Mystery from the era of the classics

Although Richard Queen is actually the police inspector, it is his erudite, book-loving son Ellery who is the real sleuth in these stories. They are almost a century old, but have not lost any of the punch they must have had back in the 1920's.

In this book, a woman is murdered and discovered in a shocking place. Her husband is in his office having a business meeting at the time of the discovery--and immediately the detection begins. Everyone in the business faction, as well as family, become suspects (sooner or later).

The hallmark feature of the Ellery Queen works is that they are like cerebral murder puzzles. Ellery Queen professes to be interested in "ivory tower" kinds of ideas, peppers his conversation with latin and french comments, and would appear to be the least likely person to take an interest in something as far removed from that mindset as a police investigation. But since his father is working on solving cases, he brings his powers of deduction to the scene and proceeds to unravel what took place.

The beauty of this series is that the clues are always there for the alert reader to put together, just as EQ does. The difficulty with (at least this particular book) was (to me) that it dragged on a bit unnecessarily long. I was growing a bit weary of it by the end. However, I was not able (despite all the clues being right there) to figure out the murderer, almost until this person was revealed by Ellery, in an Agatha Christie style ending where everybody is brought together and the murderer revealed.

It is a fun read--with only the caveat that it seemed a bit excessively long. Recommend--great fun if you like the early mysteries from that era. Ellery Queen is like the American version of Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey.

18 persone l'hanno trovata utile

No Sex, No Foul Language, Just Mystery

There are distinct advantages to listening to vintage mysteries. Beyond the three listed above, there’s also a refreshing lack of disorienting cinematic cuts in time and scene, tortured, transgressive anti-heroes, and creeping moral relativism.

Admittedly, there are drawbacks. Awkward questions arise (“If there was that much blood, then how did…?”) But for those of us who enjoy both gritty realism and, as here, the murder mystery as mental parlor game, there’s nothing much at which to cavil.

The quintessence of “police procedural” detective fiction, in novel form—unlike the brisker short stories—Ellery Queen tends to drag somewhat. But even at nearly 11 hours, this thoroughly satisfying puzzle held my interest throughout. And Robert Fass’ performance just made it that much more engaging.

5 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Love it!

These mysteries are wonderfully woven and include a wonderful use of language and dry humor. I'm hooked! Also, the narrator is a natural in using different tones/accents for each character.

4 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Racist product of its time

This series has not aged well. This book contains many negative racial stereotypes; in fact, it uses them for "humor." Avoid this series.

4 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Be aware

Be aware that you're listening to a book written ~80-90 years ago. No technology, misogyny the norm, racism the norm. Did not finish as was just too irritating. O.K. if you are able to look past the cultural differences.

3 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Archaic Delight!

This story was set 100 years ago in 1921 New York City. It was very interesting to hear about life in those times. The only thing that made me cringe was the portrayal of the only black character in the story. He was described as someone the Queens had “adopted” and he functioned in their household as an all -around man servant. If I remember correctly he was described as being small, though whether he was a child or adult wasn’t clear.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Okay for a freebie

Yep, it’s old fashioned, and some things will come across as offensive. The beginning was a bit tedious and uninteresting in its set up. The middle unfolding of the mystery became more interesting, although less so for me once they introduced the “big” reason. Much of the long wrap up was redundant, so I sped it up substantially to get to the end and find out the culprit (who was unsatisfying). I might grab another one though, because I listen to so many that even average three-star books make good enough background company while doing other things.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Narration superb!!!!!

As a former broadcaster and audiobook narrator, I've never heard a more versatile performance BRAVO!

Another Great Whodunit

The story was very engrossing to the very end. I have been enjoying this series just as much as Agatha Christie. Readers beware of the time period that this series was written in. Not politically correct to say the least.

even better than the Roman hat mystery

I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Fass does a brilliant job and the story is very engaging.