AS I've said elsewhere, I usually prefer Queen's short stories to his novels, and I really like these stories, notably "The Death of Don Juan" a theatrical mystey (something I usually enjoy) in which the rather over-the-hill glamorous star playing (and behaving) like Don Juan, is murdered, leaving a cleverly misleading dying message. Of the other stories, E =Murder involves the death of a physicist involved in a critical government project. This also involves a very simple dying message. "The Wrightsville Heirs" involves the three unloving heirs of a wealthy man who left each of them a million dollars (which they wasted) and the rest of his property to his second wife (their stepmother, whom one of them may have smothered when she began talking of leaving the money to her hired companion. "Diamonds in Paradise" concerns a former Broadway star whose diamond earrings are stolen in a high-class gambling house the night Inspector Queen happens to raid it. THe thief jumps out a window and dies, leaving yet another dying message revealing where he hid the diamonds. "The Case against Carroll" involves a lawyer whose partner is murdered just after finding that the lawyer (for honorable reasons) has embezzled money from a trust in the firm's care. This case does not involve a dying message, and ultimately Ellery Queen is not able to save the lawyer. ( )