The Finishing Stroke, Ellery Queen
The Finishing Stroke, Ellery Queen
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
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The Finishing Stroke

Author: Ellery Queen

Narrator: Mark Peckham

Unabridged: 9 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/01/2014

Synopsis

It's Christmastime, and young Ellery Queen has been invited to spend the holidays at a house party. During the eleven nights before Christmas, a series of anonymous gifts begin to arrive, each with increasing menace. Ellery tries to discover their source and meaning but to no avail. Finally, on the twelfth night, things turn deadly. Unable to solve the murder, Ellery returns to it decades later when he happens upon his diary. Will he finally be able to deduce the identity of the killer?

About Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen is a pseudonym used by two American cousins from Brooklyn—Daniel Nathan, alias Frederic Dannay (1905–1982), and Manford (Emanuel) Lepofsky, alias Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971)—to write detective fiction. In a successful series of novels that covered forty-two years, Ellery Queen served as both the authors’ name and that of the detective-hero. The cousins also cofounded and directed Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential English crime-fiction magazines of the twentieth century. They were given the Grand Master Award for achievements in the field of the mystery story by the Mystery Writers of America in 1961.

About Mark Peckham

Mark Peckham is an actor and director based in Rhode Island. In addition to working with Trinity Rep, Virginia Stage Co., and many Boston-area theaters, he was the voice of Joseph Smith in the award-winning PBS documentary American Prophet with Gregory Peck.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Victoria on July 27, 2010

The premise is fantastic: Ellery Queen couldn't solve a mystery for almost thirty years, although he knew the answer all along. The writing is a joy, as always. Ellery is charming and hilarious. When told a man kissed his fiancee to avoid answering her pointed question, he says, "At the risk of being......more

Goodreads review by Bev on December 13, 2014

The Finishing Stroke is devilish little classic mystery story set primarily at Christmas-time, but bookended by a prologue set twenty-some years prior to the main events and a wrap-up that takes place over twenty years later. The set-up: In 1905, John Sebastian, Sr. takes his pregnant wife for a New......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on December 01, 2024

The Finishing Stroke is a bit of a cheat, since it requires specialized knowledge to solve the question of whodunnit. Ellery Queen was able to follow the clues, but I think a general reader would not have the expertise required. (I am not specifying the profession as that may be a spoiler alert, and......more

Goodreads review by Alessandra on September 01, 2023

Non sono una grande fan di Queen perché detesto il personaggio ma questo romanzo mi è piaciuto davvero molto. Giallo pulito, con una bellissima atmosfera e un Ellery meno borioso e insopportabile del solito. Consigliato a tutti gli appassionati.......more

Goodreads review by Steve on December 23, 2012

It won't pass the Raymond Chandler criteria -- that stories should be about real people behaving the way real people behave -- but it does rise above some of the early Queen mysteries, notably The Dutch Shoe Mystery, that I have read lately. In "The Finishing Stroke," the killer at least has some ac......more

Quotes

“Intricate and fancy clues [are] keyed to the twelve days of Christmas…Tricks—and a treat—for the Queen’s quorum.” Kirkus Reviews

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