The American Gun Mystery by Ellery Queen

The rodeo had come to New York City and had brought murder along with it. Wild Bill Grant was now head of the world's greatest rodeo. Starring in this rodeo was Buck Horne. Buck had been the star of silent movies about the wild west, but now Buck was 60 and his career was on the decline. He hoped to make a comeback with his starring role in the rodeo. He had brought his daughter, Kit, who was a hard riding and fast shooting star of the movies. Wild Bill had a son, Curly Grant, who was also in the show and was in love with Kit Horne.

Ellery Queen and his father Inspector Queen were at the opening performance of the rodeo in the Colosseum. They were in a box with Tony Mars who was a promoter of sports events such as this rodeo and also boxing matches. Also there was Mara Gay, a movie star, and her husband Julian Hunter who owned night clubs.

Then the entertainment began with Wild Bill Grant riding into the center of the Colosseum to announce the beginning of the show. He was followed by Buck Horne riding in followed by 40 men and women riders who were all shooting off their revolvers. Then Buck collapsed in the saddle, died, and fell off of his horse into the dirt. The riders following him could not stop, and their horses ran over his body. Ellery and Inspector ran down to take a look at the body. Examination of the body showed that Buck had been shot. The police soon arrived, and prevented any of the twenty thousand people in the Colosseum from leaving.The murder weapon could not be found even though twenty thousand people and all the members of the show were searched.

The search for the murder weapon as well as the search for the murderer kept Ellery Queen and his father very busy. The search would branch out into the investigation of gambling and the prize fight which was held in the Colosseum after the murder. I found the solution of the crime interesting but a bit improbable. The modern (for the time) technologies used in the solution of the crime such as the microscopic examination of bullets, and the use of a film of the shooting provided added interest to hunt for the murderer.

This book was published in 1933, and was the sixth in the Ellery Queen series which were written by Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee. It was the fourth in the series which would become the Dell Mapbacks, but the first edition had no map on the back. It was later reissued with a map on the back.