That is what Ellery Queen has been called, and from tens of thousands of Queen fans, readers, and radio listeners, comes a roar of approval. Here are eleven of the slick, tricky young investigator's most amazing adventures, each one an appetizing snack for the gourmet at the table of thrills, action, deduction.

• ...The African Traveler (original story)
• ...The Hanging Acrobat    (Mystery, 5/34 as "The Girl on the Trapeze")
• ...The One Penny Black (Great Detective Stories, 4/33)
• ...The Bearded Lady (Mystery, 8/34 as "The Sinister Beard")
• ...The Three Lame Men (Mystery, 4/34)
• ...The Invisible Lover (Mystery, 9/34 as "Four Men Loved a Woman")
• ...The Teakwood Case
                                 (Mystery, 5/33 as "The Affair of the Gallant Bachelor")
• ..."The Two-Headed Dog" (Mystery, 6/34)
• ...The Glass-Domed Clock (Mystery League,10/33)
• ...The Seven Black Cats  (Mystery, 10/34 as "The Black Cats Vanished")
• ...The Mad Tea-Party (Redbook, 10/34)

All titles begin with "The Adventure of...." Short stories originally appeared in Redbook, Mystery, Great Detective Stories, and Mystery League. 

Although a series of short-stories still an intro by JJMcC is provided. "EQ's early short stories (1933 - 1935) are notable for the substance and complexity of their plots. EQ's first short story, "The One Penny Black" (1933) and "The Glass Domed Clock" (1933), share some common features. Both deal with dealers in precious objects (stamps and gems, respectively), and form a portrait of the world of collectors, anticipating The Chinese Orange Mystery. Both have an ethnic character, the first from Germany, the second from Czarist Russia. Both have a plot two levels deep, where Ellery unearths first a main plot, and then another behind it. The first story is weaker; the second is a gem that starts EQ's interest in dying messages. The early stories shows signs of influence from Morley's The Haunted Bookshop (1919) and Doyle's "The Blue Carbuncle".

"The Teakwood Case" (1933) is a quintessential early EQ, investigate a situation in-depth puzzler. It adopts the same approach as such novels as The French Powder Mystery (1930). Ellery learns more, then deduces some more, then gets deeper in investigation, precipitating more things happening, followed by more deductions... The chain of deductions ultimately becomes very satisfying. The story also shows EQ's interest in symmetric patterns. "The Two-Headed Dog" (1934) is a combination puzzle plot and 'Nancy Drew type' adventure story (ghost and treasure at sinister cabin). The mystery solution is unveiled at the end, Agatha Christie style, without the sort of intermediate deductions of "The Teakwood Case". This story is quite entertaining, with good New England atmosphere, and its solution is fairly clever.
"The Hanging Acrobat" (1934) is poor, aside from some vaudeville lore; it reads as if EQ were trying to add some spice to his tales to increase their saleability, an experiment he did not repeat, although he came close with the perversity of "The Bleeding Portrait" (1937). Some of the best tales in the collection are the last. "The Seven Black Cats" (1934) is very clever. "The Mad Tea Party" (1934) is a classic of misdirection. EQ picked it as his best short story; after Agatha Christie's "The Affair at the Bungalow", it is the subtlest and most deceptive of all detective short stories. It was made into a superb and faithful TV show, as an episode of the 1975 Jim Hutton Ellery Queen TV series." (Michael E.Grost)