The Dragon's Teeth [Audiobook, Unabridged] [Audio Cassette]

Ellery Queen (Author), Blain Fairman (Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1995

Eccentric multimillionaire Cadmus Cole hires Ellery Queen to investigate a case but won't say what it is. When Cole dies mysteriously at sea, Queen and his partner, Beau Rummell, must navigate a thicket of complications that includes a $50 million legacy, two beautiful, avaricious women vying for it, and even a phony Ellery Queen. This confection, now available in audio form, was first published in 1939.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

In this detective story, Ellery Queen finds himself investigating the death of an eccentric millionaire who has hired Ellery's firm to find his heirs. A penniless actress and a mysterious European woman are transformed into heiresses with some very strange strings attached, including the requirement that they never marry. As Ellery's partner becomes increasingly attracted to the actress, and her life is repeatedly threatened, Ellery must get to the truth behind all the secrets. Naturally, this is all very dated, but in a charming way; one is jolted into remembering what "I made love to her" meant then! Blain Fairman has a pleasant, slightly high narrative voice and establishes characters with tonal changes. His diction is precise and clear, and he works a silky quality into his women's voices, which makes up for their being just a bit high-pitched at times. He imbues both Ellery and his partner with a down-to-earth directness. An engaging, comfortable mystery suited to large fiction collections. Melody A. Moxley, Rowan P.L., Salisbury, NC
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From AudioFile

Audio Partners deserves high praise for pulling together its catalog of semi-forgotten gems from the Golden Age of detective fiction. Among these is Blain Fairman's reading of Queen's 1939 novel about the young detective's search for true and worthy heirs to the fortune of a missing tycoon. The story is a light and amusing piece of pre-War frivolity, with Mr. Queen and his new partner, Beau Rummell, chasing clues, uncovering deceptions, and falling under the spell of gorgeous dames. Fairman matches the novel's peppery banter with his own and amusingly dandy, almost effete, style. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Chivers Audio Books; Unabridged edition (July 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0745168612
• ISBN-13: 978-0745168616
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,610,296 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Homicide with humor in the Queen style, October 4, 2002

By 

F. Behrens "Frank Behrens" (Keene, NH USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dragon's Teeth (Audio Cassette)

What I like best about the Ellery Queen novels and short stories is the sense of fun with which they are infused. Here we have the usual tangle of contested unfair wills, dubious identities, attacks on a lovely lady who is then accused of murder herself, and all the while Ellery's keeping one step ahead of them all.

Now you can hear one of the goofiest of them all for yourself on the Audio Partners audiotape edition of "The Dragon's Teeth" (61197), a complete reading by actor Blain Fairman, whose voice nicely matches the lightweight tone of the text. There are six cassettes with a running time of 8 hours, 14 minutes. I will not go into the plot, because most mystery fans want to come in fresh, but I have to explain that the title refers to the myth of Cadmus sowing the teeth of the dragon to raise fighting men. Since an important character is named Cadmus Cole, Ellery draws the parallel between the situations; but truth to tell, it is a weak one and plays no part in the solution. I thought I had pinpointed the real murder halfway through, but I was wrong! Well, that's what makes books like this one so much fun.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Ellery's Transition Period: Eccentric Millionaires and Romance Abound, November 18, 2007

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Dragon's Teeth (Paperback)

Ellery Queen's early period, say 1929 thru 1935, introduced Ellery in such stories as The Greek Coffin Mystery, The Egyptian Cross Mystery, The Siamese Twin Mystery, and The Spanish Cape Mystery. This younger Ellery is perhaps overly intellectual, but his solutions to these eccentric crimes are simply dazzling.

The Dragon's Teeth (1939) dates from a transition period, roughly 1936 thru 1939, in which we readers frequently encounter more humor as well as some romance (often humorously cast). Also, reclusive, eccentric millionaires have a tendency to appear.

In The Dragon's Teeth Ellery's has established a detective agency (that's right, Ellery has gone commercial). His partner, humorously named Beau Rummell, complicates matters by becoming romantically entangled with an attractive, young murder suspect. The mystery itself centers around a Howard Hughes-like millionaire hidden away for twenty years at sea on his yacht. Despite the light-hearted humor, The Dragon's Teeth is first and foremost a mystery puzzle and won't disappoint Ellery's fans.

The Dragon's Teeth (1939) is not hard to find. I have two paperback editions. The older is a somewhat yellowed, 1971 reprint by Signet Book. My newer copy is a 1980 printing, a Signet Double Mystery containing both The Dragon's Teeth and Calamity Town (1942).

If you enjoy this particular tale, you will probably also like other Ellery mysteries from the same period.

In Halfway House (1936) one of Ellery's old college chums, now a struggling lawyer, becomes enamored with the prime suspect in a murder investigation.

Conversely, a friend of Ellery's in The Devil to Pay (1937) is now the suspect; he is in love with the daughter of yet another suspect. An unethical financier is murdered with an Italian dueling sword of the seventeenth century.

And unexpectedly, Ellery himself develops a romantic interest in a popular Hollywood gossip columnist in The Four of Hearts (1938). Ellery encounters an aging, mean-spirited millionaire living on an isolated ridge in the desert outside Los Angeles.