"Ellery Queen is the American detective story."
That's a quote from Anthony Boucher, the author, scholar and eminent mystery critic, talking about Ellery Queen - the name used by two collaborative cousins, Frederick Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, who also used it as the name of their detective protagonist. The term "Golden Age of Detection" is generally used to refer to British crime writers between the two World Wars. But there was an American Golden Age too, at roughly the same time, and that age surely was presided over by Ellery Queen. The first Queen novel, The Roman Hat Mystery, was reviewed on the Classic Mysteries podcast about nine years ago, and, I think, it bears repeating. I would note that - at the time of this review - books by Ellery Queen were almost completely out of print. That's no longer the case, and I have edited my original podcast script accordingly. For clarity's sake, when I refer to "Ellery" (first name only), I mean the fictional detective character; "Ellery Queen" (with last name) refers to the very real authors, Dannay and Lee, who used the name as the author's pen-name as well.
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There has been a murder in the Roman Theatre in New York City. The victim, a shady lawyer named Monte Field, has been poisoned while watching the second act of a play called Gunplay. As Inspector Richard Queen and his son Ellery soon find out, to describe Field as “shady” is an understatement – but who could have killed him? And how? And why? Oh – one more very pertinent fact: the victim’s top hat is missing. It is The Roman Hat Mystery, the very first Ellery Queen novel.
The Roman Hat Mystery was published in 1929 and introduced the characters of Ellery and his father, along with some of the New York City police regulars who appeared in many later Queen novels. But The Roman Hat Mystery is a good starting point for anyone meeting Ellery Queen for the first time, because it contains many of the plot and style elements which were evident in many other Queen books – particularly the ones they wrote during the first decade or so of their partnership.
The plot of The Roman Hat Mystery is pretty straightforward: a man is murdered in a busy Broadway theater. Inspector Queen and the New York City homicide squad are called in to solve the murder, with Queen’s son Ellery joining them in the investigation. They find the victim, in full evening dress – remember, this was 1929, and it was common to wear formal evening clothes to a Broadway show – but missing his top hat. Why his hat? And what could have happened to it? Despite a careful police search, nobody appears to have left the theater with an extra hat, nor does it seem to be hidden on the premises.
As Inspector Queen and Ellery talk to the potential witnesses and suspects, the missing hat assumes an ever-greater position of importance in their investigation. The reader is reminded of this constantly, and it is no exaggeration – nor am I revealing anything – when I say that the missing hat provides the basis for Ellery’s deductions about who must have committed the crime, and how, and why.
The most noteworthy point of style is the "Challenge to the Reader." Ellery Queen the author was a stickler for playing fair with the readers. Clues are freely shared, but at the same time there is a large amount of logic and reasoning involved in finding a solution to this crime. The entire book is set up as a puzzle for the reader. First of all, the reader is given a separate listing of all the characters in the novel, and is warned to refer to that chart regularly – as Queen writes – if toward no other end than to ward off the inevitable cry of “Unfair!” – the consolation of those who read and do not reason. We are also given a floor plan of the theater, the scene of the crime, and invited to make logical deductions based on what we know and what may have been possible based on the physical limitations of the theater itself.
But what distinguishes this Ellery Queen novel – as it does again in many of the other Queen novels – is the formal challenge to the reader. Just before Ellery reveals the correct solution, we are given a short note from the fictional “J.J. McC” (who is supposedly acting as editor of the book) – yet another incarnation of Dannay and Lee. It’s quite short, so let me read it:
The current vogue in detective literature is all for the practice of placing the reader in the position of chief sleuth. I have prevailed upon Mr. Ellery Queen to permit at this point in The Roman Hat Mystery the interpolation of a challenge to the reader. “Who killed Monte Field?” “How was the murder accomplished?” Mr. Queen agrees with me that the alert student of mystery tales, now being in possession of all the pertinent facts, should at this stage of the story have reached definite conclusions on the questions propounded. The solution – or enough of it to point unerringly to the guilty character – may be reached by a series of logical deductions and psychological observations. In closing my last personal appearance in the tale let me admonish the reader with a variation of the phrase Caveat Emptor: “Let the reader beware.”
That challenge – or a variation – may be found in most of the early Queen books. Eventually, those books were sold with the pages after that challenge sealed; if the reader felt he had solved the problem and returned the book with the seal unbroken, his purchase price might be refunded. It didn’t happen often.
The Roman Hat Mystery comes from a time when the best mystery authors looked at deceiving their readers as being part of a grand game – and those readers entered into the game eagerly. If you haven’t read any Ellery Queen, this is an enjoyable way to meet one of America’s finest Golden Age detectives.
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At the time that review was written, The Roman Hat Mystery was out of print, available only in a book club edition (which is itself now out of print). Fortunately, with the resurgence of interest in Golden Age mysteries, this book is again available from MysteriousPress.com/OpenRoad. It is available in both e-book and print versions.
If you would like to hear the original podcast (complete with out-of-date references, alas), please click here.
Next week: Flowers for the Judge, by Margery Allingham.
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