Sun 13 Feb 2022
ELLERY QUEEN – The Devil to Pay. Stokes, hardcover, 1938. Pocket #270, paperback, 1944. Reprinted many times, including as one of the three novels in the omnibus volume The Hollywood Murders (J. B. Lippincott, hardcover, 1951). Also note: The Perfect Crime (Grosset & Dunlap, hardcover, 1942) was a novelization of the film Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime (Columbia, 1941), which in turn was loosely based on this novel.
Ellery, as Hilary “Scoop†King, the wildest type of parody of a newspaperman, solves the murder of a crooked financialist, Solly Spaeth. After disastrous floods in the Midwest, Ohippi hydroelectric project collapsed, leaving all other stockholders ruined, including Spaeth’s partner. There is also the matter of the correct will, so there are plenty of motives.
A smooth, easy flow of words, a well-coordinated plot, and as “unlikely†but fairly obvious choice of murderer makes for enjoyable reading. However, there is nothing much to remember it by – I presumably have read it before, but nothing came back this time. Also included are Ellery’s experiences in trying to see an eccentric Hollywood producer.
Rating: ****
February 13th, 2022 at 8:18 pm
This one felt an bit like EQ on cruise control. Not that its a bad thing, but still cruise control.
February 13th, 2022 at 9:54 pm
By one of those strange things we humans call coincidences, I was just last weekend talking with my brother on the phone, and the subject of Ellery Queen came up. I remember saying that it was about time I read the “Hollywood” mysteries again, since I didn’t remember anything about them. (That may be because there’s nothing all that memorable about them.)
In any case, when I looked in my little black book of old reviews today, guess which one came up when I flipped the page to find the next one to post? It’s an omen of some kind, telling me that here’s something I really ought to do, and if I don’t, it would be at my own risk.
February 13th, 2022 at 9:47 pm
“The Perfect Crime (Grosset & Dunlap, hardcover, 1942) was a novelization of the film Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime (Columbia, 1941), which in turn was loosely based on this novel.”
The book of the film of the book, then.
February 13th, 2022 at 9:55 pm
Perfectly stated!
February 27th, 2022 at 11:24 pm
[…] (*) I assume but am not sure that this refers to the same producer Ellery worked for in The Devil to Pay, the previous “Hollywood†mystery and reviewed here. […]
January 2nd, 2023 at 11:17 am
[…] Mystery*File […]