The Scarlet Letters

1953 novel

For the 1850 Nathaniel Hawthorne novel, see The Scarlet Letter.

For other uses, see Scarlet Letter (disambiguation).

The Scarlet Letters

First US edition

Author| Ellery Queen
Country| United States
Language| English
Series| Ellery Queen mysteries
Genre| Mystery novel / Whodunnit
Publisher| Little, Brown (US)
Gollancz (UK)

Publication date

| 1953[1]
Media type| Print (hardback & paperback)
Preceded by| The King is Dead
Followed by| The Glass Village

The Scarlet Letters is an English language novel published in 1953 by American author Ellery Queen.[2] It is a mystery novel set primarily in New York City.

## Plot summary[edit]

Dirk and Martha Lawrence are apparently not the happiest couple in New York, despite her millions of dollars and his fairly successful mystery-writing career. Martha asks for a secretive meeting to get Ellery Queen's advice because Dirk's violent jealousy is causing problems in her life—but Dirk shows up suspecting the worst and punches Ellery into unconsciousness. Dirk apologizes the next day, telling the story of how his father had killed his mother's lover, thereby causing his over-reaction. Ellery's secretary and inamorata Nikki Porter urges him to stay involved in the situation and Nikki moves in with the Lawrences to keep an eye on things (and act as Dirk's secretary on a stalled book). Nikki soon reports that Martha actually is having a series of clandestine meetings with romantic actor Van Harrison. The meetings are arranged with innocuous envelopes that look like advertising, but with Martha's name and address written in scarlet typewriter ink. Also, the envelopes contain only a day, time and a sequential letter of the alphabet—a code that is soon linked to a New York Guidebook. By the time the meetings have progressed from "A" through to "W", Dirk has found out about the affair and followed Martha to Van's home in the suburb of Darien. He breaks in, confronts the pair and shoots them both, seriously wounding Martha, who nearly dies. Van Harrison has just enough time before he dies to leave a dying clue—using his own blood, he writes an "X", then a "Y" on the wall, and dies. Ellery must consider the significance of this dying message and finally solves it, just as Dirk's murder trial is about to conclude. After Ellery gets a private conversation with the judge, a criminal then receives justice.

## Literary significance and criticism[edit]

Further information: Ellery Queen

After numerous popular mystery novels, a radio program and a number of movies, the character of Ellery Queen was at this point firmly established. This novel is more frank about sexual matters than earlier Queen works (for instance, in 1942's Calamity Town, the possibility of extramarital sex is referred to entirely in euphemisms). The plot device of the "dying clue" had been used in Queen's short stories but this is the first novel that relies on such a device.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Bernard A. Drew. Literary Afterlife: The Posthumous Continuations of 325 Authors' Fictional Characters. McFarland. 2010. p. 132\. ISBN 978-0-7864-5721-2.
2. ^ Guy M. Townsend, Ellery Queen. The Mystery Fancier (Vol. 10 No. 3) Summer 1988. Wildside Press, LLC. 2010. p. 56\. ISBN 978-1-4344-0631-6.

## External links[edit]

* "Ellery Queen is the American detective story."

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Novels by Ellery Queen

* The Roman Hat Mystery (1929)
* The French Powder Mystery (1930)
* The Dutch Shoe Mystery (1931)
* The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932)
* The Egyptian Cross Mystery (1932)
* The American Gun Mystery (1933)
* The Siamese Twin Mystery (1933)
* The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934)
* The Spanish Cape Mystery (1935)
* Halfway House (1936)
* The Door Between (1937)
* The Devil to Pay (1938)
* The Four of Hearts (1938)
* The Dragon's Teeth (1939)
* Calamity Town (1942)
* There Was an Old Woman (1943)
* The Murderer Is a Fox (1945)
* Ten Days' Wonder (1948)
* Cat of Many Tails (1949)
* Double, Double (1950)
* The Origin of Evil (1951)
* The King Is Dead (1952)
* The Scarlet Letters (1953)
* The Glass Village (1954)
* Inspector Queen's Own Case (1956)
* The Finishing Stroke (1958)
* The Player on the Other Side (1963)
* And on the Eighth Day (1964)
* The Fourth Side of the Triangle (1965)
* Face to Face (1967)
* The House of Brass (1968)
* Cop Out (1969)
* The Last Woman in His Life (1970)
* A Fine and Private Place (1971)

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