Ellery Queen was sunbathing when the young woman appeared in the doorway of the place in the Hollywood hills where he was living. Laurel Hill was there seeking Ellery's help: her father, Leander Hill, one of the principals in a firm of wholesale jewelers, had been murdered - murdered by finding the body of a dead dog on his doorstep. Ellery, who was living in Hollywood while trying to write his next novel, was both skeptical and unhelpful. But as he became more involved (mostly against his will) with Laurel's problem, he became less skeptical - especially as he met some of the very unusual, even bizarre, people involved in the case. It's the story of The Origin of Evil, a 1951 novel by Ellery Queen. It's the subject of today's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the complete review by clicking here.
I'm pretty sure that most visitors to this blog already know about Ellery Queen the author and Ellery Queen the character. Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee were cousins who wrote their mystery novels as "Ellery Queen," novels which featured as their detective a character named Ellery Queen, the son of a New York City police inspector. (For the purpose of grammar and comprehension, I will refer to the authors as a single person - generally "Queen" - and their fictional detective character as "Ellery.")
Once Ellery agrees to get involved in trying to solve the murder of Leander Hill – a murder, by the way, which the local police insisted was no murder at all – he meets the other players in this increasingly strange case:
- There’s Roger Priam, who was Leander Hill’s business partner. Priam is half-paralyzed and literally lives in a custom wheelchair. Priam is nasty and brutish, but something – some series of anonymous messages like the dead dog that killed his partner – clearly has terrified him;
- There’s Priam’s beautiful wife Delia, a sexually overcharged woman, enormously frustrated by her husband’s paralysis;
- There’s Delia’s son from a previous marriage, Crowe Macgowan, who believes the world is going to self-destruct in a nuclear holocaust and who lives in a tree house on the Priams' property;
- There’s Alfred Wallace, Priam’s secretary and bodyguard – who appears to be enjoying a variety of perks that aren’t usually considered to be part of a secretary’s job;
- And there's Mr. Collier, Delia Priam’s father, who provides some small measure of sanity among this really odd assortment of people.
As the story evolves and the odd and terrifying gifts continue to come to Roger Priam (who refuses to tell anyone what they signify), Ellery, with the help of a local policeman, Lieutenant Keats, must try to decipher the meaning of the gifts, figure out what dangers are involved, and – ultimately – trap a murderer.
Much of this book borders on the fantastic – and yet, ultimately, makes sense (providing you’re willing to suspend a certain amount of disbelief). The best way to find out what I’m talking about is to read The Origin of Evil. And be prepared to be surprised. The book is out of print, but it is available in used editions and also as an e-book published by MysteriousPress.com and Open Road Media.
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