broadway play, a shady lawyer is found stabbed in his seat, and the only obvious clue, his missing top hat, has vanished. Ellery Queen and his NYPD father trace that hat through a maze of suspects and...
- 4
Book 4:The French Powder Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1930
A glamorous woman is found murdered in a department store, her face oddly dusted with expensive French powder. Ellery Queen follows tiny clues through sales floors, society gossip, and shaky alibis to learn who used a...
- 6
Book 6:The Dutch Shoe Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1931
A wealthy patient is killed inside a Manhattan hospital, with doctors and nurses nearby and no clear way for the murderer to strike unseen. When a simple shoe detail doesn’t add up, Ellery Queen rebuilds the timeline...
- 9
Book 9:The Greek Coffin Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1932
A rich art dealer dies, his will vanishes, and a bizarre clue points to the coffin itself. When the grave is opened, the body count climbs and the puzzle deepens. Ellery Queen has to untangle inheritance, deception, a...
- 10
Book 10:The Egyptian Cross Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1932
Victims are discovered posed on crude crosses, and taunting clues hint at a killer who wants to be chased. Ellery Queen and Inspector Queen race across a widening map of suspects, trying to predict the next strike bef...
- 13
Book 13:The American Gun Mystery / Death at the Rodeo
Ellery Queen • 1933
A murder at a busy rodeo seems to happen in plain sight, yet the gun and the shooter don’t fit the facts. Ellery Queen digs into performers, promoters, and rivalries, hunting for the trick that made the killing look i...
- 14
Book 14:The Siamese Twin Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1933
A remote mountain lodge is cut off by a raging wildfire, trapping guests and staff together. When someone is murdered inside the sealed-in resort, Ellery Queen must solve the case before panic, smoke, and shifting loy...
- 16
Book 16:The Chinese Orange Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1934
A man is murdered behind locked doors, and then the body itself disappears, leaving the investigators with a roomful of suspects and a handful of baffling clues. Ellery Queen has to explain both the killing and the va...
- 19
Book 19:The Lamp of God
Ellery Queen • 1935
A newly married couple returns to a gloomy family mansion where wealth, fear, and old grudges fill the halls. When death follows, Ellery Queen faces a gothic puzzle of inheritance, hidden truths, and a legend called t...
- 20
Book 20:The Spanish Cape Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1935
A killing at a wealthy estate leaves behind a trail of flirtations, cover stories, and a mysterious Spanish cape that keeps turning up at the worst moments. Ellery Queen works through a crowded cast to find the one li...
- 23
Book 23:Halfway House
Ellery Queen • 1936
A man with a double life is found murdered, and the people who knew him can’t agree on who he really was. Ellery Queen peels back false identities and tangled relationships, using small physical details to expose a ca...
- 24
Book 24:The Door Between
Ellery Queen • 1936
A celebrated novelist is murdered, yet the evidence points in contradictory directions, as if the crime happened in two places at once. Ellery Queen follows a trail of motive and misdirection until the “door between”...
- 27
Book 27:The Four of Hearts
Ellery Queen • 1938
Two Hollywood legends die in a case laced with glamour, jealousy, and a set of playing-card clues. Ellery Queen traces the victims’ shared past and the small betrayals around them, trying to learn who dealt the fatal...
- 28
Book 28:The Devil to Pay
Ellery Queen • 1938
A Hollywood power figure is killed in a way that looks theatrical, right down to the weapon and the bizarre residue it leaves behind. Ellery Queen navigates studio politics and personal grudges to show how the murder...
- 30
Book 30:The Dragon's Teeth / The Virgin Heiresses
Ellery Queen • 1939
Ellery Queen is pulled into a case involving hidden motives and a fortune that draws the wrong kind of attention. As deaths and deceptions pile up, he has to sort real identities from invented ones and find the meanin...
- 31
Book 31:The Penthouse Mystery
Ellery Queen • 1941
A murder in a luxurious penthouse puts Ellery Queen among wealthy suspects who all have reasons to lie. With the police watching every move, he has to explain how the killer struck and why a seemingly minor detail was...
- 33
Book 33:The Perfect Crime
Elle Gray • 2024
In New Orleans, sex workers begin disappearing, leaving behind only a pair of shoes tied with a red bow on neatly made beds. With no bodies and no forensic trail, Blake Wilder must hunt a predator who seems to commit...
- 34
Book 34:Calamity Town
Ellery Queen • 1942
Ellery Queen comes to the small town of Wrightsville for a society wedding that collapses into scandal and a suspicious death. As neighbors take sides and the case turns into a public spectacle, he digs into family se...
- 35
Book 35:The Perfect Crime
Ellery Queen • 1942
Use the reading order above to move through the series in the intended sequence.
- 37
Book 37:There Was an Old Woman / The Quick and the Dead
Ellery Queen • 1943
In Wrightsville, a wealthy matriarch presides over a family as tangled as her fortune. When murders begin to echo a nursery rhyme pattern, Ellery Queen has to spot the hidden logic quickly, before the killer finishes...
- 39
Book 39:The Murderer is a Fox
Ellery Queen • 1945
A respected Wrightsville family is shaken when an old murder begins to echo into the present. Ellery Queen follows the trail through reputations, buried guilt, and wartime scars, looking for the “fox” hiding behind a...
- 41
Book 41:Ten Days' Wonder
Ellery Queen • 1948
A young man’s blackouts and half-remembered fears turn terrifying when a murder enters the picture. With only days to connect scattered memories and unsettling clues, Ellery Queen races to identify the one person who...
- 43
Book 43:Cat of Many Tails
Ellery Queen • 1949
New York is gripped by a strangler who seems to pick victims at random, turning the city jumpy and cruel. Ellery Queen and Inspector Queen search for patterns in the chaos, hunting the tiny clue that turns fear into a...
- 45
Book 45:Double, Double / The Case of the Seven Murders
Ellery Queen • 1950
Back in Wrightsville, a string of killings takes on a ritual, storybook feel, as if someone is following a deadly script. Ellery Queen has to cut through superstition and community secrets to find the ordinary motive...
- 47
Book 47:The Origin of Evil
Ellery Queen • 1951
A comfortable life is disrupted by anonymous “gifts” that feel more like threats, and the campaign escalates into murder. Ellery Queen tracks down who is orchestrating the cruelty, and why the victim’s past is the rea...
- 49
Book 49:The King is Dead
Ellery Queen • 1952
A prominent man begins receiving warnings that he’s marked for death, and the threats grow more specific by the day. Ellery Queen investigates a circle of partners, rivals, and family members, trying to learn who is p...
- 52
Book 52:The Scarlet Letters
Ellery Queen • 1953
A trail of taunting letters and staged clues drags Ellery Queen into a case where the truth keeps changing shape. As suspects shift their stories and motives multiply, he has to decide which “scarlet letter” belongs t...
- 54
Book 54:The Glass Village
Ellery Queen • 1954
In a small town rattled by a killing, suspicion spreads faster than evidence and an outsider becomes an easy answer. Ellery Queen investigates the crime while watching a community’s fear harden into certainty, and the...
- 56
Book 56:Inspector Queen's Own Case
Ellery Queen • 1957
With Ellery offstage, Inspector Richard Queen leads the investigation when a puzzling crime lands in his lap. Relying on experience and stubborn police work, he has to sort staged evidence from the real motive before...
- 58
Book 58:The Finishing Stroke
Ellery Queen • 1958
A long-buried incident from a country-house gathering resurfaces decades later, when a death forces old secrets into the open. Ellery Queen rewinds events to a single night, searching for the missing “finishing stroke...
- 60
Book 60:Queens Full
Ellery Queen • 1960
A full sampler of Ellery Queen crime writing, mixing classic mysteries with shorter, puzzle-driven pieces. It’s built for readers who like clever setups, clean solutions, and that satisfying moment when a small clue s...
- 62
Book 62:Dead Man's Tale
Ellery Queen • 1961
A lawyer’s will leaves everything to a convicted killer on death row, and the fallout turns into a frantic manhunt. As the prisoner’s lovers and enemies close in, the chase becomes a lethal puzzle of loyalty, greed, a...
- 64
Book 64:Death Spins the Platter
Ellery Queen • 1962
A late-night disc jockey is murdered and a missing record seems tied to the motive. The suspects range from performers to powerful executives, each with something to gain. The investigation has to separate show-busine...
- 65
Book 65:The Player On Other Side
Ellery Queen • 1953
Use the reading order above to move through the series in the intended sequence.
- 68
Book 68:Kill as Directed
Ellery Queen • 1963
A doctor’s risky affair and a suspicious death pull him into a web of blackmail and organized crime. When a corpse turns up in his locked apartment, every choice looks guilty. To clear himself, he has to follow orders...
- 69
Book 69:Murder with a Past
Ellery Queen • 1963
A killing that looks like an old score settled forces the investigation to dig into buried history and carefully hidden identities. As witnesses remember different versions of the same events, the truth hinges on what...
- 71
Book 71:Four Men Called John
Ellery Queen • 1964
On a college campus, one woman’s complicated social life and a string of men named John collide with blackmail and murder. As the story grows stranger, the case becomes a test of who is lying, and which “John” matters...
- 72
Book 72:And on the Eighth Day
Ellery Queen • 1964
Ellery Queen stumbles upon an isolated community that seems cut off from the modern world, and then death strikes inside its boundaries. With few outsiders and many secrets, he has to untangle faith, power, and fear t...
- 73
Book 73:Ellery Queen's Lethal Black Book
Ellery Queen • 1965
A dark, varied collection of crime and mystery pieces published under the Ellery Queen name. Expect clever plots, sharp twists, and stories chosen for readers who like suspense that stays focused on motive, method, an...
- 75
Book 75:The Fourth Side of the Triangle
Ellery Queen • 1965
A love triangle turns lethal, and the geometry of motive becomes the puzzle. Ellery Queen traces how jealousy and self-justification can make a crime look inevitable, until the “fourth side” appears and changes everyt...
- 80
Book 80:A Study in Terror
Ellery Queen • 1966
Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson confront the Whitechapel murders as Jack the Ripper haunts London. Blending famous characters with grim stakes, this Victorian thriller follows Holmes through clues, suspects, and danger...
- 81
Book 81:Losers, weepers
Ellery Queen • 1966
A man thinks he has a clean break and a bag of cash, until a sudden accident and a misunderstanding turn him into a fugitive. Hunted by police and criminals alike, he has to find the truth fast, before his luck runs o...
- 82
Book 82:Shoot The Scene
Ellery Queen • 1966
A woman is hired to play the role of a perfect girlfriend, and the fake romance turns real enough to get dangerous. When kidnapping and murder enter the picture, she has to keep acting, while figuring out who is using...
- 83
Book 83:The Madman Theory
Ellery Queen • 1966 • 1 recommendation
A brutal shooting in a state park leaves a dead man, a missing weapon, and a list of suspects with reasons to snap. Investigator Omar Collins works through family secrets, jealousies, and local grudges to learn whose...
- 85
Book 85:Face to Face
Ellery Queen • 1967 • 1 recommendation
A tense crime story built around confrontation and identity, where one meeting can change everything. As the investigation tightens and alibis collapse, the characters are forced to face the truth directly, and someon...
- 89
Book 89:Q.E.D. Queen's Experiments in Detection
Ellery Queen • 1968
A collection of short Ellery Queen mysteries designed as brain-teasers. Each case lays out the clues plainly, invites you to solve it, and then walks through the logic step by step. Perfect for quick reads and armchai...
- 90
Book 90:House of Brass
Ellery Queen • 1968
Use the reading order above to move through the series in the intended sequence.
- 91
Book 91:The Devil's Cook
Ellery Queen • 1968
A man is found dead, and the suspects include an angry husband, a lover with something to lose, and people circling an inheritance. As motives collide and a kidnapping complicates the trail, the investigation has to f...
- 93
Book 93:Cop Out
Ellery Queen • 1969
A patrolman makes one bad decision during a payroll robbery, and the consequences turn deadly. When criminals take his daughter hostage, he’s forced into a desperate race between duty and family, with a murderer ready...
- 95
Book 95:Ellery Queen's Poetic Justice
Ellery Queen • 1970
A themed collection of crime and mystery stories where wrongdoing meets consequences. Curated under the Ellery Queen banner, it offers a mix of classic and modern voices, twist endings, and cases that hinge on motive...
- 96
Book 96:The Last Woman in His Life
Ellery Queen • 1970
A murder case turns into a deeper look at one man’s relationships and the women around him, past and present. Ellery Queen follows the trail through love, resentment, and betrayal, trying to learn who decided the “las...
- 98
Book 98:A Fine and Private Place
Ellery Queen • 1971
A medical examiner is found dead in the morgue, a crime scene where almost everyone has a reason to be calm and a reason to lie. Ellery Queen traces a chain of grudges and secrets toward a quiet, unsettling solution.
- 100
Book 100:Blow Hot Blow Cold
Ellery Queen • 1974
A town is rattled by sudden deaths that feel like an epidemic, until a brutal stabbing makes murder impossible to ignore. With suspects ranging from spouses to doctors and friends, the investigation has to decide whet...
- 101
Book 101:The House of Brass
Ellery Queen • 1968
A young woman’s death sets off an investigation steeped in secrets, quiet obsessions, and people who know more than they admit. With Inspector Queen taking the lead, the case leans on patient police work, and the slow...
- 102
Book 102:Ellery Queen, Master Detective
Ellery Queen • 2020
A selection of Ellery Queen mysteries that highlights the classic formula: fair clues, sharp logic, and solutions that click. Expect puzzle-forward cases, brisk storytelling, and that familiar invitation to pause, thi...
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Ellery Queen Detective FAQ
What is the best order to read the Ellery Queen Detective series?
The recommended reading order is the numbered order shown on this page, starting with The Roman Hat Mystery.
How many books are in the Ellery Queen Detective series?
There are 55 books currently listed in the Ellery Queen Detective series on GurusReads.
Where should I start with the Ellery Queen Detective series?
New readers should start with The Roman Hat Mystery, the first book in the reading order.
Is the Ellery Queen Detective series complete?
Based on the publication years we have, the series appears possibly ongoing and spans releases from 1929 to 2024.