Explore "The French Powder Mystery" by Ellery Queen on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"_Parenthetically speaking. in numerous cases the sole difference between success and failure in the detection of crime is a sort of... osmotic reluctance (on the part of the detective's mental perceptions) to seep through the cilia of_ WHAT SEEMS TO BE _and reach the vital stream of_ WHAT ACTUALLY IS. " -- From A PRESCRIPTION FOR CRIME, _By_ Dr. Luigi Pinna
They sat about the old walnut table in the Queen apartment -- five oddly assorted individuals. There was District Attorney Henry Sampson, a slender man with bright eyes. Beside Sampson glowered Salvatore Fiorelli, head of the Narcotic Squad, a burly Italian with a long black scar on his right cheek. Red-haired Timothy Cronin, Sampson's assistant, was there. And Inspector Richard Queen and Ellery Queen sat shoulder to shoulder with vastly differing facial expressions. The old man sulked, bit the end of his mustache. Ellery stared vacantly at Fiorelli's cicatrix.