Sat 27 Jun 2009
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: ELLERY QUEEN – The Scarlet Letters.
Posted by Steve under Reviews[10] Comments
William F. Deeck
ELLERY QUEEN – The Scarlet Letters. Little Brown, US, hardcover ,1953; Gollancz, UK, hc, 1953. Included in the omnibus volume The New York Murders, Little Brown, US, no date [1958]. Paperback reprints include Pocket Books #1049, 1955; Signet Q5362, 1973, with many later printings from each publisher.
Dirk Lawrence, not too successful mystery writer and even less successful “serious” writer, and his rich wife, Martha, have a perfect marriage. Perfect, that is, until Dirk begins to suspect that his wife is cuckolding him and becomes drunken and violent.
Nikki Porter, Ellery Queen’s secretary, is a friend of Martha’s. Despite his quite correct protests that he is no good at such things, she gets Queen involved in the domestic discord.
Queen does a lot of running around and very little deducing. As a private-eye type, he’s futile, and he admits it. Private eyes “tail” people; Queen “trails” them.
It is evident to anyone with the meanest intelligence — which this reader possesses on a good day — what the outcome of this case will be. So with vast anticipation the reader waits for Ellery Queen the author’s twist, the final surprise, the revelation that nothing is what it seems. Most surprisingly, the shock is that everything is indeed exactly what it seems.
Those who have knowledge of the Queen saga may recall an earlier novel in which Biff Barnes or Barnes Biff or Beau Rummell or someone with a name like that, a partner with Queen in an investigative agency, pretended he was Ellery Queen.
That, I believe, is what happened here, without Ellery Queen the author bothering to reveal it. Good lord, even Sergeant Velie could have figured out the dying message the moment it was written, yet this Ellery Queen dithers about it for days.
Nonetheless, despite the obviousness of the plot and Queen the detective’s dimwittedness, there’s an engrossing novel here.
June 27th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
I bought a copy of the Pocket reprint when it first came out. I would have been 13 at the time. I wonder why I remember the cover more than I do the book itself.
June 28th, 2009 at 11:43 am
I loved The Scarlet Letters as a teenager. Haven’t read it since – but seem to remember the complete plot in detail.
The Scarlet Letters is hard to discuss, without spoilers. Just about any discussion gives away too much of the plot.
The Scarlet Letters is really short – more a novella than a novel.
June 28th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Mike or anyone
Without going into details of the plot, do you think that it was as easy to solve as Bill Deeck said?
Sometimes what one reader finds obvious is a real mind twister for someone else. I wonder if that’s the case here.
— Steve
June 28th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
It was fairly obvious to solve as I remember it. Wasn’t this Nikki Porter’s swan song? Maybe knowing she was going away Ellery was too distracted to detect.
I always thought this one read only a little better than one of those novelizations of the films. Certainly it doesn’t read like prime EQ.
Julian Symons insisted there were two Ellery’s, an older and younger brother. Maybe there was a third — Zeppo, who took on this case. If George Forman could name all his sons George Forman, Inpector Queen could have three sons named Ellery.
June 28th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
I was completely surprised by the ending.
Ellery Queen usually surprised me.
The ending has two parts: a final twist. Plus a Dying Message.
I agree the Dying Message is fairly simple, but it is fairly clever.
The big final twist was a show stopper, though. It is really unusual and imaginative.
The reviewer claims:
“the reader waits for …the author’s twist, the final surprise, the revelation that nothing is what it seems. Most surprisingly, the shock is that everything is indeed exactly what it seems.”
This claim just seems inaccurate.
Some people might not guess the final twist (I didn’t).
Others might guess it.
But can’t see how anyone would claim that
“everything is indeed exactly what it seems.”
***
The Scarlet Letters is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. Some will like it, and some won’t.
It is not “core” EQ, the way The Greek Coffin Mystery, or Cat of Many Tails are.
I don’t want to over sell it.
Still, it seems impressive IMHO.
***
Beau Rummell appears in THE DRAGON’S TEETH (1939) by EQ.
June 28th, 2009 at 6:49 pm
From anyone else Scarlet Letter would be a major, but from EQ I think it is a let down. It’s not as bad as I make out, but Ellery does seem distracted and off his game, and the presence of Nikki Porter probably reminded me too much of the Columbia films and those uncannonical novelizations.
Still, I may reread it. It’s possible my reaction to it came from reading it between two or three of the best Queen novels.
Almost any of the Queen books are worth reading, and most far more than just that. But for some reason this one felt tired, almost as if it was written to fulfill a contractual obligation. But if there is lesser EQ I don’t think there is any minor EQ.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:42 am
I second Mike’s opinion.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:45 am
David, I named my dog Ellery, so I see no reason why Inspector Queen couldn’t name all his sons that!
I have to say that my dog would have solved this case in record time. I tend to enjoy the Nikki Porter stories, because I enjoyed the radio shows, but I know that’s only personal taste.
Glad to see Bill being remembered here. He had great insight into many of the great authors.
June 29th, 2009 at 4:03 pm
Jeff
I don’t mind Nikki in the shorter form, but she never really seemed to fit into the novels for me. In the shorts she was useful, in the books less so. I always had the feeling she sort of snuck into the novels despite the boys best efforts to keep her out.
Still, I could never name a dog after Ellery Queen — he might prove to be smarter than me.
Again, I don’t dislike this one, I just don’t think it meets the highest Queenian standards, and I couldn’t help but feel that Ellery wasn’t doing his best work here
Francis Nevins and Julian Symons mention there are at least three distinct Ellery Queens, and W. Vivian Butler counts five different Simon Templars (Mark I -V). Writers and characters evolve, even series characters. I just don’t think this one was Ellery at his best or most typical.
July 16th, 2010 at 9:46 am
While not the cleverest EQ of all time, it has a lot to recommend it: full-speed storytelling, a glimpse of the New York of the period (the city itself forms part of the mystery), and an Ellery who seems more human, more able to be touched by the people he gets involved with.