This is the second collection of stories from Crippen & Landru to feature the works of Richard Webb and Hugh Wheeler, who were better known under their three pseudonyms, Q. Patrick, Patrick Quentin, and Jonathan Stagge.

These stories, most of which were written between 1946 and 1955 primarily for This Week and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, feature Lt. Timothy Trant, the New York homicide detective. Trant appeared in three novels early in the careers of the two men as works by Q Patrick, and would later return at the end of the Peter Duluth series under the Patrick Quentin name in Black Widow, where Duluth is the main suspect.

As Webb’s health declined, most of these short works (and the later novels,) would be written by Wheeler alone. This is the first time that many of these stories have seen print, since their original publication over 50 years ago.

This edition contains an introduction by mystery historian Curtis Evans. 

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