Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.14 AVERAGE
3.14 AVERAGE
I decided to pick this up since I had enjoyed the television series, but I was admittedly quite disappointed. The loveable characters from the show are instead presented as oafish and snobby and it really made it hard to enjoy the story. Ellery does not figure into it nearly as much as you'd think he would, and his father's mood swings are just wild. Too many mentions of the snuff box and pince nez just make these traits come across as caricature-like in my opinion. Overall, it was just an okay read, and I doubt I'll go any further with the series in book format.
Predictable but pleasant. Picked it up for the theater setting, which I always enjoy. The Queens are an interesting duo - I don't think I've encountered a father-son detective combo before!
There is definitely period-typical racism, though, most notably in the narrative's treatment of the Queens' teenage servant, Djuna.
There is definitely period-typical racism, though, most notably in the narrative's treatment of the Queens' teenage servant, Djuna.
The Roman Hat Mystery was moderately entertaining as an early golden age mystery but it dragged on too long for the material and lacked nuance with the plot, characters, and themes.
Being a fair play mystery it gave me the chance to solve the mystery alongside the detectives, perhaps a little too literally, which I did and I was right, but it wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped. After finding out the solution, I realized it wasn’t as fair play as I had wanted and yet it wasn’t as challenging as I had wanted either. We didn’t know the motive for the murder or anything about the murderer until the end and it was disappointing with modern eyes and not explored at all.
The entire book is firmly set in its time period and everything relies on knowing the decade—particularly to understand how men dressed to go to the theatre, which is integral to the plot. I felt there was a bit of missed opportunity (Chekhov would be disappointed) in that at a play called “Gunplay” where lots of gunfire happens onstage a man is poisoned in the audience. Why poisoned instead of shot?
Anyway it was a lot of little annoyances that didn’t add up, plus messy plotting and characterizing, that put this at three stars for me.
Being a fair play mystery it gave me the chance to solve the mystery alongside the detectives, perhaps a little too literally, which I did and I was right, but it wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped. After finding out the solution, I realized it wasn’t as fair play as I had wanted and yet it wasn’t as challenging as I had wanted either. We didn’t know the motive for the murder or anything about the murderer until the end and it was disappointing with modern eyes and not explored at all.
The entire book is firmly set in its time period and everything relies on knowing the decade—particularly to understand how men dressed to go to the theatre, which is integral to the plot. I felt there was a bit of missed opportunity (Chekhov would be disappointed) in that at a play called “Gunplay” where lots of gunfire happens onstage a man is poisoned in the audience. Why poisoned instead of shot?
Anyway it was a lot of little annoyances that didn’t add up, plus messy plotting and characterizing, that put this at three stars for me.
mysterious
challenging
dark
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A fantastic dive into the “Golden Age of Detective Fiction”. This is the first Ellery Queen book I have read and although I admit it can be dry at times and is a product of its era (1929) in more ways than one, it was a real enjoyment and classic “who done it”. The tale starring bookworm Ellery Queen and his father inspector Richard Queen, feels more down to earth, and realistic than the often super human detective abilities of other heroes of the genre at the time such as the Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot. It could be slow at times, possibly too slow and dry for some contemporary readers, but really picks up towards the second half of the book. It really has a feel of a different era and I often imagined the scene like a well directed noir film of the forties.
Fantastic book. Remember that it was written in a completely different era, one more formal and people were more cordial. Greatly enjoyed the simplicity of the era and the complexity of the book and characters.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
I read a few of these as a teenager after running through better private-detective stories from the same time period, but I don't remember them being this horrible. Super-racist even for the era. Full of over-summarizing, sometimes of things that just happened, that make it more than twice as long as it needs to be. The central tenet of the mystery - the hat - is a clue with really only one solution. And by far the worst part is that Inspector Queen is an out-of-control law-breaking cop who treats the victim like a perpetrator, brings his civilian son along for the ride for no real reason and who orders break-ins, physical violence and a dangerous illegal sting operation.