Wife or Death

A journalist accused of murdering his unfaithful wife searches for the real killer in this classic by a Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster. "Ellery Queen is the American detective story." —Anthony Boucher, author of Nine Times Nine Angel Denton's extramarital activities are the worst-kept secret in town. Jim Denton has endured the cuckold's horns for ages, but by midnight on Halloween he's finally fed up. Deserted at a masquerade ball, he takes refuge at the bar while his wife flirts her way up and down the dance floor in a costume so revealing she risks being arrested for indecency. Lightning strikes, the electricity goes out, and Denton overhears his wife planning a tryst with another man. The next morning, he finds a note saying that she's leaving him. And he never sees Angel alive again. A week later, the police find Angel in the woods, her once-beautiful body mangled by wild dogs. Everyone is sure Denton killed her, and to save his own neck, the desperate husband will have to find Angel's last lover—and take revenge.