Sat 19 Mar 2022
ELLERY QUEEN – The Origin of Evil. Little Brown, hardcover, 1951. Paperback reprints include: Pocket #926, 1953; #2926, 1956. Signet, 1972. Harper Perennial, 1992. Also one of the three novels included in the omnibus volume The Hollywood Murders (J. B. Lippincott, hardcover, 1951).
Ellery returns to Hollywood and finds reports of its death premature, but a new Hollywood, to be sure. Revenge is apparently the motive for a series of mysterious threats to a pair of business partners; one of them dies of fright.
It is the other, confined to a wheelchair, who believes he has worked out the murder scheme, but this time the real murderer is even more clever.
The pseudo-Tarzan living in a tree is the most remarkable character, one most remembered. There seemed to be a bit more lenient attitude toward sex in this story than expected. Ellery falls in love with one unworthy; Paula Paris is not mentioned.
The series of threats has a hidden significance, as well as the first threatening note. Was EQ’s presence a factor? Lack of evidence keeps justice from triumphing completely, not quite satisfying.
Rating: ***
March 19th, 2022 at 4:02 pm
I don’t remember this one at all, and this review is of no particular help. I was being cryptic at the time, and none of it comes back to me.
Time to read this one again, I think!
March 19th, 2022 at 4:08 pm
Steve, what is (or are) your favorite Queen novels? The Wrightsville novels, or earlier ones, or…?
March 19th, 2022 at 4:28 pm
Not an easy one for me to answer. I read all of them but one when I first started reading mysteries back in the late 50s, then kept on reading new ones after that as soon as they came out. Since then, I’ve only re-read one, that being DOUBLE DOUBLE, which I reviewed here a week or so ago.
Based on how well I remember the older ones, the ones with country titles, a la EGYPTIAN CROSS, as opposed to later ones (many not at all), I’d have to say that they’re favorites. But than again, I really enjoyed DOUBLE DOUBLE, so who knows for sure?
But how about you? Or anyone else who’d like to share their favorite EQ’s with the rest of the world.
March 19th, 2022 at 5:49 pm
http://mikegrost.com/queen1.htm and https://bloodymurder.wordpress.com/2011/02/06/9-of-the-best-by-ellery-queen/ offer a couple of best of lists.
March 19th, 2022 at 7:06 pm
Thanks, Tony. Mike’s lists reminded me. When I read THE TRAGEDY OF X for the first time, it knocked my socks off. I also liked THE GREEK COFFIN MYSTERY a lot, and I mean a lot.
March 20th, 2022 at 1:05 am
This is one of the Queen’s I have to read a chapter or two of to remember. I never felt EQ was all that at home in Hollywood and the fish out of water stuff was as uncomfortable for us as him, at least here.
My personal favorite Queen novels are CAT OF MANY TAILS, DOUBLE DOUBLE, EGYPTIAN CROSS, AMERICAN GUN, and PLAYER ON THE OTHER SIDE.
March 21st, 2022 at 9:57 am
An earlier Mystery*File Review of this title:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=1494
March 21st, 2022 at 10:13 am
Thanks, Bill! Maybe I’ve been doing this blog too long. I’d totally forgotten this earlier review.