The Dutch Shoe Mystery: A Problem in Deduction

New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. Very Good+. 1931. 7th printing. Hardcover. (lacking the original dust jacket, but encased in a professionally-made facsimile reproduction of same; see 2nd image posted with this listing) [a good sound copy with only minor wear to a few points at the edges and extremities, the original (1931) owner's name (in pencil) on the front endpaper, along with a later owner's name plus date & place of purchase and a brief comment (all in ink)]. An early printing (from the original publisher, not a reprint house) of the third Ellery Queen mystery, in which Inspector Richard Queen and his mystery-writing son Ellery are called upon to solve the murder of an eccentric millionaress who has been murdered while in a diabetic coma in a hospital, about to undergo surgery. The printing history on the copyright page reveals that the book had already had two printings before its September 1931 publication date, and had already gone into its seventh printing (this one) by the beginning of December -- testament to the enormous success achieved by the Queen mysteries pretty much right out of the gate (and justifying the publisher's blurb quoting the London Times's assessment of Ellery Queen as "the logical successor to Sherlock Holmes." (It's also interesting to note that the publisher was still presenting the author as a man of mystery: their jacket blurb begins "Who is 'Ellery Queen'?" I guess it was a better marketing ploy than acknowledging that EQ was a pair of twentysomething cousins from Brooklyn.) This book was loosely adapted for the 1941 Columbia film ELLERY QUEEN AND THE MURDER RING, one of a series of programmers in which Ellery was played by Ralph Bellamy (later by William Gargan) and his father Richard by Charley Grapewin. NOTE again that this book bears a FACSIMILE dust jacket, to serve the dual purpose of protecting the book from further wear and enhancing its appearance on the shelf; its presence has not been factored in to our pricing. .