Mon 20 Jan 2025
Diary Mystery Review: ELLERY QUEEN – The Quick and the Dead.
Posted by Steve under Diary Reviews[5] Comments
ELLERY QUEEN – The Quick and the Dead. Ellery Queen #17. Pocket, paperback, later printing. Originally published as There Was an Old Woman (Little Brown, hardcover, 1943). First reprinted under this original title as Pocket Book #326, paperback, 1945. Reprinted several times since.
It seems senseless to have changed the title,as the original one fits so much better. Remember “There was an old woman who lived in a shoe” from Mother Goose? That verse is the basic theme; Ellery Queen picks it up early, to his later confusion.
Cornelia Potts, president of the Potts shoe business, lives with her six children and second husband, all in one house, which is the site of numerous hatreds, jealousies, and various eccentricities. Three murders, including a surrealistic duel at dawn, and one natural death later, Ellery’s deductions disrupt a weeding bring him a new secretary named “Nikki Porter.”
We have many exaggerated character studies: Thurlow, the feeble-minded nitwit; Louella, the slave and science and invention; and Horatio, who lives in a continued childhood. It is easy to suspect that the name Potts is merely a lively excuse to call the whole family potty.
What may or may not be a flaw is the failure of Inspector Queen to read the old lady’s will immediately after her death. While rationalized, it does lead to the clue which gives Ellery the answer, or rather, the proof of his accusation. Details fit together beautifully.
But are duels really legal? Even those supposedly rigged to be harmless (with Inspector Queen spying on)?
Rating: *****

January 22nd, 2025 at 10:28 am
What little critical judgment I might have vanishes in an instant when it comes to these Ellery Queen novels, even when the character was in his early, prissy Philo Vance mode. I began reading them at a very impressionable age and have not matured since then. I love all the books and short stories, including those the plots and characters strain credulity. Needless to say, I remember this one fondly.
January 22nd, 2025 at 2:32 pm
You would be amazed, Jerry, as to how much in agreement we are. In spite of lots of competition from other writers, for me Ellery Queen stories were — and still are — the best. Time to start reading them all over again!
January 22nd, 2025 at 6:22 pm
I feel exactly the same way about Ellery Queen too!
He has been a favorite since first reading Calendar of Crime in my youth.
January 22nd, 2025 at 8:14 pm
It’s nice to know that I’m not alone!
January 25th, 2025 at 1:27 am
Ellery Queen is pretty much all you have to say, and I am willing to suspend a great deal of critical judgement and just see where the book takes me.