Ellery Queen, or whoever is writing in his name, does an exceptional job of raising the level of anticipation of a prospective reader in his foreword to this collection of ten Stanley Ellin short stories, and I think that cover by Michael Trevithick also assists. Queen begins by discussing the excitement each member of EQMM's editorial team would feel whenever they learnt that an interesting story sent into their office was the work of an unpublished writer, with the pleasure of reading amplified by the thrill of discovery. It was in such a spirit that they received Stanley Ellin's first story The Specialty of the House in 1946, and while Queen asserts that the story itself was unforgettable, he also notes that he was never given the opportunity to forget it. Readers of his magazine would approach him for years afterwards to mention the story and encourage him to find another in its league. Continued