TNB "cover" designed by Bev* |
As I mentioned in last week's post, I haven't read many of the Queen novels. I grew up with the televised version of Ellery Queen and loved those. On TV Ellery, Inspector Queen, and the policemen at the Inspector's beck and call weren't quite as hard-boiled as they seem to be in the novels I first sampled. Not that we're talking Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett here--certainly not. Just a bit harder around the edges. And I had to be in the right mood for it. Apparently my mood was just right when I read The Chinese Orange Mystery in 2011.
Up till then, The Roman Hat Mystery,
the first of the Ellery Queen novels, had held pride of place. But this
little gem which combines a semi-locked room, a murder of a total
unknown, beautiful jewels, rare stamps, and a lunatic old scholar has
shoved the Hat firmly aside. Titled The Chinese Orange Mystery, it so easily, as the foreword points out, could have been named The Crime That Was Backwards.
From the back of the book: "Turnabout is foul play. There were many odd
things about the fat man. No one had seen him enter the luxurious suite
and no one knew his name. Somehow all his clothes had been put on him
backward, and all the furniture around him reversed. The room in which
he was found was locked from the inside, and aside from him, was empty.
It was unlike any case Ellery Queen had ever seen--except for two hard
facts. The man was dead. And it was Queen's baffling job to find the
murderer."
There seem to be absolutely no clues
available, only confusion. The man came to visit Donald Kirk--publisher
and collector of rare gems and even rarer stamps--but refused to state
either his name or his business to Kirk's assistant James Osborne. Put
in an anteroom to wait for Kirk's arrival, the man is later discovered
dead, clothes on backwards and every item in the room reversed--rug
upside down, pictures turned to the wall, and even a fruit bowl dumped
and the bowl placed over the fruit. No one in the Kirk household or
among his friends claim to have seen the man before and there is nothing
on the body to identify him. What did he want? Was he a hopeful author?
Did he have a gem or a rare stamp for sale? And why did the murderer
take the time for reversal? Answer these questions and you just might
beat Ellery to the solution.
I humbly admit that I did not. Not
even close. But that didn't bother me, I rarely figure out the Ellery
Queen mysteries. They are such well-constructed puzzles that I just
don't get them. All the clues are there--just as Ellery states in the
challenge to the reader. It's never a case where the reader can cry
"Unfair!" Every bit of evidence is dangled under your unsuspecting nose
and all you have to do is recognize it for what it is and you'd be home
and dry.
Wonderful period mystery. Lively
characters--all well-drawn and with enough secrets and hidden quirks to
keep you guessing while you try to puzzle your way to the solution. The
motive for the murder wasn't quite as strong as I'd like, although I can
see the pyschology behind it. That small quibble gives the book four
1/2 stars out of five, rather than the full five-star rating. I highly
recommend this one!
*Incidentally, the cover I used to fashion the TNB logo for the Queen edition of the club is an edition of The Chinese Orange Mystery.
*Incidentally, the cover I used to fashion the TNB logo for the Queen edition of the club is an edition of The Chinese Orange Mystery.
4 comments:
I only vaguely remember the first case but I remember CHINESE doing my head in at the time as I was in my mid teens (I suspect it doesn't actually hold up that well now)
I'm afraid that, after the joys of Greek Coffin and Siamese Twin, this one felt like a lesser effort to me. That makes me sound spoiled rotten because it IS clever. I like the reason for the backwards bit, but the murderer here was a disappointment to me.
definitely adding this one to the list - someone else recommended it too. I like ingenious mysteries and explanations.
The only mystery by Ellery Queen that I ever solved was Halfway House and I didn't even get started on the solution in The Chinese Orange. It just seemed locked up so tight - and it was very clever.
I do so enjoy Ellery Queen :-)
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