The Siamese Twin Mystery

Foreword

As the keeper of Ellery Queen’s conscience, as it were, I have long felt it my duty so to annoy and shame him as to make him get down in type, between the usual pasteboard covers, the story of his fascinating investigation many years ago on that isolated peak of iniquity known as Arrow Mountain — not, I hasten to explain, in Darien, but in those more indigenous mountains to the north, the Tepees, in the heart of the ancient Indian country.

In many ways it is a remarkable story; not only because of its strange locale, the peculiarity of at least two of its characters, and the melodic theme of fire which ran through it like a Wagnerian leitmotif; but also because it represents, for the first time among Mr. Queen’s published adventures, an investigation conducted wholly without benefit of official interference. For with the exception of his father, Inspector Richard Queen, the scene was utterly unencumbered by the customary impedimenta of murder cases — detectives, police, medical examiners, fingerprint men, ballistics experts, et al.

How this came about in a country like ours, wherein mere suspicion is sufficient to bring a brigade of heavy-footed sleuths tramping over the scene of a crime, is one of the most interesting elements of a story crammed with surprises. I wish you joy of it.

J. J. McC.

Claremont, N.H.

July 1933