Ellery loves to dig up historical figures and insert them into mysteries. George Washington appeared in “The Adventure of the Half-Disme” (1947), and Captain Kidd’s treasure was in “The Adventure of the Needle’s Eye”(1951). And now it’s Abraham Lincoln and Edgar Allan Poe in this case which has Lincoln suggesting a hiding place for a book both he and Poe have signed. Or did they? Could the whole thing be a cruel hoax, and the starving heiress cheated of her only real inheritance? Fortunately, the cousins also enjoyed stamp collecting!
Also, Ellery makes mention of Howard Haycraft’s 1941 analysis, Murder for Pleasure, and so I’ll do the same.
Reading Ellery Queen 