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cjgmiranda220's review
3.0
This is the classic American Mystery story made in the first half of the 20th century. It is written pretty dry. I wish there were more character development in the story, but otherwise, I was not able to guess the solution to the mystery.
lgpiper's review
3.0
Back when I was a kid, Ellery Queen was all the rage. So I figured I should check him out. I dunno, this didn't do much for me. The main character is an idler who thinks he's better than everyone else because he doesn't appear to have to work for a living, and because he's able to do arcane feats of logical thinking. But with all the logical thinking, this story didn't much hold together or make sense. So, a stupid story with an unlikeable protagonist doesn't entice me to continue reading Queen.
The story revolves around a faded matinee idol from old cowboy movies, Buck Horne, who is taking a turn at Wild Bill Grant's wild west show in a huge arena in New York City. Buck appears to have been shot dead during one rip-roaring run around the arena. He was shot by a .25 caliber bullet, but all the people in the show, and all the people in the audience were carrying only .45s. Something like that. After a few weeks of investigation, the show starts up again, this time featuring another idol of the old oaters, one-armed Woody. Well, same rip-roaring ride around the arena and Woody gets toppled at the same point in the same fashion. So we have lots of red herrings and overdoses of smug pomposity by Ellery Queen, the main character. The final verdict only vaguely hangs true.
If I could give +s or -s, this book would be ***-. It's not terrible, but it isn't really much worth anyone's time. I won't likely revisit Ellery Queen any time soon.
The story revolves around a faded matinee idol from old cowboy movies, Buck Horne, who is taking a turn at Wild Bill Grant's wild west show in a huge arena in New York City. Buck appears to have been shot dead during one rip-roaring run around the arena. He was shot by a .25 caliber bullet, but all the people in the show, and all the people in the audience were carrying only .45s. Something like that. After a few weeks of investigation, the show starts up again, this time featuring another idol of the old oaters, one-armed Woody. Well, same rip-roaring ride around the arena and Woody gets toppled at the same point in the same fashion. So we have lots of red herrings and overdoses of smug pomposity by Ellery Queen, the main character. The final verdict only vaguely hangs true.
If I could give +s or -s, this book would be ***-. It's not terrible, but it isn't really much worth anyone's time. I won't likely revisit Ellery Queen any time soon.
ella09's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.0
donkeykong64's review
3.25
Not my favorite Queen story but a decent read. The solution had me shocked, but surprisingly only who it was vs how it was done. I actually figured out one of the more absurd mysteries as to how the gun left the building on my own! Progress!
I personally love the old timey dialogue and snobby tendencies of Ellery Queen, but evidently some readers here do not like anything to be antiquated about their books. Far more literary than Queen but not as airtight as Carr.
I personally love the old timey dialogue and snobby tendencies of Ellery Queen, but evidently some readers here do not like anything to be antiquated about their books. Far more literary than Queen but not as airtight as Carr.
annarella's review
5.0
It's been a long time since last I read an Ellery Queen mystery and this was the first one I read in English.
I don't remember I've ever read it before and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The puzzle is really complex and I was fascinated by the investigation and how the clues were placed together.
It's entertaining and I think it aged quite well even and it's a depiction of an era.
My only note is that the language is sometimes a bit hard to understand as the author uses a sort of phonetic transcription.
An enjoyable and intellectually challenging mystery,
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
I don't remember I've ever read it before and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The puzzle is really complex and I was fascinated by the investigation and how the clues were placed together.
It's entertaining and I think it aged quite well even and it's a depiction of an era.
My only note is that the language is sometimes a bit hard to understand as the author uses a sort of phonetic transcription.
An enjoyable and intellectually challenging mystery,
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine
bev_reads_mysteries's review against another edition
2.0
It's rodeo time in the Big Apple. Wild Bill Grant has brought his cowboys and horses, sharpshooters and bronco busters to town and they're all set to give New York a taste of the wild and woolly west. As an added bonus, real life cowboy and former Western movie star, Buck Horne is on tap to appear. But the show has barely begun before there is bloodshed. As Buck leads a posse of 40 cowboys on a wild ride around the arena, someone takes a bead on the lead rider and Buck falls to the ground, dead. He's been shot straight through the heart and then trampled by the horses in the gang that followed him.
Inspector Queen and his detective son Ellery are in the stands and the Inspector's quick thinking closes down the arena before anyone can leave. Now all they have to do is find the gun. The police force shows up in droves, manages to search every person in the arena as well as every inch of the Colosseum and yet no gun is found. After no progress is made, the Commissioner (under pressure from various sources) declares the venue open for business and Wild Bill starts up his rodeo again. With the same result--his lead cowboy, One-Arm Woody, takes Buck's place at the head of the 40-man posse and sets off around the arena. And falls dead in the same spot from another gunshot.
On the spot each time was a camera crew filming the event for the newsreels. Ellery gets hold of the complete film (including portions cut from the film to make the newsreel more compact) and spots the clue that tells him who did it and where the gun was stashed after the first murder. He then challenges the reader to use the clues to find the same answer.
This is not one of the best Queen novels. The setting is clever--a Western rodeo in the middle of New York City. Populating the Big Apple with cowboys and ranch hands and bronco busters and contrasting that with the city slickers, hard-bitten journalists, and steely-eyed members of Inspector Queen's police force works well. What doesn't work well is the mystery itself. Supposedly, we have all the clues we need to reach the same conclusion as Ellery. Well--if you count vague little references, I suppose so. But, quite frankly, the hiding place for the gun is ridiculous and I doubt that anyone having actually noticed the brief little notation that really came up with that solution. Add the fact that Ellery is really quite insufferable in this episode--announcing after the first murder that he knows who did it....except he doesn't know who did it. His poor father must have been ready to boot him from the case. I know I was.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
Inspector Queen and his detective son Ellery are in the stands and the Inspector's quick thinking closes down the arena before anyone can leave. Now all they have to do is find the gun. The police force shows up in droves, manages to search every person in the arena as well as every inch of the Colosseum and yet no gun is found. After no progress is made, the Commissioner (under pressure from various sources) declares the venue open for business and Wild Bill starts up his rodeo again. With the same result--his lead cowboy, One-Arm Woody, takes Buck's place at the head of the 40-man posse and sets off around the arena. And falls dead in the same spot from another gunshot.
On the spot each time was a camera crew filming the event for the newsreels. Ellery gets hold of the complete film (including portions cut from the film to make the newsreel more compact) and spots the clue that tells him who did it and where the gun was stashed after the first murder. He then challenges the reader to use the clues to find the same answer.
This is not one of the best Queen novels. The setting is clever--a Western rodeo in the middle of New York City. Populating the Big Apple with cowboys and ranch hands and bronco busters and contrasting that with the city slickers, hard-bitten journalists, and steely-eyed members of Inspector Queen's police force works well. What doesn't work well is the mystery itself. Supposedly, we have all the clues we need to reach the same conclusion as Ellery. Well--if you count vague little references, I suppose so. But, quite frankly, the hiding place for the gun is ridiculous and I doubt that anyone having actually noticed the brief little notation that
Spoiler
the horse refused to drink any water after the shootingFirst posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
luffy79's review against another edition
1.0
Unforgivable. What an utter waste of time. My time. The authors - they must be doing reverse spinning in their graves - should be ashamed for having laid such a work. They comically painted themselves into a corner. They forgot the most important thing in writing a mystery. The humblest of books takes care of that thing first of all. The plot here was a convoluted mess. Like I said, the authors painted themselves into a corner, Macguyvered their brush into a gun, and shot themselves in the foot. No motive. No m-o-t-i-v-e.
whatmeworry's review
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Read this and more crime, thriller, horror and pulp reviews on CriminOlly.com
This is the first Ellery Queen book I’ve read. He was an author I was aware of, perhaps mostly because of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine which published short stories by many of the great American crime writers, but who I didn’t know much about. In fact I didn’t even know that Queen was a pseudonym used by two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee. Ellery Queen is, intriguingly, also the name of the detective.
This is the sixth of the series, published in this new edition with a new introduction from publisher Otto Penzler. Penzler hails Queen as the giant of the inter war Golden Age of American mystery writing and a peer of the likes of Agatha Christie. I’m not entirely convinced by that comparison, but I did enjoy the puzzle that Dannay and Lee laid out in The American Gun Mystery.
The hallmark of this type of mystery is a crime early on that seems impossible to solve. That’s certainly the case here, with Buck Horne, noted star of numerous silent westerns, shot dead on his horse as he takes part in the dramatic opening of a new rodeo show along with 40 other riders. The mystery lies in the fact that he has been shot dead with a gun that cannot then be found and which is of a markedly different type to the many others surround Buck at the time of his death.
It’s an engaging conundrum, and the solution, when it is laid out by Queen at the end is credible if slightly unlikely. Crucially, the clues to solve it were, with the benefit of hindsight, all there in the text, that being the test of a so-called ‘fair play’ mystery.
For a book that is nearly 90 years old it is all very readable, although the middle section did drag a bit, being full of the kind of red herrings that are essential to this kind of tale. The dialogue is definitely on the stifled side and Queen himself is far from likeable. When this kind of genius detective character is done well it can work (think Holmes or Poirot) but here I found myself at times hoping that Queen wouldn’t solve the crime because he was such an arrogant dick. Even more problematic was the treatment of Djuna, a Romany boy whom Queen has adopted and “civilised”. It’s the kind of casual racism that was common in the 1930s, and which leaves a bad taste in the mouth today. A more palatable anachronism is the use of the word Brobdingnagian, which I’ve never seen outside of the Lemony Snickets books.
Overall this is a fun vintage read. The mystery is engaging and the solution amusing, even if the telling of it leaves a little to be desired. If I were rating them separately I’d probably give the mystery 4 stars and the writing 2. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which you value more.
This is the first Ellery Queen book I’ve read. He was an author I was aware of, perhaps mostly because of the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine which published short stories by many of the great American crime writers, but who I didn’t know much about. In fact I didn’t even know that Queen was a pseudonym used by two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee. Ellery Queen is, intriguingly, also the name of the detective.
This is the sixth of the series, published in this new edition with a new introduction from publisher Otto Penzler. Penzler hails Queen as the giant of the inter war Golden Age of American mystery writing and a peer of the likes of Agatha Christie. I’m not entirely convinced by that comparison, but I did enjoy the puzzle that Dannay and Lee laid out in The American Gun Mystery.
The hallmark of this type of mystery is a crime early on that seems impossible to solve. That’s certainly the case here, with Buck Horne, noted star of numerous silent westerns, shot dead on his horse as he takes part in the dramatic opening of a new rodeo show along with 40 other riders. The mystery lies in the fact that he has been shot dead with a gun that cannot then be found and which is of a markedly different type to the many others surround Buck at the time of his death.
It’s an engaging conundrum, and the solution, when it is laid out by Queen at the end is credible if slightly unlikely. Crucially, the clues to solve it were, with the benefit of hindsight, all there in the text, that being the test of a so-called ‘fair play’ mystery.
For a book that is nearly 90 years old it is all very readable, although the middle section did drag a bit, being full of the kind of red herrings that are essential to this kind of tale. The dialogue is definitely on the stifled side and Queen himself is far from likeable. When this kind of genius detective character is done well it can work (think Holmes or Poirot) but here I found myself at times hoping that Queen wouldn’t solve the crime because he was such an arrogant dick. Even more problematic was the treatment of Djuna, a Romany boy whom Queen has adopted and “civilised”. It’s the kind of casual racism that was common in the 1930s, and which leaves a bad taste in the mouth today. A more palatable anachronism is the use of the word Brobdingnagian, which I’ve never seen outside of the Lemony Snickets books.
Overall this is a fun vintage read. The mystery is engaging and the solution amusing, even if the telling of it leaves a little to be desired. If I were rating them separately I’d probably give the mystery 4 stars and the writing 2. I’ll leave it up to you to decide which you value more.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
lachesisreads's review
3.0
I very much enjoyed the other volumes in this classic mystery series so far, but this one was just a little too far fetched. The solution didn't convince me and I think the story would have been stronger if somebody else had been the murderer. It begins rather strongly but the end is a bit of a let down.
Some very interesting characters were introduced only to fizzle out later on, and we never learn what happens to the major characters after the last scene. We last meet them in the scene where someone is arrested, and then the story skips to a later time when Ellery Queen wraps up the case for a friend and none of the other characters are mentioned again.
Nor was it really the case in this volume that the reader had "all the pertinent clues to solve the case himself", which is always a fun challenge in the Ellery Queen books.
It certainly wasn't boring nor did I hate reading it, but it's not the strongest in the series. I would certainly recommend it to people who want to read all EQ books, but not necessarily if you just want to pick up a good old-fashioned hardboiled classic mystery.
Some very interesting characters were introduced only to fizzle out later on, and we never learn what happens to the major characters after the last scene. We last meet them in the scene where someone is arrested, and then the story skips to a later time when Ellery Queen wraps up the case for a friend and none of the other characters are mentioned again.
Nor was it really the case in this volume that the reader had "all the pertinent clues to solve the case himself", which is always a fun challenge in the Ellery Queen books.
It certainly wasn't boring nor did I hate reading it, but it's not the strongest in the series. I would certainly recommend it to people who want to read all EQ books, but not necessarily if you just want to pick up a good old-fashioned hardboiled classic mystery.
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