Thu 21 Feb 2008
Archived Review: ELLERY QUEEN – The Roman Hat Mystery.
Posted by Steve under Personal Notes , Reviews[7] Comments
ELLERY QUEEN – The Roman Hat Mystery.
Signet P3229; paperback reprint; 1st printing, August 1967. [Hardcover first edition: Frederick A. Stokes, 1929. Shown below, left.]
First published in 1929, this early Ellery Queen effort really shows its age, unfortunately — it’s difficult to be any more polite than that. It was their first novel, and as an intellectual puzzle, it still has some fizz, but the characters are weak, and the strings they’re manipulated by stand out strongly.
The death — by poisoning — of a unliked, unlikable lawyer takes place in the middle of the Roman Theatre while a play is going on. The key clue is the dead man’s missing top hat. In the 1920s, all men wore hats — if not top hats, then derbies and fedoras and more — all strange almost unidentifiable objects today. Ellery, aiding his father, Inspector Richard Queen, takes this premise, seemingly small, to its most logical extremes and solves the mystery.
The Inspector, by the way, dotes on snuff, to another extreme — at least every other page, or so it seems. In terms of populating their story, the writers Queen deliberately modeled their early work on S. S. Van Dine and Philo Vance, or so I’ve been led to believe, and there’s nothing to contradict it here. Fortunately their idea of what makes a good mystery changed and coalesced into something much more solid over the years, along with their audience’s.
With about two or three chapters to go, there’s a Challenge to the Reader, a favorite Ellery Queenian device, at which time — based on the facts so far — the reader is asked to pinpoint the killer’s identity. I hope I don’t hurt myself, patting myself on the back, but I’ll give myself about 80% on this one.
[UPDATE] 02-21-08. I don’t how often I’ll keep running these old reviews, but on the other hand, if you haven’t read them, they’re new to you.
At the time, this happened to be the first review I’d written in about eight years. I’d drifted away from reading mysteries for a lot of that time, and even more so I’d lost touch with mystery fandom. This was prior to blogging, but not DorothyL, to put a time perspective on things. I’d been busy with teaching and other matters, but not with collecting, by any means. That has never stopped, not since I was 12 or 13. Some of the books I bought then I still have, but unfortunately not all of them.
In any case, when I started Mystery*File up as a print zine again, this was the first review of mine that I included. Some readers thought I was fairly rough on Mr. Queen, but others agreed with me. I haven’t made any attempt to rewrite it. While the rust shows, it still reads like my writing. I know what my writing reads like, and I can’t do anything about it.
For an Ellery Queen novel I liked more, read a more recent review of The Tragedy of X here.
February 21st, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Although modeled on van Dine, the early Queens were light-years ahead of him and provided a bridge from the old to the “modern” mystery. I still enjoy the Queens, while I have to plow through the Vances.
February 21st, 2008 at 8:09 pm
I omitted it when I posted the review here, but I gave the book two stars out of five.
I mentioned van Dine, but I didn’t do any actual comparisons. I’ll have to read one again — it’s been a while — but I have a hunch that if a Philo Vance story tops two stars, it will be because of the mystery, not because of the characters.
Back in the 50s, when I first started reading “adult” mysteries, my favorites were Erle Stanley Gardner, Ellery Queen, Agatha Christie and John Dickson Carr. I also liked the Mr. & Mrs. North stories by Frances & Richard Lockridge, and most of George Harmon Coxe’s work.
Some 50 years later, I remember them all fondly, in just about the same order, with maybe Gardner slipping out of first place, and Rex Stout moving up. For some reason I didn’t read him very much back then. Maybe I found Nero Wolfe’s idiosyncrasies a little too unusual. (Archie was OK.)
Of these, only Stout and Christie seem to be read by the general public today. Except for the magazine, Ellery Queen is no longer a very familiar name, and how many people still read the magazine?
— Steve
February 21st, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I agree. “The Roman Hat Mystery” is nowhere as good as later Queen’s, as a mystery plot. It’s a promising start, that creates the good characters of the series: Ellery, his father, Velie and the rest.
The very next book, “The French Powder Mystery” is a big step up. It’s a good novel, one that starts out the great run of A-1 Queen books.
Gardner, Queen, Christie and Carr are all giants. The very powerful plotting skills of these writers will eventually bring them back in favor.
February 21st, 2008 at 10:38 pm
Mike, you say, “The very powerful plotting skills of these writers will eventually bring them back in favor.”
But when I see the type of crime fiction that makes the bestselling list, I become more and more pessimistic that GAD-type plotting will ever making a comeback.
If Paul Halter can’t get published in this country except by a publisher one step above Print On Demand, what does that tell us?
By the way, GAD = Golden Age of Detection.
On the other hand, there is still over a shelf full of Agatha Christie’s at the local Borders, so what do I know?
And some of those quilting, herb-selling, cookie-baking, teddy-bear mysteries may have some honest-to-goodness detective work in them that keeps readers coming back for more.
— Steve
February 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
In 2005, there was an anthology of original shorts, by authors of the kind Steve mentions: “Murder Most Crafty”. Some of the tales weren’t mysteries at all, being suspense. But there was a pure puzzle plot tale that was nice: Tim Myers – “Waxing Moon”.
And the volume contained a mystery with some decent setting & storytelling – but alas not much sound plotting: Susan Witting Albert – “The Collage to Kill For”.
On Halter: at least most of the hard-core plot-loving mystery fans here in the USA gave Paul Halter a rousing welcome, when his first book came out in English, last year. It’s a start!
There are signs that current writers are trying to write more, and better plotted, true mystery short stories. Now, if we could only get the general public to read them!
February 22nd, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Reading my previous comment, I think I sound more sarcastic about quilting mysteries than I intended to be. I read them occasionally, and while they tend to dwell on the characters’ home lives and domestic/romantic squabbles more than I care for, occasionally again there is an honest attempt at “fair play” detection.
I also remember an anecdote told by Marv Lachman, perhaps, about an authors’ panel he was on and having to explain what “fair play” detection meant.
As for Paul Halter’s The Night of the Wolf, I have good news. It is presently ranked #206,791 in Books. That may not sound very high, but I have seen other old mysteries ranked in the 5 or 6 million range.
Maybe Wildside Press will take notice, or some other publisher. Publishers Weekly also gave it a Starred Review: “Most of the 10 outstanding stories in this collection from French author Halter, the first English-language edition of his work, center on an impossible crime, a still potent subgenre that was once a fixture of last century’s golden age of detective fiction…”
So…? Perhaps the art of detection is not altogether behind us?
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