The French Powder Mystery by Ellery Queen — Read

"_Oriental police set far smaller store by the criminal alibi than do Occidentals.... We know only too well what warped cunning is capable of... and prefer to probe emotions and instincts rather than crack down highly glazed stories. This is undoubtedly explained by the difference in psychology of the two racial strains.... The Oriental is notoriously more suspicious than the Occidental, dealing with fundamentals rather than superficials.... Where the Western world is inclined to shout a lusty_ BANZAI! _in acclamation of its more successful rogues, we cut off their ears, or put them in stocks for milder crimes, or behead them for major ones -- but always pointing out by example (with true Japanese subtlety, perhaps? ) the over-whelming ignominy of the punishment...._" -- From the Preface to the English edition of A THOUSAND LEAVES, _By_ Tamaka Hiero.

The hearth of the Queen domicile was housed in one of the West 87th Street's lingering brownstones. That the Queens chose to live among the unvarnished woods of a generation dead and gone was a commentary upon the powerful influence of son upon father. For Ellery, whose collection of well-used books, whose dilettante's knowledge of antiquities, whose love for the best of the past, over-whelmed his natural leaning toward the comforts of the modern age, stood firmly against the Inspector's groaning indictment of "dustiness and mustiness."