Mon 4 Mar 2019
ELLERY QUEEN – The Dutch Shoe Mystery. Ellery Queen #4. Stokes, hardcover, 1931. Paperback reprints include Pocket #202; 1st printing, December 1942.
Subtitled “A Problem in Deduction” (*) and that is exactly correct. The wealthy benefactress of a New York City hospital is murdered just before undergoing an emergency operation on the same building, and the only clue is a pair of shoes with a mended shoelace.
No one should read an Ellery Queen novel of this vintage for a study of the characters involved, but for the most part the prose is clean and uncluttered. The only exception being a tendency toward flowery language at the beginning of every section. The rest of the story is punctuated only occasionally by the presence of yet another footnote. The lack of action is made up for by a plot that, when unraveled, has no flaws, so far as I can see.
(*) There is a ‘Challenge to the Reader’ on page 241 of the Pocket edition, and as usual, I flubbed it up. And yet, if I’d followed through on the thought that occurred to me on page 32, I’d have nailed the culprit in no tie flat. I kid you not.
March 4th, 2019 at 8:28 pm
Typical of the earliest Queen’s before the formula started to get to the boys and they began to play with the possibilities.
March 5th, 2019 at 7:36 pm
This is a book I haven’t read for decades.
Your good review is encouraging a new read!
March 6th, 2019 at 12:05 am
I probably haven’t read many of the early Queen since I read and reviewed this one,no more than one or two. I’m sure I’d enjoy this one if I were to read it again now, but among my most favorites among the books they wrote are probably those published as The Hollywood Murders (The Devil to Pay, The Four of Hearts, and The Origin of Evil) and The Wrightsville Murders (Calamity Town, The Murder is a Fox, Ten Days’ Wonder).