Ellery Queen #2

When escaped convict Chuck Drake—a man bearing a personal vendetta against Ellery Queen—sets an elaborate trap at a widow's home, the detective walks straight into it. Drake's plan is devilishly simple: use Ellery as bait to lure the police into an impossible situation where they become his unwitting executioners. Now Ellery must outwit a desperate killer while staying alive long enough for his father and the authorities to unravel Drake's scheme.

When an armored truck guard calls in sick, private eye Sleepy Slade volunteers to fill in—though his legendary narcolepsy makes him an unlikely choice to stop a robbery. As the criminal Ratty Rattigan makes his move on the truck, Slade's peculiar talents prove surprisingly effective in this two-page tale of dozing defense.

During Chicago's crime wave of the early 1940s, petty thefts from apartment laundry machines plague the city—until a young thief named Blackie is caught red-handed. Rather than simply punish him, a wise judge challenges Blackie to find a way to make amends for his crimes. Blackie rises to the occasion with an ingenious invention that not only impresses his victims but transforms his life entirely.