203:, he was in Hollywood and about to meet studio boss Jacques Butcher. At the beginning of this novel, he does so. Butcher, who is engaged to starlet Bonnie Stuart, hires Queen to work on a screenplay about Bonnie's mother, film legend Blythe Stuart, and her long-running feud with fellow Hollywood veteran Jack Royle. The two were once sweethearts, but their estrangement was bitter, and the feud now extends to their respective children -- Bonnie Stuart and young actor Ty Royle.
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signals a change in the type of story told, moving away from the intricate puzzle mystery format which had been a hallmark of earlier novels, and takes him to
Hollywood, where he becomes involved with both screenwriting and romance. "It's fair to say that the Hollywood novels made a pleasant read,
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Surprisingly, Jack and Blythe agree to star in the film about their lives. Even more surprisingly, they suddenly rekindle their old romance and get married in front of fans at a Los
Angeles airfield. Then, amid huge publicity, they fly off toward a honeymoon island. But the biggest surprise comes a
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Ty and Bonnie vacillate between feuding and a sudden romantic interest, and Queen investigates the mysterious mailings of playing cards that may hold a clue about the killings. His suspicions fall upon the households of Jack and Blythe, and Ty and Bonnie become suspicious of each other. It's only
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when Queen learns the true meanings of the cards that he solves the case. In the process, he forms a romantic attachment with beautiful gossip columnist Paula Paris, whose agoraphobia keeps her confined to her palatial home, but who has a talent for uncovering secrets that may match Queen's own.
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but nothing more. ... Marvellously twisted plotting a throwback to the earlier Queens, with the final revelations fairly deducible from the clues."
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few hours later, when the newlyweds are found fatally poisoned aboard their plane. Queen must interrupt his script-writing to solve a murder case.
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Blood on the Stage, 1925-1950: Milestone Plays of Crime, Mystery, and
Detection, an Annotated Repertoire
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Amnon
Kabatchnik (2010). "The Four of Hearts Mystery (1949): William Rand (United States, 1911–1987)".
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197:At the end of the previous Ellery Queen novel,
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215:Literary significance & criticism
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252:Q.B.I.: A website on Ellery Queen
568:The Fourth Side of the Triangle
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302:the American detective story."
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173:that was published in 1938 by
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556:The Player on the Other Side
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592:The Last Woman in His Life
542:Inspector Queen's Own Case
407:The Chinese Orange Mystery
383:The Egyptian Cross Mystery
19:For the playing card, see
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359:The French Powder Mystery
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598:A Fine and Private Place
415:The Spanish Cape Mystery
399:The Siamese Twin Mystery
391:The American Gun Mystery
375:The Greek Coffin Mystery
625:Novels by Ellery Queen
471:There Was an Old Woman
367:The Dutch Shoe Mystery
562:And on the Eighth Day
479:The Murderer Is a Fox
351:The Roman Hat Mystery
620:1938 American novels
549:The Finishing Stroke
273:. pp. 764–768.
527:The Scarlet Letters
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27:The Four of Hearts
580:The House of Brass
511:The Origin of Evil
455:The Dragon's Teeth
447:The Four of Hearts
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519:The King Is Dead
487:Ten Days' Wonder
439:The Devil to Pay
431:The Door Between
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68:Ellery Queen
48:Ellery Queen
183:Los Angeles
177:. It is a
614:Categories
337:Novels by
239:References
91:Publisher
85:Whodunnit
71:mysteries
100:Gollancz
54:Language
586:Cop Out
58:English
600:(1971)
594:(1970)
588:(1969)
582:(1968)
576:(1967)
570:(1965)
564:(1964)
558:(1963)
552:(1958)
544:(1956)
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95:Stokes
64:Series
44:Author
225:canon
219:(See
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169:is a
132:Print
77:Genre
275:ISBN
113:1938
102:(UK)
97:(US)
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