The King is Dead

Cast of Characters

INSPECTOR QUEEN

Old war horse of Centre Street. Only orders from Washington could have persuaded him to leave New York

ELLERY QUEEN

He was badly miscast as fall guy for a murderer

ABEL BENDIGO

The King’s “prime minister”. Deceptively undistinguished and blandly uncooperative

COLONEL SPRING

The gold-braided head of the King’s private Gestapo

KING KANE BENDIGO

Munitions tycoon and monarch of Bendigo Island. Handsome, ruthless — but not invulnerable

JUDAH BENDIGO

The third brother. An ingenuous lush who specialized in Segonzac V.S.O.P.

KARLA BENDIGO

A Technicolor beauty who could have posed for Titian. Altogether, a fitting queen for the King

MAX

The King’s “court jester’. A troglodyte with only one loyalty

Dr. STORM

Surgeon-General of Bendigo Island, whose conversation ran to the anatomically bawdy

IMMANUEL PEABODY

Chief legal adviser to the King. Lean and swarthy, with a catty smile

Dr. AKST

A tired young man who, according to Karla, spent his time fiddling with atoms