
The Origin of Evil
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $17.16
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Fred Sullivan
-
By:
-
Ellery Queen
About this listen
Having escaped New York with the hopes of finishing his latest mystery novel in peace in Los Angeles, Ellery Queen is shocked when a knock on his door lands him right in the middle of yet another mystery.
Leander Hill, a prominent Hollywood jeweler, recently died of a heart attack after receiving a package containing a dead dog, a sight that literally frightened him to death. Hill's daughter is convinced the act was premeditated murder and enlists Queen's help to catch the killer. Now Queen must harness all of his skills to prevail over this unscrupulous mind.
©2014 Ellery Queen (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Roman Hat Mystery
- Ellery Queen, Book 1
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York City Theatre District provides the backdrop in this locked-room mystery, the first of many featuring Inspector Richard Queen and his son, Ellery Queen!
By: Ellery Queen
-
And on the Eighth Day
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1943, the war is raging, and sleuthing scribe Ellery Queen wants to do his bit. After a tortuous cross-country drive, he takes a job writing scripts for a Hollywood propaganda house - twelve hours a day of hack work that quickly turns his mind to jelly. After a few weeks, he is so worn down that he can type nothing but gibberish, and he decides to drive home. The trouble starts as soon as he reaches the desert.
-
-
Too absurd
- By Mary B. Wheeler on 06-27-21
By: Ellery Queen
-
QBI
- Queen's Bureau of Investigation
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Queen's Bureau of Investigation is now open for business - and in each department of this new enterprise Ellery finds ample opportunity to exercise the brilliant, ingenious, and at times startling talents of his crime-lab mind. For to the bureau come some of the most plaguey cases in Queen's career.
-
-
GOOD LISTEN
- By peter on 09-10-20
By: Ellery Queen
-
The House of Brass
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You are invited to a murder. That was how the invitations should have read when aged millionaire Hendrik Brass sent out his messages to six oddly assorted men and women who knew neither him nor each other. All arrived at the isolated Brass mansion, lured by the tantalizing promise of fabulous wealth. But from the moment the shining brass doors of the grotesquely constructed house swung shut behind them, they began to realize they had been enticed into playing parts in a monstrous joke - the joke of a twisted, brilliant mind…
-
-
Interesting but not great
- By Henry Maicki II on 04-25-16
By: Ellery Queen
-
Murder with a Past
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who killed Cox, the robber? Was it Ruth Tully, who visited Crandall Cox on the night of his death and who might have decided to quench a torrid past with a spray of bullets? What about Sandra Jean, the knock-'em-dead beauty who knew more than she was telling about the sudden demise of blackmailer Cox? Or had some past scandal driven lawyer Ollie Hurst and his wife, Norma, to claim the blackmailer's life? Dave Tully didn't know who the killer was, but if he didn't find out fast, the price of failure could be death....
By: Ellery Queen
-
The Tragedy of X
- The Drury Lane Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In New York City in the early 1930s, a man is poisoned on a crowded streetcar during rush hour. Everyone sees Longstreet die - but no one sees the killer. Inspector Thumm's few clues all lead up a blind alley. He finally seeks the aid of Drury Lane - retired Shakespearean actor, master of disguise, and amateur sleuth. Seated amid the splendor of the vast medieval halls of his castle on the Hudson, Drury Lane hears the story from the inspector.
-
-
Clever story but too drawn out
- By Eryn on 07-20-24
By: Ellery Queen
-
The Roman Hat Mystery
- Ellery Queen, Book 1
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Pete Cross
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The New York City Theatre District provides the backdrop in this locked-room mystery, the first of many featuring Inspector Richard Queen and his son, Ellery Queen!
By: Ellery Queen
-
And on the Eighth Day
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 6 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's 1943, the war is raging, and sleuthing scribe Ellery Queen wants to do his bit. After a tortuous cross-country drive, he takes a job writing scripts for a Hollywood propaganda house - twelve hours a day of hack work that quickly turns his mind to jelly. After a few weeks, he is so worn down that he can type nothing but gibberish, and he decides to drive home. The trouble starts as soon as he reaches the desert.
-
-
Too absurd
- By Mary B. Wheeler on 06-27-21
By: Ellery Queen
-
QBI
- Queen's Bureau of Investigation
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Queen's Bureau of Investigation is now open for business - and in each department of this new enterprise Ellery finds ample opportunity to exercise the brilliant, ingenious, and at times startling talents of his crime-lab mind. For to the bureau come some of the most plaguey cases in Queen's career.
-
-
GOOD LISTEN
- By peter on 09-10-20
By: Ellery Queen
-
The House of Brass
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 7 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You are invited to a murder. That was how the invitations should have read when aged millionaire Hendrik Brass sent out his messages to six oddly assorted men and women who knew neither him nor each other. All arrived at the isolated Brass mansion, lured by the tantalizing promise of fabulous wealth. But from the moment the shining brass doors of the grotesquely constructed house swung shut behind them, they began to realize they had been enticed into playing parts in a monstrous joke - the joke of a twisted, brilliant mind…
-
-
Interesting but not great
- By Henry Maicki II on 04-25-16
By: Ellery Queen
-
Murder with a Past
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 5 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Who killed Cox, the robber? Was it Ruth Tully, who visited Crandall Cox on the night of his death and who might have decided to quench a torrid past with a spray of bullets? What about Sandra Jean, the knock-'em-dead beauty who knew more than she was telling about the sudden demise of blackmailer Cox? Or had some past scandal driven lawyer Ollie Hurst and his wife, Norma, to claim the blackmailer's life? Dave Tully didn't know who the killer was, but if he didn't find out fast, the price of failure could be death....
By: Ellery Queen
-
The Tragedy of X
- The Drury Lane Mysteries, Book 1
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In New York City in the early 1930s, a man is poisoned on a crowded streetcar during rush hour. Everyone sees Longstreet die - but no one sees the killer. Inspector Thumm's few clues all lead up a blind alley. He finally seeks the aid of Drury Lane - retired Shakespearean actor, master of disguise, and amateur sleuth. Seated amid the splendor of the vast medieval halls of his castle on the Hudson, Drury Lane hears the story from the inspector.
-
-
Clever story but too drawn out
- By Eryn on 07-20-24
By: Ellery Queen
-
QED
- Queen’s Experiments in Detection
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Let Ellery Queen clue you in on his special brand of high tension, brain-teasing mystery! This collection consists of novelettes and short stories from Queen's many escapades.
-
-
A great series of short stories
- By Henry Maicki II on 07-31-17
By: Ellery Queen
-
The Madman Theory
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Madman or murderer? That was the question, and it was Police Inspector Omar Collins who had come up with the answer. All he had to go on was: the victim - Earl Genneman, wealthy president of Genneman Labs; the scene - right in the middle of a busy state park; the murder weapon - a shotgun that was still missing; the witnesses - Myron Retwig, Red Kershaw, Bob Vega, and Buck James, all friends or employees of the deceased; the motive - unknown; the suspects - everyone!
-
-
Good detective story
- By Lynne Olsen on 05-06-24
By: Ellery Queen
-
The Four Johns
- By: Jack Vance, Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 5 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The four of them had only two things in common - their name and a love for the ladies. John Boce was a no-account accountant who lusted after food, drink, cars, and women. John Thompson was a secretive librarian who liked his books and his women well-stacked. John Viviano was a fashion photographer with a great feel for a body - any body! And John Pilgrim was a poetic bum who had the girls hanging on his every stanza. All of them wanted the same woman, but which one wanted her enough to kill?
-
-
Well written but undramatic
- By Brian on 02-05-15
By: Jack Vance, and others
-
Face to Face
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 7 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Gloria Guild is the singing "glory" of the thirties and the millionairess wife of Count Carlos Armando, renowned only for his succession of wealthy wives. When she is murdered, her husband is the obvious suspect, but he has a perfect alibi. So who could he have got to do it for him? The only clue is the word "face," penned in her dying scrawl. But whose face? And why? Ellery Queen pursues the glory riddle from the Bowery to a way-out wedding - and a surprise climax that will jolt you into cold shock. Anyone whonails this killer before Queen is either a genius or a cheat.
-
-
One of the best queens stories
- By peter on 09-21-20
By: Ellery Queen
-
A Room to Die In
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How could a man have been murdered when he was found alone in his study, a gun in his hand, and the door locked from the inside? It had to be suicide, the police figured. Although there was no suicide note, there was a letter proving conclusively that Roland Nelson, over the last several months, was being blackmailed. But to his daughter, Ann, whom he had seen only spasmodically since he had left her mother when Ann was a baby, there were unanswered questions.
-
-
The Ultimate Locked Room Mystery?
- By John on 03-12-24
By: Ellery Queen
-
A Fine and Private Place
- By: Ellery Queen
- Narrated by: Mark Peckham
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The nine-word clue was one of nine cryptic notes that had been sent to taunt Inspector Queen and his son Ellery nine days after the murder. Nino Importuna had been obsessed with the number. He had lived by it. Now the killer who brought a trio of gory deaths to Nino's ninth-floor penthouse at Number 99 East was camouflaging his identity in a jungle of nines - and daring Ellery to find him. The case was destined to be a dazzling contest of wits - to the ninth degree!
-
-
Good puzzle, but not much of a whodunit!
- By Stephen W Osborne on 03-10-17
By: Ellery Queen
-
It Walks by Night
- By: John Dickson Carr
- Narrated by: John Telfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the smoke-wreathed gloom of a Parisian salon, Detective Bencolin has summoned his allies to discuss a peculiar case. A would-be murderer, imprisoned for his attempt to kill his wife, has escaped and is known to have visited a plastic surgeon. His whereabouts remain a mystery, though with his former wife poised to marry another, Bencolin predicts his return. Sure enough, the detective's worst suspicions are realised when the beheaded body of the new suitor is discovered in a locked room of the salon, with no apparent exit.
-
-
Good store but dated
- By Phillip on 04-20-24
-
The Dark Half
- By: Stephen King
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 15 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thad Beaumont would like to say he is innocent. He'd like to say he has nothing to do with the twisted imagination that produced his best-selling novels. He'd like to say he has nothing to do with the series of monstrous murders that keep coming closer to his home. But how can Thad deny the ultimate embodiment of evil that goes by the name he gave it - and signs its crimes with Thad's bloody fingerprints?
-
-
Sparrows
- By Tyler Schnabel on 08-22-16
By: Stephen King
-
Welcome to the Monkey House
- By: Kurt Vonnegut
- Narrated by: David Strathairn, Maria Tucci, Bill Irwin, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut's shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
-
-
Classic Vonnegut
- By Michael Carrato on 08-17-06
By: Kurt Vonnegut
-
Fer-de-Lance
- By: Rex Stout
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 8 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When someone makes a present of a fer-de-lance - the dreaded snake - to Nero Wolfe, Archie Goodwin knows he's close to solving two apparently unrelated murders. As for Wolfe, he's playing snake charmer in a case more deadly than a cobra and whistling a seductive tune he hopes will catch a killer with poison in his heart.
-
-
One of the best crime series of all time.
- By ShySusan on 03-27-13
By: Rex Stout
-
A Man Lay Dead
- By: Ngaio Marsh
- Narrated by: Philip Franks
- Length: 5 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wealthy Sir Hubert Handesley's original and lively weekend house parties are deservedly famous. To amuse his guests, he has devised a new form of the fashionable Murder Game, in which a guest is secretly selected to commit a 'murder' in the dark, and everyone assembles to solve the crime. But when the lights go up this time, there is a real corpse....
-
-
Classic Upper Crust Mystery
- By Laurence G. Byrne on 02-25-16
By: Ngaio Marsh
-
March Violets
- By: Philip Kerr
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 9 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hailed by Salman Rushdie as a "brilliantly innovative thriller-writer", Philip Kerr is the creator of taut, gripping, noir-tinged mysteries set in Nazi-era Berlin that are nothing short of spellbinding. The first book of the Berlin Noir trilogy, March Violets introduces listeners to Bernie Gunther, an ex-policeman who thought he'd seen everything on the streets of 1930s Berlin - until he turned freelance and each case he tackled sucked him further into the grisly excesses of Nazi subculture.
-
-
Brilliant Nazi Era Mystery
- By Constance on 05-04-12
By: Philip Kerr
What listeners say about The Origin of Evil
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Graycee
- 11-18-21
Ellery Queen!
I’m so happy to have discovered Ellery Queen! I’m a huge mystery fan and I can’t think why I never read any of his books.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- MARYL GEE
- 12-12-20
Good story - not so good to listen to.
I am 70 and have pretty good hearing but this narrator’s voice went up and down in tone and volume - I had to keep adjusting the sound when I was listening on my iPhone speakers. With ear buds it was easier to hear. I haven’t had that issue with other narrators of the Queen series. However, the story was good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lawrence
- 10-13-20
different. but goof
story is a continuation of the evolving queen character. story is enjoyable, but again, it feels more like a story than a detective novel.
enjoy the beautiful writing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Henry Maicki II
- 03-18-16
Made of pulp magic
A Los Angeles Ellery Queen story filled with what made pulp detective stories great - sexy women, unique characters, misleading clues, and murder. A great read for 1850's detective fans.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Stephen W Osborne
- 09-03-16
Good Story, Strange Narration
No Inspector Queen here, and is absence is felt. The story is very enjoyable. Queen loves to give "the false solution" to be followed by "the real solution", and here it's very effective. I thought the book was done, but when I realized there was a chapter left, I knew something was up! What lets this down as an audiobook is the narration. Sullivan gives everything a flippant tone, and his voice for Ellery is absolutely horrible! He makes him sound...well, fey is the only word I can think of. The other characters are well voiced, but he makes the detective sound like a whiny, spoiled brat.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Lisa H. Lee
- 12-04-21
Later Ellery Queen not as charming
From a historical point of view the Ellery Queen books gives a fascination insight into turn of the century morals and cultural shifts.
Early books display woman as being hopelessly feckless while these later ones start to show how woman are “out of the house and kitchen “.
I’m disappointed that once again Ellery is no longer this detective of crime but has become the victim of his own fame so that he is no longer purely moral.
The story lines start to be more sexually shocking which takes away from the cerebral puzzle of the crime.
This particular narrator tends to make Ellery more feminine. I prefer the Ellery who was morally curious and sounded like the “guy next door”. This Ellery seems sexually frustrated but thankfully avoids sexual entanglement.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 03-05-22
Disappointed
This is not similar to the Ellery Queen mysteries I read when younger. I think anyone who enjoys the genre will be disappointed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- NV Mama
- 09-24-22
Wordy
Very long explanation when it came to discussing who committed the crime and why. Narration was overall good, but at times I couldn't tell who he was - one time I am sure he had a male character answer the door in the female voice.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!