The Chinese Orange Mystery is a detective novel written by Ellery Queen, the pseudonym of cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee. Subtitled "A Problem in Deduction," it was first published in condensed form in the June 1934 issue of Redbook magazine before being released as a full novel. It is the eighth book in the long-running Ellery Queen mystery series.
The story presents a famously bizarre and complex locked-room puzzle. A wealthy publisher and collector is found murdered in a hotel anteroom under baffling circumstances: his clothing has been put on backwards, all the furniture in the room has been turned around, and two African spears have been thrust through his clothes to prop up the body. The victim had been left alone in the locked room with only a bowl of fruit, including tangerines—the "Chinese oranges" of the title—and no one was seen entering or exiting.
The novel is highly regarded among classic detective fiction enthusiasts for its intricate plotting and its central "backwards" clue. In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, The Chinese Orange Mystery was voted the eighth best locked-room mystery of all time, cementing its place as one of the most ingenious puzzles in the Ellery Queen canon.
