The Hollywood Murders

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THE PLEASURES OF READING MYSTERY STORIES
People read mystery stories for a variety of reasons. Some read them to put themselves to sleep, others to keep awake; some to solve the puzzles they present, others for the excitement of the chase. But nearly everybody reads mystery stories today for one prime quality— they are good entertainment.
Perhaps the most striking illustration of the place the "whodunit" has come to occupy in modern life occurred in London during the great blitz of 1940. Nightly, at the entrances to the fetid underground shelters, portable "raid libraries" were set up to supply—^by popular demand—mystery stories and nothing else.
I like, too, the suggestion of a distinguished mystery story addict, Mr. Somerset Maugham, who feels that modern readers have turned in such numbers to this form of fiction because here alone can they always be sure of a novel which tells a story. And it was another famous English writer, Philip Guedalla, who was quoted by Dorothy... Tovább

Fülszöveg

THE PLEASURES OF READING MYSTERY STORIES
People read mystery stories for a variety of reasons. Some read them to put themselves to sleep, others to keep awake; some to solve the puzzles they present, others for the excitement of the chase. But nearly everybody reads mystery stories today for one prime quality— they are good entertainment.
Perhaps the most striking illustration of the place the "whodunit" has come to occupy in modern life occurred in London during the great blitz of 1940. Nightly, at the entrances to the fetid underground shelters, portable "raid libraries" were set up to supply—^by popular demand—mystery stories and nothing else.
I like, too, the suggestion of a distinguished mystery story addict, Mr. Somerset Maugham, who feels that modern readers have turned in such numbers to this form of fiction because here alone can they always be sure of a novel which tells a story. And it was another famous English writer, Philip Guedalla, who was quoted by Dorothy Sayers as calling the detective story "the sport of noble minds."
Certainly the mystéry story has never lacked for eminent readers. Presidents Wood row Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, General George C. Marshall, and Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin are just a few of the heads of state who have turned to mysteries for relaxation and stimulation in hours of stress and crisis. In fact, the first famous mystery "fan" was no less a person than Abraham Lincoln, who was a staunch admirer of Edgar Allan Poe, the Father of the Detective Story. In an early biography, published in i860, William Dean Howells wrote that Lincoln "suffers no year to pass without a perusal" of Poe's tales of detection.
Today, of course, the mystery story is infinitely more varied than it was in Lincoln's or even Woodrow Wilson's time. Recognizing that all readers have their favorite types of mystery, it is the aim of the Dollar Mystery Guild to send its members a balanced diet of the best new mystery novels of every type; two each month, handsomely bound in individual volumes, and available at a price you will find it difficult to believe.
Why not tell your friends about the Dollar Mystery Guild.?
THE HOLLYWOOD MURDERS
An Omnibus of three Ellery Queen mysteries
For everyone who loves a mystery, especially an Ellery Queen mystery, here's a choice assortment—three thrillers set in glamorous Hollywood:
THE DEVIL TO PAY—"Solly Spaeth sat in the corner of the room, looking like a small fat boy who had been slapped without warning." He was very dead. Incriminating fingers pointed at his partner, Rhys Jardin, ex-millionaire and prominent Hollywood society man. Then Ellery Queen entered the picture, and things really started happening!
THE FOUR OF HEARTS—An extremely ingenious, intricate plot, set in fabulous Hollywood, where something is happening all the time. Ellery Queen gets involved with film capital screwballs, a broken engagement, and expertly solves the mystery of this uproarious story.
THE ORIGIN OF EVIL—A young girl visits Ellery Queen in Hollywood, says she is sure her father was murdered, and it all had something to do with a dead dog left on his doorstep. The detective finds himself involved in one of the most baiHing, singularly horrible patterns for murder, of his career.
Jacket design by Lester IL Kohs Vissza