Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by ellamgh
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen
3.0
so i’m a bit of a mystery fanatic - i’ve read and reread stories of sherlock holmes, perry mason, and hercule poirot. in fact i grew up being read everything from miss marple to nero wolfe by my dad, making classic detective novels the root of my love for literature. that being said, i realized the other day that there are many famous detectives that i’ve yet to meet! ellery queen, for example, a series which i’ve had on my shelves since i was little, but never touched. i decided to give the queens a shot (instead of rereading old favourites) and picked up the first in the series - the roman hat mystery.
first of all, ellery queen is the biggest prat i’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. in fact, he’s so pretentious with his literary references that he’s almost likeable to me because it became entertaining. also, in fairness, ellery makes his entrance at the crime scene, annoyed at his father for having pulled him away from buying a first edition while standing over a corpse, so from the get go i pretty much knew what i was getting myself into. that being said, the characterization of the queens is rather vague, with the only concrete facts we learn about them outside of their work being that ellery likes quoting authors (in moderation) and his father likes snuff (in excess). richard queen’s life seems to be his job, and so very little is referenced outside of the case. this was a bit disappointing as a lot of the other crime stories i read have detectives with stronger personalities. i went in with such high expectations of the so-called “king of crime” that this first installment of the series was a letdown, but the crime itself was very new to me and i didn’t predict the denouement, which to me is a win in and of itself! i liked the writing overall - the way in which the crime was set up and how the case was solved - and i’ve also been told that the first novel doesn’t live up to the rest of the ellery queen mysteries, so i’m definitely planning on continuing the series!
first of all, ellery queen is the biggest prat i’ve ever had the pleasure to encounter. in fact, he’s so pretentious with his literary references that he’s almost likeable to me because it became entertaining. also, in fairness, ellery makes his entrance at the crime scene, annoyed at his father for having pulled him away from buying a first edition while standing over a corpse, so from the get go i pretty much knew what i was getting myself into. that being said, the characterization of the queens is rather vague, with the only concrete facts we learn about them outside of their work being that ellery likes quoting authors (in moderation) and his father likes snuff (in excess). richard queen’s life seems to be his job, and so very little is referenced outside of the case. this was a bit disappointing as a lot of the other crime stories i read have detectives with stronger personalities. i went in with such high expectations of the so-called “king of crime” that this first installment of the series was a letdown, but the crime itself was very new to me and i didn’t predict the denouement, which to me is a win in and of itself! i liked the writing overall - the way in which the crime was set up and how the case was solved - and i’ve also been told that the first novel doesn’t live up to the rest of the ellery queen mysteries, so i’m definitely planning on continuing the series!