Tragedy of X

Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: I eagerly recommend this book and "The tragedy of Y" to those who want to enter the fascinating world of Queen's detective stories. Unexpected answer, sinuous storyline, interesting personality of protagonists, exact and correct deduction. In every way this is a masterpiece of detective story.

Rating:
Summary: The Success of X
Review: Probably Queen's greatest book ever written - and that includes GREEK COFFIN.

The plot deals with three murders committed on transport (e.g. trams, ferries and trains), with the murders themselves being peculiarly nasty (the first murder is committed by means of a nicotine-tipped-needle-filled cork ball put into the victim's pocket), including Ellery Queen's first 'dying message' (the second would appear in THE SIAMESE TWIN MYSTERY) - and ingenious.

The solution to the mystery is excellent - despite similarities to both A STUDY IN SCARLET (as someone remarked) and one of the stories from G. K. Chesterton's THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN, it is ingenious, and has the reader gasping with mingled indignation, shock, and admiration. In other words - a grade of 100%.

Rating:
Summary: Overlooked Gem by Ellery Queen - 5-Stars
Review: The highly popular Ellery Queen mysteries in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s were penned by an author with the same name. It is as though the Sherlock Holmes mysteries had been authored by Sherlock Holmes, rather than Dr. Watson or Sir Conan Doyle. The actual identity of Ellery Queen (the author) was secret, until much to everyone's surprise, it was revealed that the author was actually two writers that jointly created these complex stories.

A few years after the the first Ellery Queen novels were published, a Mr. Barnaby Ross produced "The Tragedy of X", followed by Y and Z, and concluding with "Drury Lane's Last Case". Later the true identity of Barnaby Ross was unveiled as Ellery Queen. Confusing? The Ellery Queen and Drury Lane mysteries are catalogued under Ellery Queen in most libraries.

I have long been a fan of Ellery Queen. I am nearly always baffled by the mysteries. The characteristic conclusion, a detailed logical analysis revealing the solution, always amazes me. How could I have gone astray once again and not seen the obvious conclusion? On the rare occasions that I unravel the solution, I remain exuberant for weeks.

Drury Lane is an eccentric, retired Shakespearean actor of great intellect and great wealth and is sought out by New York City professional detectives (and the District Attorney) whenever they are baffled, like me. For those readers familiar with some of the more fantastical stories by Ellery Queen, it should be no surprise that Drury Lane inhabits an Elizabethan castle on the Hudson River. His close servant Quacey is an ancient hunchback, bald, bewhiskered, and wrinkled.

I enjoyed this Drury Lane mystery for many of the same reasons I admire other Ellery Queen stories. The clues are visible and yet invisible, the plot is intriguing, and the detective himself is fascinating. Ellery Queen and Drury Lane both exercise precise logic that leads to a single conclusion.

Having been written in the early 1930s, the story unintentionally reveals details of everyday life that now seem foreign. A weekly five dollar deposit to a savings account is evidence of frugal behavior. A doorman manipulates a speaking tube. The police awaken a sleepy elevator operator to pilot them up six floors. Longstreet, an early victim, paid bus fares for his ten guests with a dollar bill, and received change. A ten day period in the hospital for an appendix operation is considered a minimal stay. Dictaphones and carbon paper and typewriters are standard. Photographs and fingerprints are not faxed, but transmitted by a telephotographic device.

Mild ethnic slurs pepper the gruff Inspector Thumm's interrogation of witnesses. The medical inspector's dialogue includes liberal use of Ja and Nein and other Germanic words We meet Italians and Irish and Germans and others in New York, but hyphenated Americans had yet to be invented.

A final clue, interesting in itself but not essential for unraveling this mystery, is explained by the final word of the final sentence in the final chapter.