On Christmas day, a man has been murdered and crucified with his head removed, creating a 'T' shape that is confounding investigators. Ellery comes down from New York and becomes fascinated with the crime. But nothing comes of it so he goes home and forgets about it until six months later when another body, murdered in the same fashion, shows up.
Nudist colonies and foreigners and Egyptologist lunatics, oh my!

This is my first novel where the author challenge readers explicitly to guess the culprit. And coincidentally this novel is my first Ellery Queen's novel that I've ever read.

After finish the book, I noticed the first publishing year was 1932! The trick was so fresh for me, this is one of mystery whodunnit novel that highly influence my taste.

Still a fun read, but the overbearingly superior attitude of the male characters towards the women got a little grating at times - surprisingly so, because Elley Queen has written some feisty girls who can definitely stand up for themselves. But not in this book.
This was also the first Queen where I guessed the murderer correctly, which took a bit of the fun out of it; and some of the deductions and leaps of logic were a little too drastic and incredible. All in all a solid mystery and I did enjoy it, but not the best Ellery Queen I've read.