The novelty of the "Classic detective" series. The series publishes the best classical examples of the genre.— "The Mystery of the Missing Hat" is the first novel in the series about the investigations of Ellery Queen. The intellectual detective Queen appears in more than forty novels and short stories published between 1929 and 1971.— Ellery Queen is the joint pseudonym of two writers, Frederick Dunney and Manfred Lee. The co-authors decided to sign the novels with their hero's name because they believed that readers remembered the names of the characters better than their creators.— Dunney and Lee wrote the novel "The Mystery of the Missing Hat" to participate in a contest organized by McClure's magazine. The co—authors won the competition, but the magazine went bankrupt before the winners could receive their prize - a substantial monetary award, the amount of which, translated into today's money, is estimated at 130 thousand dollars.— Frederick Dunney and Manfred Lee are the winners of the Nero Wolfe Award for Services to the genre.— For all fans of the work of Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and S.S. Van Dyne.