sentences:  Earlier novels like "The Four of Hearts" and short stories featuring gossip columnist Paula Paris were connected with the writers' work in Hollywood for Ellery Queen movies some ten years ago and had a light comedic tone.This novel is slightly more serious and topical (Crowe the nudist is living in a tree to prepare for life after the atom bomb) but suffers from the same problem as other Queen novels, such that events and characters are unrealistic because they must meet the needs of the underlying theme that links the plot elements and forms the basis of the puzzle.