CALAMITY TOWN
By
Snippets of family gossip keep Ellery Queen on tiptoes in typically American Wrightsville, where he is incognito-ing. Forewarned of attempts on bride's life, when murder occurs, Queen is fighting to protect his new friends when the young husband is put on trial. He throws himself to the lions to aid the youth, quits when the wife dies in childbirth and the youth suicides, and returns to patch up a romance with the true explanation of events. Novel of deduction rather than straight detection procedure.