A review by johnnyb1954
Sorpresa a mezzogiorno by Gian Franco Orsi, Ellery Queen

2.0

The writing style is annoying. The explanations of Ellery’s deductions is repeated and long winded. The accuracy of Ellery’s logic is often questionable (the murderer’s mental acuity and common sense point to it being a man!). Most difficult element for me to understand is the issue of the blood. There was copious blood on the desk. Some of it got on the bookend so the murderer had to replace the felt. But when Ellery realized the books on the desk are not the ones French had out there, he doesn’t assume that the originals got bloodied and had to be replaced - because he then would have logically dismissed the odd collection there. But that didn’t work for the plot. Also the memorandum on the desk was untouched by the blood. And the murderer was able to remove every trace of blood, none soaked into the carpet or the desk chair the victim was in.