Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by jiddle
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen
3.0
(Spoilers -Talk about the ending mildly, the killer's motive, and give two names of who I thought did it but was wrong, but nothing specific about anything.)
The Roman Hat Mystery wasn't bad, wasn't great either. In short, exactly what I expected.
The atmosphere of the first part, the initial investigation at the theater, was nice. Reminded me of the way Dutch Shoe started, even though I was greatly disappointed by parts of the solution to that one. Eventually the Queens leave the theater and do some other stuff; interviews and lots of searching for hats and papers, etc. These middle parts go on for awhile, so it loses some points for that.
This novel feels much more like an Inspector Queen mystery than an Ellery Queen mystery. Sure, Ellery is there for most of the story, and is responsible for the abductive reasoning that led to the murderer's identity becoming known, but not only is his Philo Vance-esque personality especially dry here (at least in French Powder, his annoying aura was comedic, i.e. the little detection kit he carries,) he is also absent during the book's denouement! He leaves at the beginning of the fourth part and isn't present for either the killer's capture or to explain the solution. Inspector Queen does that for his prosecutor coworkers, and to be honest while he does repeat some stuff we already know which feels redundant, his narration of the solution is much smoother than Ellery's usually are.
I'll be honest, Queen got me again this time. I suspected two people specifically - William Pusak, the man who discovered victim Monte Field's body (and is Field a finely written victim, or what?), and Dr. Stuttgard, the audience member who first attributed Field's death to alcohol poisoning. I thought that either Pusak has the perfect opportunity by being the nearest person to Field and "discovering" the body, or Stuttgard (who had a seat right next to an aisle) was the most likely person who would have knowledge about tetra ethyl lead, which killed Field. Of course I was wrong. The murderer was a character who I thought about, but ultimately discarded as a suspect because of a certain aspect about them - an aspect which was the exact reason they were the murderer, and which also explained the mystery of the missing hat (the solution to this hat's disappearance is really well done.) Although one could technically discern the killer's identity by process of elimination, I still feel like there wasn't enough information given for the reader to know that the killer had the opportunity. Maybe I missed something, but that was my major qualm about the solution. Not nearly as bad as Ellery's big deduction in Dutch Shoe, however.
Then of course, we have the killer's... unique motive. We know the gist of the motive by about halfway through (Field, a chronic blackmailer, blackmailed the killer), but what specifically it is that the murderer wants to hide so desperately is not shared until this solution, since it isn't one of the blackmail objects already known by the detectives. And when it's revealed... yikes. The fact that the culprit was trying to hide that they had African-American lineage, making them of mixed race, although it would be very dated in today's society, is not what irks me here. The way that this places the story so firmly in its time-set, and the uniqueness of this motive and how it paints the murderer's desperation and position in society is actually quite interesting, and I wished it was touched upon a bit more at the end. The way Inspector Queen, DA Sampson and ADA Cronin handle this information though... double yikes. "But he was as white as you or me." "Tainted blood." Sentences like these really diminish the quality of the motive's impact and gives the reader of today a bad taste in their mouth at the book's end. Coupled with some unflattering remarks from the third-person narration about Djuna (who, let's face it, is just a weird character in general) just rubs me the wrong way.
Overall, the mystery is quite good despite a couple small qualms, and while Ellery's position in this book is weird and some parts run on for a bit too long, the overall pacing isn't bad. The racism presented throughout the book and especially at the end, though, are what really do it in for me. I obviously don't want to really punish my rating of the book for this - it's a product of its time, and obviously this must be kept in account. However, it is a part of why this is 3 stars instead of 4. However, unlike Dutch Shoe, this is still lower-mid-tier Nationality Mystery, with Egyptian Cross and Chinese Orange ahead of it.
So only Spanish Cape and American Gun remain of the 1st period of Ellery Queen... the former isn't everyone's favorite but not too badly regarded, and the latter... is considered Queen's worst flounder of an ending. I await these two with some anticipation and some alacrity.
The Roman Hat Mystery wasn't bad, wasn't great either. In short, exactly what I expected.
The atmosphere of the first part, the initial investigation at the theater, was nice. Reminded me of the way Dutch Shoe started, even though I was greatly disappointed by parts of the solution to that one. Eventually the Queens leave the theater and do some other stuff; interviews and lots of searching for hats and papers, etc. These middle parts go on for awhile, so it loses some points for that.
This novel feels much more like an Inspector Queen mystery than an Ellery Queen mystery. Sure, Ellery is there for most of the story, and is responsible for the abductive reasoning that led to the murderer's identity becoming known, but not only is his Philo Vance-esque personality especially dry here (at least in French Powder, his annoying aura was comedic, i.e. the little detection kit he carries,) he is also absent during the book's denouement! He leaves at the beginning of the fourth part and isn't present for either the killer's capture or to explain the solution. Inspector Queen does that for his prosecutor coworkers, and to be honest while he does repeat some stuff we already know which feels redundant, his narration of the solution is much smoother than Ellery's usually are.
I'll be honest, Queen got me again this time. I suspected two people specifically - William Pusak, the man who discovered victim Monte Field's body (and is Field a finely written victim, or what?), and Dr. Stuttgard, the audience member who first attributed Field's death to alcohol poisoning. I thought that either Pusak has the perfect opportunity by being the nearest person to Field and "discovering" the body, or Stuttgard (who had a seat right next to an aisle) was the most likely person who would have knowledge about tetra ethyl lead, which killed Field. Of course I was wrong. The murderer was a character who I thought about, but ultimately discarded as a suspect because of a certain aspect about them - an aspect which was the exact reason they were the murderer, and which also explained the mystery of the missing hat (the solution to this hat's disappearance is really well done.) Although one could technically discern the killer's identity by process of elimination, I still feel like there wasn't enough information given for the reader to know that the killer had the opportunity. Maybe I missed something, but that was my major qualm about the solution. Not nearly as bad as Ellery's big deduction in Dutch Shoe, however.
Then of course, we have the killer's... unique motive. We know the gist of the motive by about halfway through (Field, a chronic blackmailer, blackmailed the killer), but what specifically it is that the murderer wants to hide so desperately is not shared until this solution, since it isn't one of the blackmail objects already known by the detectives. And when it's revealed... yikes. The fact that the culprit was trying to hide that they had African-American lineage, making them of mixed race, although it would be very dated in today's society, is not what irks me here. The way that this places the story so firmly in its time-set, and the uniqueness of this motive and how it paints the murderer's desperation and position in society is actually quite interesting, and I wished it was touched upon a bit more at the end. The way Inspector Queen, DA Sampson and ADA Cronin handle this information though... double yikes. "But he was as white as you or me." "Tainted blood." Sentences like these really diminish the quality of the motive's impact and gives the reader of today a bad taste in their mouth at the book's end. Coupled with some unflattering remarks from the third-person narration about Djuna (who, let's face it, is just a weird character in general) just rubs me the wrong way.
Overall, the mystery is quite good despite a couple small qualms, and while Ellery's position in this book is weird and some parts run on for a bit too long, the overall pacing isn't bad. The racism presented throughout the book and especially at the end, though, are what really do it in for me. I obviously don't want to really punish my rating of the book for this - it's a product of its time, and obviously this must be kept in account. However, it is a part of why this is 3 stars instead of 4. However, unlike Dutch Shoe, this is still lower-mid-tier Nationality Mystery, with Egyptian Cross and Chinese Orange ahead of it.
So only Spanish Cape and American Gun remain of the 1st period of Ellery Queen... the former isn't everyone's favorite but not too badly regarded, and the latter... is considered Queen's worst flounder of an ending. I await these two with some anticipation and some alacrity.