Customer Reviews
I highly recommend this book to all mystery fans! - By: Kurt A. Johnson, 03 Mar 2004 
When the body of the wife of the President of French's department store tumbles out of a display, Ellery Queen & his father, Inspector Queen, arrive to unravel this mystery. This is a tale of drug abuse, abduction, marital infidelity, hatred, & a murder that no one could have committed. How will Ellery gather all of the disparate threads & solve this murder? Read this book to find out!
I must admit that this is the first Ellery Queen (1905-71) book that I have ever read, & as such I cannot compare it to any other of his stories. But, that said, I found this to be a great book, & a fascinating mystery! I liked the illustrations of the crime scene & the way that the clues were laid out. I highly recommend this book to all mystery fans!
All the clues you need - more red herrings than you want. - By: Peter Reeve, 23 Feb 2003 
Frederic Dannay & Manfred Lee, the authors of this & the other early Ellery Queen books, certainly enjoyed mystery. They not only invented a fictional sleuth called Ellery Queen, they also wrote the books under that pseudonym. Not content with that, this novel also has a forward by a fictional 'J.J.McC' & some additional notes by an unnamed 'editor'. You may enjoy all of this or, like me, you may find it all rather irritating & wish they would simply get on with the story.
Talking of irritating, was there ever such a provoking hero as Ellery? Pompous, arrogant & vain, he makes Lord Peter Wimsey look like a man of the people. "Scoot!" he (a civilian) says to a police officer, handing him some items for fingerprinting. Anyone who thinks that America has always been,in contrast to Europe, a classless society, should read this 1930 novel.
But is it a good tale? Well, yes, if you want a storyin the classic mould. It has rather too many red herrings for my taste but I shall say no more, for fear of spoiling it.
One other complaint; the authors don't trust to the power of simple story-telling. Characters do not merely 'say' things. They 'grin broadly' - for no apparent reason - & display tobacco-stained teeth when they speak. The authors seem to think they have to embelish everything to retain the reader's interest. When the Inspector orders his men to inspect the crime scene, they do so 'grinning'. Why? Have they forgotten that the victim's poor spouse isin the room?
Having said all that, if you are a mystery fan you will want to read at least one Ellery Queen story & this is as good a one as any. One last tip: if, when you reach the final episode, you have not solved the mystery, go back over the earlier parts of the book. As the authors say, the clues are all there.
