Halfway across the room, Nikki stopped abruptly. From behind the desk portruded a leg. She stepped forward in mounting terror. Then she saw it all - the hand, the blood. Blood spilled all over the hand, the dressing gown, the carpet, the throat! She was trapped in a locked room with a dead man. Where was the key that would let her out of this house of terror?
The police believed pretty Nikki Porter had murdered John Braun, but Ellery set out to prove that she was innocent. Working alone, he matched his wits against a brilliantly clever criminal who twice stole the body of the murdered man from under the very nose of the police.

Loosely based on 'The Door Between', later re-issued as 'the Vanishing Corpse'.
Ellery wears a wristwatch, smokes a pipe, wears a hat and drives a fast Cadillac! He just finished a book and some allusions are made on 'The New Adventures of Ellery Queen'. He eve signes a copy for Sergeant Velie. There are also references to 'The Halfway House' in Trenton. His publisher is Jerry Ryan which has to take some criticism. He has silver-gray eyes, a clean-shaven American face, brown hair, broad shoulders and nice teeth. Some allusion are made on pince-nez. He introduces himself as 'private investigator, codenumber 666'
He still keeps a lead pipe as a souvenir to a solved murdercase.
We get to know Richard Queen telephonenumber: SP 7-3100.
The Queens housekeeper since 6 months is Annie, a smoking Dr.Samuel Prouty, married with children, still performs his duties.
NYPD: Flint and Ellery's dear friend Velie.
One of the 'first' encounters with the character of Nikki Porter. Some lookalike EQ books are mentioned 'the Persian Tapestry Mystery' (the National series continued) and the Mystery of the Feathered Hat (trials at authorship by Nikki Porter). Ellery is so smitten with Nikki that he makes a daring proposal to her at the fade out: "Will you be my...secretary?"!

On the Hudson, Gun Hill Avenue (Eastwards upstream), Spuyten Duyvil.
John Braun is murdered with a knife.
The story takes place from July 23.
No map, no challenge to the reader