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Ellery Queen Detective #26
The Finishing Stroke
During the eleven nights before Christmas, the strange gifts and the warnings came. Ellery Queen was there. The police were there. But no one saw the messenger. Ellery Queen knew that the sinister gifts held the clue to the mystery. But what did they mean, and who was the intended victim? Then on the twelfth night of Christmas, the last clue led straight to the corpse...
190 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1958
30 people are currently reading
446 people want to read
About the author
Ellery Queen
1,766 books483 followersaka Barnaby Ross.
(Pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee)
"Ellery Queen" was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery.
Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen's first appearance came in 1928 when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who used his spare time to assist his police inspector father in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death.
Several of the later "Ellery Queen" books were written by other authors, including Jack Vance, Avram Davidson, and Theodore Sturgeon.
(Pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee)
"Ellery Queen" was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery.
Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen's first appearance came in 1928 when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who used his spare time to assist his police inspector father in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death.
Several of the later "Ellery Queen" books were written by other authors, including Jack Vance, Avram Davidson, and Theodore Sturgeon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 66 reviews
July 27, 2010
The premise is fantastic: Ellery Queen couldn't solve a mystery for almost thirty years, although he knew the answer all along.
The writing is a joy, as always. Ellery is charming and hilarious. When told a man kissed his fiancee to avoid answering her pointed question, he says, "At the risk of being kissed, I'll have to ask him myself."
And the solution, as is standard with Ellery Queen, is so convoluted you couldn't guess it if you tried. On the up side, I did learn several typesetter's proofreading marks I didn't know before, and I thought I knew all the basics. Or maybe I should say I learned the difference between proofreading mark-up in the 1920s and the 1980s. (It's pretty much obsolete today.)
The solution also requires the reader to believe a basic impossibility about human character.
But I DON'T CARE.
I <3 Ellery Queen.
The writing is a joy, as always. Ellery is charming and hilarious. When told a man kissed his fiancee to avoid answering her pointed question, he says, "At the risk of being kissed, I'll have to ask him myself."
And the solution, as is standard with Ellery Queen, is so convoluted you couldn't guess it if you tried. On the up side, I did learn several typesetter's proofreading marks I didn't know before, and I thought I knew all the basics. Or maybe I should say I learned the difference between proofreading mark-up in the 1920s and the 1980s. (It's pretty much obsolete today.)
The solution also requires the reader to believe a basic impossibility about human character.
But I DON'T CARE.
I <3 Ellery Queen.
December 14, 2014
The Finishing Stroke is devilish little classic mystery story set primarily at Christmas-time, but bookended by a prologue set twenty-some years prior to the main events and a wrap-up that takes place over twenty years later. The set-up: In 1905, John Sebastian, Sr. takes his pregnant wife for a New Year's fling in New York before her "confinement" to bring forth an heir. When the weather turns bad (and a bit of looting takes place in the city), he stubbornly insists on taking her home. The result? An auto accident and his wife going into premature labor. She manages to successfully deliver a son--John Jr.--and then the doctor surprises the new father with word that another baby is on the way. But giving birth to another baby is too much for his young wife and she does not survive. In a fit of misplaced anger (heaven forbid that the man admit that it was his stubbornness that forced them out onto roads unfit for driving), John Sr. blames the death on the innocent baby and refuses to acknowledge him as his own. He gives the boy to the attending physician--a man whose wife has been unable to have children--and heads home with his new (and only) son. But the father doesn't last long himself and dies within a week, having made a new will leaving everything to John, Jr. but without arranging a promised trust fund for the unwanted baby.
Fast forward to Christmas 1929. John Jr. has put together an extended Christmas party at the home of his guardian, Arthur Craig. He has invited his best girl, Rusty Brown, and her mother; an old flame and wanna-be actress, Valentina Warren, and her current escort, an angry young musician named Marus Carlo; his long-time friend Ellery Queen and Ellery's publisher, Dan Freeman; Sam Dark, the family doctor; Roland Payne, the family lawyer; and the Reverend Andrew Gardiner. Sebastian immediately announces that some important events will happen during the party. Item one: his book of poetry is being published by the House of Freeman. Item two: January 6th is twenty-fifth birthday and he'll come into the trust fund that his father set up for him in his will. Item three: He's going to marry his beloved Rusty--and that, by the way, is why the good pastor is among their number. And item four....well, he's going to save that one for later.
However, someone has a few surprises of their own. On Christmas Day when Sebastian leads them all to the Christmas tree in the living room for gifts, they find the presents have all vanished. As they are musing over this, suddenly a fully costumed Santa Claus appears from the hallway, hands them all gifts, and vanishes just as suddenly. They all assume that Felton, the butler, had been talked into performing and they go ahead and open their gifts--items that match the zodiac sign of each guest. But when Felton--and then all party members and the rest of the servants--denies any knowledge of Santa, Ellery becomes concerned. A search through the large rambling house, reveals no extra person...and the newly fallen snow outside reveals no footprints. Later an unknown man is found dead under the Christmas tree. Then a steady campaign of mystery gifts commences. Each night a gift with a parody verse matching the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" appears with Sebastian's name. And as the gifts continue the tone becomes more and more menacing until it all culminates in a second murder. Ellery believes he has solved the mystery--but doesn't have enough confidence in the solution to put it before the police. So the case remains unsolved.
Fast forward again to 1957. Ellery receives a phone call from now-Chief Devoe (a man who had been a sergeant in the state troopers at the time) wanting to know if Queen would like a crate that contains everything gathered in the Sebastian case. [There's a general clear-out going on and Devoe hates to throw it out.] Ellery takes it and when going through all the materials, he realizes he was right--well, pretty much. He just needed to give his solution a little twist. And he goes to confront the culprit.
Provided that one is willing to suspend one's disbelief regarding the sensible actions of a few people...and one is willing to swallow an interesting twist on a central theme [can't be more specific or I'd give the show away], this is a ripping good tale. What's not to love--mysterious corpse, red herrings, large cast of suspects, isolated and somewhat snow-bound setting, lovely prose, and witty banter. This a fun mystery and I can say that I got hoodwinked (and thoroughly enjoyed it)--I was absolutely distracted by that central theme and didn't catch any of the clues that would have led me in the proper direction.
First published on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
Fast forward to Christmas 1929. John Jr. has put together an extended Christmas party at the home of his guardian, Arthur Craig. He has invited his best girl, Rusty Brown, and her mother; an old flame and wanna-be actress, Valentina Warren, and her current escort, an angry young musician named Marus Carlo; his long-time friend Ellery Queen and Ellery's publisher, Dan Freeman; Sam Dark, the family doctor; Roland Payne, the family lawyer; and the Reverend Andrew Gardiner. Sebastian immediately announces that some important events will happen during the party. Item one: his book of poetry is being published by the House of Freeman. Item two: January 6th is twenty-fifth birthday and he'll come into the trust fund that his father set up for him in his will. Item three: He's going to marry his beloved Rusty--and that, by the way, is why the good pastor is among their number. And item four....well, he's going to save that one for later.
However, someone has a few surprises of their own. On Christmas Day when Sebastian leads them all to the Christmas tree in the living room for gifts, they find the presents have all vanished. As they are musing over this, suddenly a fully costumed Santa Claus appears from the hallway, hands them all gifts, and vanishes just as suddenly. They all assume that Felton, the butler, had been talked into performing and they go ahead and open their gifts--items that match the zodiac sign of each guest. But when Felton--and then all party members and the rest of the servants--denies any knowledge of Santa, Ellery becomes concerned. A search through the large rambling house, reveals no extra person...and the newly fallen snow outside reveals no footprints. Later an unknown man is found dead under the Christmas tree. Then a steady campaign of mystery gifts commences. Each night a gift with a parody verse matching the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" appears with Sebastian's name. And as the gifts continue the tone becomes more and more menacing until it all culminates in a second murder. Ellery believes he has solved the mystery--but doesn't have enough confidence in the solution to put it before the police. So the case remains unsolved.
Fast forward again to 1957. Ellery receives a phone call from now-Chief Devoe (a man who had been a sergeant in the state troopers at the time) wanting to know if Queen would like a crate that contains everything gathered in the Sebastian case. [There's a general clear-out going on and Devoe hates to throw it out.] Ellery takes it and when going through all the materials, he realizes he was right--well, pretty much. He just needed to give his solution a little twist. And he goes to confront the culprit.
Provided that one is willing to suspend one's disbelief regarding the sensible actions of a few people...and one is willing to swallow an interesting twist on a central theme [can't be more specific or I'd give the show away], this is a ripping good tale. What's not to love--mysterious corpse, red herrings, large cast of suspects, isolated and somewhat snow-bound setting, lovely prose, and witty banter. This a fun mystery and I can say that I got hoodwinked (and thoroughly enjoyed it)--I was absolutely distracted by that central theme and didn't catch any of the clues that would have led me in the proper direction.
First published on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks.
December 27, 2009
Ellery Queen is a little too impressed with his own cleverness. You see this in both the puzzle that serves as skeleton for the book--even the identity of the murderer is subordinate to the meaning of the items and cards--and in the device of having a character "Ellery Queen" within the book written by Ellery Queen.
The device is taken to its logical conclusion here. The main part of the story starts with a presumably real quote from the Saturday Review of Literature that was part of its review of Queen's first novel, The Roman Hat Mystery. This review is referenced within this novel by the character Ellery Queen (who wrote a book called The Roman Hat Mystery).
The solution to the puzzle lies on the far edge of esoteric trivia and therefore its resolution is unsatisfying. I am not convinced that anyone would really go to this length.
The device is taken to its logical conclusion here. The main part of the story starts with a presumably real quote from the Saturday Review of Literature that was part of its review of Queen's first novel, The Roman Hat Mystery. This review is referenced within this novel by the character Ellery Queen (who wrote a book called The Roman Hat Mystery).
The solution to the puzzle lies on the far edge of esoteric trivia and therefore its resolution is unsatisfying. I am not convinced that anyone would really go to this length.
October 24, 2018
Il mio primo giallo di Ellery Queen, una lettura scorrevolissima, non riesci a staccarti dalle pagine. Queen riesce a tenere sempre alta l’attenzione del lettore, anche a me che, già molto prima di arrivare alla fine, avevo indovinato l’assassino, ma non il vero movente.
September 17, 2014
Leave your disbelief at the door and be welcome to an Ellery Queen mystery whose solution depends on such esoteric knowledge (origins of the Phoenician alphabet, anyone?) that I'd be surprised if there has ever been a reader who has solved it. To make matters worse, one line of reasoning depends on a system of proofreading marks that hasn't been in use for decades; I began proofreading in the late 1960s, and the marks we used even then had considerably evolved from the ones displayed in this novel.
But to beef about the stark unsolvability of the plot is to miss the point of a golden-era Ellery Queen novel. What makes the book such a joy to read is the bubbling flow of the narration, full of linguistic flourishes, much wit, deftly sketched characters and some very funny jokes.
According to Wikipedia, Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor disagreed with that assessment in their A Catalogue of Crime (rev edn 1989): "The pervasive vulgarity renders the trick plot even less believable and justifies the contempt of those who dismiss all crime fiction as puerile." I hunted eagerly for the "pervasive vulgarity" but could find only this, which Lieutenant Luria asks Ellery of a self-styled psychic who's among the cast: "What's this act she's been putting on, staring into space google-eyed, like she'd just lost her step-ins during a flagpole-sit." I looked up "step-ins" and discovered they were the precursor of modern-day knickers/panties. So the joke is either moderately vulgar or very, very vulgar indeed.
Leaving that aside, the book is set in three eras: there's a prologue set in 1905, the bulk of the book set over the twelve days of Christmas in 1929-30, and a longish coda set in 1957, which is when Ellery finally solves the case and confronts the killer. In this coda there's a genuine sense of melancholia over the passage of time and what it has done to various of the central characters; it's a tone you don't often find in Queen novels.
And so to the plot, about which I can't be too specific for fear of spoiling it. In 1905 John Sebastian Sr. insists on driving home through the night from New York to his house in Rye; his car skids on the ice and overturns, crushing his heavily pregnant wife Claire. By good fortune, the house nearby belongs to a physician; when Claire goes into premature labor the doctor is able to deliver her firstborn, but discovers there's an identical sibling on the way. Giving birth to the sibling is too much for the weakened Claire, who dies. Awash with guilt and wrath, the father tells the physician and his wife, who've never been blessed with children, that they can have the younger sibling as their own; he will keep the elder as his only child. But John Sr. dies just a week or two later, leaving John Jr. under the guardianship of his old business partner Arthur Craig . . .
At Christmas 1929, a few months after the publication of his first novel, The Roman Hat Mystery, Ellery is invited to join a twelve-strong house party at the home of Arthur Craig. On January 6 John Jr. will be 25 years old and come into his father's great fortune. That day will also see the publication of his first book of poems, The Food of Love, and his marriage to his long-time sweetheart, Rusty Brown. But on each succeeding night a mysterious wrapped gift arrives for John containing one or more strange objects and bearing a card on which are typed a few lines of creepy doggerel. Then the stabbed corpse of a stranger appears one evening, and the cops are brought in.
On the twelfth night the final gift arrives: a gem-encrusted dagger, discovered by the rest of the party planted firmly in the back of the dead John. Just as they're trying to get their heads around this, the real John arrives, puzzled as to what all the fuss is about . . .
At the last minute, just before Lieutenant Luria releases the party to go their separate ways, Ellery does solve the bizarre clues, but he realizes they were designed to lead him not to the killer but to the person the killer is trying to frame. So he keeps his mouth shut until, over a quarter-century later, he has a blinding flash of inspiration that enables him to identify the murderer.
It's a tribute to the skills of the Queens that throughout the main section of the book they were able to handle, without our ever getting muddled as to who's who, a central cast of twelve -- the house-guests -- plus various extras (like the servants and a couple of the cops) in a setting that's essentially static. Most authors would have kept the numbers down, but of course the Queens couldn't do this: "twelveness" plays its part in the plot. (They even manage to develop a nascent love interest for Ellery although, being Ellery, he's far too much of a ninny to do anything about it.) That said, we're rarely under the illusion that the participants in the tale are real people; the plot is far too byzantinely fantasticated for us to imagine it or anything like it could occur in real life. This might make it difficult for some to enjoy the novel; for me, I find it as easy to suspend my disbelief for openly artificial mystery tales as I do for grittily realistic ones -- it's the stories that lie between the two extremes that sometimes give me more difficulty. (Besides, when did you last hear someone complain that A Midsummer Night's Dream is too unbelievable to be worth watching?)
This book was published well over a half-century ago and, aside from things like the plot point that relies upon antiquated proof marks, reads with delicious freshness, Barzun and Taylor be damned. It's not up there among the Queens' greats, but it's well worth your attention nonetheless.
=====
I re-read and wrote about this novel as part of the 1958 Book Challenge mounted by the Past Offences blog.
But to beef about the stark unsolvability of the plot is to miss the point of a golden-era Ellery Queen novel. What makes the book such a joy to read is the bubbling flow of the narration, full of linguistic flourishes, much wit, deftly sketched characters and some very funny jokes.
According to Wikipedia, Jacques Barzun and Wendell Hertig Taylor disagreed with that assessment in their A Catalogue of Crime (rev edn 1989): "The pervasive vulgarity renders the trick plot even less believable and justifies the contempt of those who dismiss all crime fiction as puerile." I hunted eagerly for the "pervasive vulgarity" but could find only this, which Lieutenant Luria asks Ellery of a self-styled psychic who's among the cast: "What's this act she's been putting on, staring into space google-eyed, like she'd just lost her step-ins during a flagpole-sit." I looked up "step-ins" and discovered they were the precursor of modern-day knickers/panties. So the joke is either moderately vulgar or very, very vulgar indeed.
Leaving that aside, the book is set in three eras: there's a prologue set in 1905, the bulk of the book set over the twelve days of Christmas in 1929-30, and a longish coda set in 1957, which is when Ellery finally solves the case and confronts the killer. In this coda there's a genuine sense of melancholia over the passage of time and what it has done to various of the central characters; it's a tone you don't often find in Queen novels.
And so to the plot, about which I can't be too specific for fear of spoiling it. In 1905 John Sebastian Sr. insists on driving home through the night from New York to his house in Rye; his car skids on the ice and overturns, crushing his heavily pregnant wife Claire. By good fortune, the house nearby belongs to a physician; when Claire goes into premature labor the doctor is able to deliver her firstborn, but discovers there's an identical sibling on the way. Giving birth to the sibling is too much for the weakened Claire, who dies. Awash with guilt and wrath, the father tells the physician and his wife, who've never been blessed with children, that they can have the younger sibling as their own; he will keep the elder as his only child. But John Sr. dies just a week or two later, leaving John Jr. under the guardianship of his old business partner Arthur Craig . . .
At Christmas 1929, a few months after the publication of his first novel, The Roman Hat Mystery, Ellery is invited to join a twelve-strong house party at the home of Arthur Craig. On January 6 John Jr. will be 25 years old and come into his father's great fortune. That day will also see the publication of his first book of poems, The Food of Love, and his marriage to his long-time sweetheart, Rusty Brown. But on each succeeding night a mysterious wrapped gift arrives for John containing one or more strange objects and bearing a card on which are typed a few lines of creepy doggerel. Then the stabbed corpse of a stranger appears one evening, and the cops are brought in.
On the twelfth night the final gift arrives: a gem-encrusted dagger, discovered by the rest of the party planted firmly in the back of the dead John. Just as they're trying to get their heads around this, the real John arrives, puzzled as to what all the fuss is about . . .
At the last minute, just before Lieutenant Luria releases the party to go their separate ways, Ellery does solve the bizarre clues, but he realizes they were designed to lead him not to the killer but to the person the killer is trying to frame. So he keeps his mouth shut until, over a quarter-century later, he has a blinding flash of inspiration that enables him to identify the murderer.
It's a tribute to the skills of the Queens that throughout the main section of the book they were able to handle, without our ever getting muddled as to who's who, a central cast of twelve -- the house-guests -- plus various extras (like the servants and a couple of the cops) in a setting that's essentially static. Most authors would have kept the numbers down, but of course the Queens couldn't do this: "twelveness" plays its part in the plot. (They even manage to develop a nascent love interest for Ellery although, being Ellery, he's far too much of a ninny to do anything about it.) That said, we're rarely under the illusion that the participants in the tale are real people; the plot is far too byzantinely fantasticated for us to imagine it or anything like it could occur in real life. This might make it difficult for some to enjoy the novel; for me, I find it as easy to suspend my disbelief for openly artificial mystery tales as I do for grittily realistic ones -- it's the stories that lie between the two extremes that sometimes give me more difficulty. (Besides, when did you last hear someone complain that A Midsummer Night's Dream is too unbelievable to be worth watching?)
This book was published well over a half-century ago and, aside from things like the plot point that relies upon antiquated proof marks, reads with delicious freshness, Barzun and Taylor be damned. It's not up there among the Queens' greats, but it's well worth your attention nonetheless.
=====
I re-read and wrote about this novel as part of the 1958 Book Challenge mounted by the Past Offences blog.
December 1, 2024
The Finishing Stroke is a bit of a cheat, since it requires specialized knowledge to solve the question of whodunnit. Ellery Queen was able to follow the clues, but I think a general reader would not have the expertise required. (I am not specifying the profession as that may be a spoiler alert, and yes I know this book was published in 1958).
This adventure has Ellery at a house party over Christmas 1929 to New Year 1930 where the host of the party receives a present every night that presages his death. The twelve guests (each of whom represent a different zodiac sign), try to break the code of the presents, but the one thing that is clear is that the gifts are coming from someone within the house. Even Ellery is stumped, and when he solves it, he believes that the clues point to an innocent person who is being framed. It takes him many years to resolve this case; it's his personal bete noire for his career.
I did find that there was one other route to the solution, and that was to notice what wasn't mentioned in the story. If your instincts tingle at a missing subject, follow that clue to a successful resolution. And that is the only help you get from this reader.
This adventure has Ellery at a house party over Christmas 1929 to New Year 1930 where the host of the party receives a present every night that presages his death. The twelve guests (each of whom represent a different zodiac sign), try to break the code of the presents, but the one thing that is clear is that the gifts are coming from someone within the house. Even Ellery is stumped, and when he solves it, he believes that the clues point to an innocent person who is being framed. It takes him many years to resolve this case; it's his personal bete noire for his career.
I did find that there was one other route to the solution, and that was to notice what wasn't mentioned in the story. If your instincts tingle at a missing subject, follow that clue to a successful resolution. And that is the only help you get from this reader.
August 9, 2018
Ehhhh ciao! Ma chi ci sarebbe arrivato? Io no di certo!! Un caso intricatissimo dove convergono un sacco di elementi! Ricorda parecchio “Dieci piccoli indiani”, ci sono meno omicidi, ma questa sorta di caccia al tesoro e le dodici persone costrette prima dal maltempo, poi dalla situazione a rimanere segregate in un’ enorme casa porta, inevitabilmente, a pensare alla Christie. Io sono tonta, ma se non c’ era Ellery Queen sarei ancora qui a lambiccarmi il cervello, anche perché, una volta iniziato, non riesci a staccartene! Spesso sbuffavo quando si soffermava troppo sui particolari, tanta era la curiosità di arrivare alla fine che, tra l’ altro, mi ha aperto un mondo!
September 1, 2023
Non sono una grande fan di Queen perché detesto il personaggio ma questo romanzo mi è piaciuto davvero molto. Giallo pulito, con una bellissima atmosfera e un Ellery meno borioso e insopportabile del solito.
Consigliato a tutti gli appassionati.
Consigliato a tutti gli appassionati.
December 23, 2012
It won't pass the Raymond Chandler criteria -- that stories should be about real people behaving the way real people behave -- but it does rise above some of the early Queen mysteries, notably The Dutch Shoe Mystery, that I have read lately. In "The Finishing Stroke," the killer at least has some actual reason to conduct the deadly business in a bizarre manner. It actually is the behavior of one of the other people involved that detracts from a sense of reality this time out.
That said, this is an entertaining read. You get a mysterious corpse, a large cast of suspects, lots of red herrings, an isolated setting, some good prose and banter, etc. If you are in the mood for verisimilitude, skip this one. If you want an old-fashioned mystery and don't mind when characters don't behave like living people, this one is kind of fun and more plausible than many of Queen's efforts.
That said, this is an entertaining read. You get a mysterious corpse, a large cast of suspects, lots of red herrings, an isolated setting, some good prose and banter, etc. If you are in the mood for verisimilitude, skip this one. If you want an old-fashioned mystery and don't mind when characters don't behave like living people, this one is kind of fun and more plausible than many of Queen's efforts.
August 25, 2018
Un giallo gradevole, che si fa leggere, anche se magari ha qualche ripetizione di troppo. L'autore depista di brutto i lettori, ma questa volta (incredibile dictu!) ce l'ho fatta ad intuire chi potesse essere l'assassino. Non vi nascondo che mi sento orgogliona di me stessa ^^
December 11, 2020
Ellery is a bit too clever for my taste and a little too full of himself. I feel like he’s supposed to be charming and funny, but I just don’t love him. The solution is a bit convoluted and not something I could have guessed at- the knowledge you needed to put it all together was just too obscure.
October 22, 2019
2 1/2 stars. I thought there were some very good characters in this book. The solution to the mystery, though, was too esoteric and the culprit shouldn't have overlooked the doodles at the back.
December 25, 2024
Very classical type of crime story, nice plot twists (didn’t expect most of them), also very Christmasy. Perfect read for the festive season
July 21, 2023
Un giallo davvero avvincente, con dei twist inaspettati ma soprattutto con la possibilità per il lettore - se vuole, io non mi ci metto nemmeno perché so che tanto non lo capisco mai - di risolvere il caso contemporaneamente ad Ellery Queen.
Suddiviso in prologo e due parti, il caso non è di facile risoluzione perché richiede la conoscenza di alcune informazioni non proprio di cultura generale. Tuttavia ci sono veramente tutti gli elementi che rendono la soluzione "fattibile" nonostante la costante opera di misdirection messa in piedi dai vari attori del delitto.
Suddiviso in prologo e due parti, il caso non è di facile risoluzione perché richiede la conoscenza di alcune informazioni non proprio di cultura generale. Tuttavia ci sono veramente tutti gli elementi che rendono la soluzione "fattibile" nonostante la costante opera di misdirection messa in piedi dai vari attori del delitto.
February 24, 2019
What a wonderful Christmas gift for Ellery Queen fans, and, with two small caveats, a great place for the non-fan to see why critic Anthony Boucher once said that "Ellery Queen is the American detective story." A book I'm going to have to find a hard copy of for my library, just to be able to loan it to people. It was so much fun that I cursed at my phone battery for running down as I approached the denouement.
The basics: The story is told in 3 time periods, Christmas 1905, Christmas 1929, and Summer 1947. The 1905 section provides the reader with facts Ellery doesn't know so that for once the reader feels ahead of EQ. Christmas 1929 -- a truly tension-filled time for the American rich and famous that Ellery moves among as a Harvard educated author -- is the heart of the mystery, where (as inevitably as in an Agatha Christie) the murders occur during a house party he is invited to for the twelve days of Christmas. And 1947 has Ellery looking back on the 1929 events and solving them with new and more mature perspectives.
The mysteries -- as usual, a core murder with some bizarre elements -- are interesting, and kept me turning the page (swipping the digital page). EQ always gives a plot you want to finish; that's why his were the most popular detective fiction novels published in the 1930s through the 1970s.
One reason I'm committed to reading all the EQ novels and short stories is that I love the powerful sense the stories provide of the time they are set in. I have always felt that they tell me a great deal about the cares and cultures of the time, and give me interesting glimpses of American society that I don't get from movies or even history. This book consciously takes that skill and applies it to 3 different time periods. Occasionally it is a bit obvious, when the book rattles off which books are under debate in a conversation, but it is nice to see that the cousins can do this consciously in their writing. It helps that Ellery muses on how much has changed in the 1947 section. Ellery, who seems to age a little slowly over his 40 years of novels and short stories, is here aware of his mortality, and wondering what his life means, and why he should write another novel. I wonder if this foreshadows the 6 years of writers block coming up for the cousins writing the series.
It feels like a gift to the readers because it takes us back to the time of the early EQ novels, and allows us (along with the 1947 Ellery) to see how Ellery has changed. Those first 9 books (the ones with the "Nationality-Object" titles like "The Chinese Orange Mystery") made EQ a household name, but looking back on them -- for the reader, the 1947 Ellery, and even I suspect the writers -- Ellery is a bit full-of-himself, and that is almost the only characteristic that makes him more than one dimensional. By 1947, the writing and the character are more interesting (although no one would ever mistake EQ novels for a character study). There is even a "Challenge to the Reader" like in the first EQ novels, a point where Ellery tells you that you have all the clues he has and challenges you to stop and solve it before reading on.
It is also interesting to see the 25-year-old Ellery toying with romance and a suitable partner -- until the murder occurs. I thought that there was a strong suggestion here that the reason Ellery still is unmarried in 1947 is that he always picks the intellectual challenge over human relations. It was a bit like the cousins writing the series were trying to touch on a number of questions that had come up in the previous 30 novels, and give us a satisfying answer.
My two caveats, if you are thinking "Here is the book to jump into seeing if I like EQ." It might work; I think this is a fun and satisfying mystery.
But first, one of the clues the solution turns on is (IMHO) far too obscure to live up to the EQ reputation as "fair" mysteries, where you really could solve the mystery if you could separate the real clues from the red herrings. If you want to see where EQ gets that reputation, try Chinese Orange, or Halfway House, or Ten Days Wonder.
Second, I fear many people will think that the whole sequence of 'daily gifts that hint at the solution' is a mechanism they have seen many times before and think EQ a plot thief. Actually, this plot device, used almost yearly in some movie or TV show, was invented by EQ in the charming short story "The Adventure of the Mad Hatter" -- yes, go read that now -- and I suspect the writers are again making a gift to their long-time readers by reminding them of that classic story, but also (thankfully) leading to a completely different answer about the sender of gifts and its role in the mystery.
This is a wonderful book, and gets the relatively rare 5 stars from me.
The basics: The story is told in 3 time periods, Christmas 1905, Christmas 1929, and Summer 1947. The 1905 section provides the reader with facts Ellery doesn't know so that for once the reader feels ahead of EQ. Christmas 1929 -- a truly tension-filled time for the American rich and famous that Ellery moves among as a Harvard educated author -- is the heart of the mystery, where (as inevitably as in an Agatha Christie) the murders occur during a house party he is invited to for the twelve days of Christmas. And 1947 has Ellery looking back on the 1929 events and solving them with new and more mature perspectives.
The mysteries -- as usual, a core murder with some bizarre elements -- are interesting, and kept me turning the page (swipping the digital page). EQ always gives a plot you want to finish; that's why his were the most popular detective fiction novels published in the 1930s through the 1970s.
One reason I'm committed to reading all the EQ novels and short stories is that I love the powerful sense the stories provide of the time they are set in. I have always felt that they tell me a great deal about the cares and cultures of the time, and give me interesting glimpses of American society that I don't get from movies or even history. This book consciously takes that skill and applies it to 3 different time periods. Occasionally it is a bit obvious, when the book rattles off which books are under debate in a conversation, but it is nice to see that the cousins can do this consciously in their writing. It helps that Ellery muses on how much has changed in the 1947 section. Ellery, who seems to age a little slowly over his 40 years of novels and short stories, is here aware of his mortality, and wondering what his life means, and why he should write another novel. I wonder if this foreshadows the 6 years of writers block coming up for the cousins writing the series.
It feels like a gift to the readers because it takes us back to the time of the early EQ novels, and allows us (along with the 1947 Ellery) to see how Ellery has changed. Those first 9 books (the ones with the "Nationality-Object" titles like "The Chinese Orange Mystery") made EQ a household name, but looking back on them -- for the reader, the 1947 Ellery, and even I suspect the writers -- Ellery is a bit full-of-himself, and that is almost the only characteristic that makes him more than one dimensional. By 1947, the writing and the character are more interesting (although no one would ever mistake EQ novels for a character study). There is even a "Challenge to the Reader" like in the first EQ novels, a point where Ellery tells you that you have all the clues he has and challenges you to stop and solve it before reading on.
It is also interesting to see the 25-year-old Ellery toying with romance and a suitable partner -- until the murder occurs. I thought that there was a strong suggestion here that the reason Ellery still is unmarried in 1947 is that he always picks the intellectual challenge over human relations. It was a bit like the cousins writing the series were trying to touch on a number of questions that had come up in the previous 30 novels, and give us a satisfying answer.
My two caveats, if you are thinking "Here is the book to jump into seeing if I like EQ." It might work; I think this is a fun and satisfying mystery.
But first, one of the clues the solution turns on is (IMHO) far too obscure to live up to the EQ reputation as "fair" mysteries, where you really could solve the mystery if you could separate the real clues from the red herrings. If you want to see where EQ gets that reputation, try Chinese Orange, or Halfway House, or Ten Days Wonder.
Second, I fear many people will think that the whole sequence of 'daily gifts that hint at the solution' is a mechanism they have seen many times before and think EQ a plot thief. Actually, this plot device, used almost yearly in some movie or TV show, was invented by EQ in the charming short story "The Adventure of the Mad Hatter" -- yes, go read that now -- and I suspect the writers are again making a gift to their long-time readers by reminding them of that classic story, but also (thankfully) leading to a completely different answer about the sender of gifts and its role in the mystery.
This is a wonderful book, and gets the relatively rare 5 stars from me.
June 26, 2018
Ellery Queen's 2nd? book, with a puzzle over the Christmas holidays, just after the 1929 stock market crash. 12 days of Christmas, 12 guests, 12 puzzles, what more could Ellery want? Oh, a dead body, maybe? Several twists keep you guessing, and as in all the Ellery Queen books, right before the very end, he asks you if you have figured it out, since you have all the clues. As for me, even though I've read this before, it was a long time ago, and didn't remember. But then, I never guess who the killer is. Great Ellery Queen story, with wonderful descriptions of life in the jazz age, before the Great Depression sank its teeth into the country.
June 30, 2023
There were many parts of this book that confused me, although admittedly I believe that came from a mix of the lack of cohesion in the timeline of the series, and the abundance of characters to keep track of. I loved all the references to 12th Night (which is my favorite Shakespeare play) and so that raised my opinion of this novel quite a bit. I also loved that there was a girl named Rusty. I love that. I'm going to name my daughter Rusty. She'll never thank me for it, but oh well. The whole really got me, so I've got to give props to the book for that. I also didn't hate the jumps in time. I thought that was a nice retroactive framing device.
But enough about this book, or, enough about this book as a single entity. Can someone explain to me how these books in this series, are supposed to be interpreted, timeline-wise. I've been reading every single Ellery Queen book in order, and I started last December, so the "Roman Hat Mystery" was only 7 months ago for me, opposed to contemporary readers, who might have read it when it was published in 1929, and then read this book "The Finishing Stroke" when it was published in 1958.
In reading the series, it seems like Ellery and his father aren't aging in time with reality. And that's fine. Nancy Drew does that. Lots of book characters do that. Time is passing, but they don't seem to age that much. I will say, it is obvious that Ellery is aging, but the timelines don't quite add up, unless I'm severely misunderstanding something. Like, all of the references in the stories to the wars and political landscapes are accurate to what was happening in contemporary times around when the books were individually published, but the logistics of Ellery and Richard Queen's ages don't work out, and that was not a problem to me in the least, until I got to this book.
I'm going to take a step back and do some math concerning a previous book, "Inspector Queen's Own Case." In "Inspector Queen's Own Case," it is stated that Richard queen is because he just turned 63. That book was published in 1956. So, because the authors dropped the guise of the books all being published years after the fact by a friend of Ellery's (many books previousl), we can assume that in 1956 Richard is 63. And we have to assume that it is 1956 because so far the books that take place in "modern" day all reflect the world of that time accurately ie, referencing the beginning of the Korean War etc etc [EDIT: I actually did some research, which I should have done prior, and the Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, so really this book probably took place in 1950, although the difference of 6 years doesn't affect my ranting that much so...]. If Dick Queen (best name ever, huge props) is 63 in 1956, that means he was born in 1893. The "Roman Hat Mystery" was published in 1929, which would have made Dick Queen 36 in the "Roman Hat Mystery." Besides the fact that this apparent 36-year-old was already a police inspector, and was described as being older and gruff, he already, at that time, had a son (Ellery) who, I'm pretty sure, had already graduated from college. I don't know much about colleges in the 1920s and 1930s, but even if we assume Ellery only got a 2 year degree, and he started when he turned 18, that would make him 20 years old at the youngest, in 1929, meaning that Dick must have sired him at the age of 16.
We can all agree that that doesn't make sense for a number of reasons, not the least being that in "Inspector Queen's Own Case" Dick mentions that Ellery's mother has been dead for 20 years now, which would have made her alive in 1936, which would have made her alive in the "Roman Hat Mystery," which she was not.
So. Timelines in long-standing books are weird. I can ignore that. Time is passing, the books are not stranded in the 30s, but Ellery and his Father are aging at a much slower rate. Dick Queen (I just love typing that out as a name), ages maybe a decade (maybe 2 if we're pushing it) between 1929 and 1956 (27 years), and Ellery's age, while not being nailed down as a specific number, has changed from a post-grad-aged young man to someone I would have said was in his 30s or 40s, but could be vaguely early middle-aged maybe. The only indicators of age that I can see, really, are that Ellery is more willing to let things go, and that he cares about eating and being fully rested nowadays. I also feel that way, so I understand.
There's a sidenote somewhere about the fact that Ellery has lived with his father for most of both of their adult lives, and another sidenote asking where the fuck Djuna went. I miss him. I'm not really sure why he was there in the first place, and why his age fluctuated so wildly book-to-book, but I haven't seen him in a long time. I hope he's doing well.
Anyway! Back on track! What I'm trying to get at is that these books don't stand true to reality's definition of time, and that's ok, no one expects book characters in mystery serials to age realistically, except... that this book brings up the Roman Hat Mystery. "The Finishing Stroke" takes place in 1905, in 1929, and also in "the present" which I'm pretending is the publication year, 1958. In the 1929 scenes, it's established that Ellery had just published his first novel, "The Roman Hat Mystery," about his first real case, that he solved with his father. Only... wait... in "The Roman Hat Mystery," which I read 7 months ago so bear with me, it is mentioned that Ellery has solved cases with/for his father multiple times before... and if we're pretending that the same "Roman Hat Mystery" that I read is the one Ellery published 29 years previous, that means that either this book is lying or that one is. But besides that, did Daniel/Frederic and Emanuel/Manfred (the co-author cousins who wrote these books under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and wrote other books under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross) completely forget about "The Greek Coffin Mystery?" That book, the 4th in the series, was a prequel! It takes place before "The Roman Hat Mystery!" How much of these books are supposed to be Ellery-the-character lying to us, and how much is it Emanuel and Daniel just not remembering what they wrote decades before?!
As you can see I'm very confused, and frustrated. I know these guys are just out here writing books, and sure, they shouldn't be beholden to stylistic choices they made almost 30 years prior, but still! All they had to do to avoid my confusion and ire was just not mention "the Roman Hat Mystery!" It's not necessary to the plot at all! Or at least, it's not necessary to the plot in its particulars. They could have easily just mentioned that Ellery had published a book recently, and also not mentioned that "The Roman Hat Mystery" was his first novel!
So, anyway, this book is good, fun even, though it takes a weird step away from the action and most of the characters in the last several chapters, but I didn't really notice because I was too busy trying to figure out why these authors, after removing their characters from reality's timeline in regards to aging etc throughout their series, why they'd try to force themselves back into that timeline in this book.
But enough about this book, or, enough about this book as a single entity. Can someone explain to me how these books in this series, are supposed to be interpreted, timeline-wise. I've been reading every single Ellery Queen book in order, and I started last December, so the "Roman Hat Mystery" was only 7 months ago for me, opposed to contemporary readers, who might have read it when it was published in 1929, and then read this book "The Finishing Stroke" when it was published in 1958.
In reading the series, it seems like Ellery and his father aren't aging in time with reality. And that's fine. Nancy Drew does that. Lots of book characters do that. Time is passing, but they don't seem to age that much. I will say, it is obvious that Ellery is aging, but the timelines don't quite add up, unless I'm severely misunderstanding something. Like, all of the references in the stories to the wars and political landscapes are accurate to what was happening in contemporary times around when the books were individually published, but the logistics of Ellery and Richard Queen's ages don't work out, and that was not a problem to me in the least, until I got to this book.
I'm going to take a step back and do some math concerning a previous book, "Inspector Queen's Own Case." In "Inspector Queen's Own Case," it is stated that Richard queen is because he just turned 63. That book was published in 1956. So, because the authors dropped the guise of the books all being published years after the fact by a friend of Ellery's (many books previousl), we can assume that in 1956 Richard is 63. And we have to assume that it is 1956 because so far the books that take place in "modern" day all reflect the world of that time accurately ie, referencing the beginning of the Korean War etc etc [EDIT: I actually did some research, which I should have done prior, and the Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953, so really this book probably took place in 1950, although the difference of 6 years doesn't affect my ranting that much so...]. If Dick Queen (best name ever, huge props) is 63 in 1956, that means he was born in 1893. The "Roman Hat Mystery" was published in 1929, which would have made Dick Queen 36 in the "Roman Hat Mystery." Besides the fact that this apparent 36-year-old was already a police inspector, and was described as being older and gruff, he already, at that time, had a son (Ellery) who, I'm pretty sure, had already graduated from college. I don't know much about colleges in the 1920s and 1930s, but even if we assume Ellery only got a 2 year degree, and he started when he turned 18, that would make him 20 years old at the youngest, in 1929, meaning that Dick must have sired him at the age of 16.
We can all agree that that doesn't make sense for a number of reasons, not the least being that in "Inspector Queen's Own Case" Dick mentions that Ellery's mother has been dead for 20 years now, which would have made her alive in 1936, which would have made her alive in the "Roman Hat Mystery," which she was not.
So. Timelines in long-standing books are weird. I can ignore that. Time is passing, the books are not stranded in the 30s, but Ellery and his Father are aging at a much slower rate. Dick Queen (I just love typing that out as a name), ages maybe a decade (maybe 2 if we're pushing it) between 1929 and 1956 (27 years), and Ellery's age, while not being nailed down as a specific number, has changed from a post-grad-aged young man to someone I would have said was in his 30s or 40s, but could be vaguely early middle-aged maybe. The only indicators of age that I can see, really, are that Ellery is more willing to let things go, and that he cares about eating and being fully rested nowadays. I also feel that way, so I understand.
There's a sidenote somewhere about the fact that Ellery has lived with his father for most of both of their adult lives, and another sidenote asking where the fuck Djuna went. I miss him. I'm not really sure why he was there in the first place, and why his age fluctuated so wildly book-to-book, but I haven't seen him in a long time. I hope he's doing well.
Anyway! Back on track! What I'm trying to get at is that these books don't stand true to reality's definition of time, and that's ok, no one expects book characters in mystery serials to age realistically, except... that this book brings up the Roman Hat Mystery. "The Finishing Stroke" takes place in 1905, in 1929, and also in "the present" which I'm pretending is the publication year, 1958. In the 1929 scenes, it's established that Ellery had just published his first novel, "The Roman Hat Mystery," about his first real case, that he solved with his father. Only... wait... in "The Roman Hat Mystery," which I read 7 months ago so bear with me, it is mentioned that Ellery has solved cases with/for his father multiple times before... and if we're pretending that the same "Roman Hat Mystery" that I read is the one Ellery published 29 years previous, that means that either this book is lying or that one is. But besides that, did Daniel/Frederic and Emanuel/Manfred (the co-author cousins who wrote these books under the pseudonym Ellery Queen, and wrote other books under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross) completely forget about "The Greek Coffin Mystery?" That book, the 4th in the series, was a prequel! It takes place before "The Roman Hat Mystery!" How much of these books are supposed to be Ellery-the-character lying to us, and how much is it Emanuel and Daniel just not remembering what they wrote decades before?!
As you can see I'm very confused, and frustrated. I know these guys are just out here writing books, and sure, they shouldn't be beholden to stylistic choices they made almost 30 years prior, but still! All they had to do to avoid my confusion and ire was just not mention "the Roman Hat Mystery!" It's not necessary to the plot at all! Or at least, it's not necessary to the plot in its particulars. They could have easily just mentioned that Ellery had published a book recently, and also not mentioned that "The Roman Hat Mystery" was his first novel!
So, anyway, this book is good, fun even, though it takes a weird step away from the action and most of the characters in the last several chapters, but I didn't really notice because I was too busy trying to figure out why these authors, after removing their characters from reality's timeline in regards to aging etc throughout their series, why they'd try to force themselves back into that timeline in this book.
June 19, 2019
In Book 1 (1905), John Sebastian Sr. and his pregnant wife Claire are in a car accident, which brings on early labor. She gives birth to two sons: John, and one unnamed. John, angry at the death of his wife, blames the second child and refuses to acknowledge him, giving him away to the local doctor.
In Book 2 (1929), Arthur Craig and John Jr. host a Christmas gathering for 12. John Jr. plans to announce four big events at the conclusion of the stay:
Being age 25, he comes into his inheritance
His first book is to be published
He and Rusty Brown are to be married
The fourth event he is keeping secret for now.
The obligatory snowstorm occurs, so the unbroken snow will provide proof that no one enters or leaves the house. The party is surprised by the appearance of Santa Claus, bearing gifts; but he then disappears and cannot be found.
A series of wrapped gifts arrives daily, along with tantalizing threats. Then a stranger is discovered murdered in the library, and the daily gifts/threats continue; until John Jr. - as predicted - is murdered himself.
Ellery ponders the meanings of the written threats but is unable to find the solution, and the murders remain unsolved.
In Book 3 (1957), the police are cleaning out some dead files and Ellery is asked if he would like the dusty evidence box from the case. He looks over the contents and the solution suddenly is evident.
Review:
This is another Ellery Queen shell game novel - involving doubles, substitution, etc., and he switches things around even better than Erle Stanley Gardner does with Perry Mason and guns. When twins are introduced at the beginning, you just know there is going to be some of the old switcheroo coming. The murderer leaves a series of obscure clues/threats (in advance of the murder, no less) which fails to prevent its occurrence. (Well, if the clues succeeded, we wouldn't have a murder mystery).
However, the clues and related gifts have no obvious connection to anything and when their significance is finally revealed, it is so obscure that only a person with specific historical knowledge would recognize it. Most readers will not; and will just to accept Queen's word on this point.
The novel also provides a couple of rather blatant product placement promotions: The Roman Hat Mystery (Ellery Queen) and The Poisoned Chocolates Case (Anthony Berkeley) - both actual novels - receive frequent mention without being part of the plot.
Overall, a good page turner. Several red herring story lines had me fooled; I did expect a better explanation of the gifts/threats but we just have to accept them as they are. Writing logical threats are usually not high on a murderer's priority list anyway.
In Book 2 (1929), Arthur Craig and John Jr. host a Christmas gathering for 12. John Jr. plans to announce four big events at the conclusion of the stay:
Being age 25, he comes into his inheritance
His first book is to be published
He and Rusty Brown are to be married
The fourth event he is keeping secret for now.
The obligatory snowstorm occurs, so the unbroken snow will provide proof that no one enters or leaves the house. The party is surprised by the appearance of Santa Claus, bearing gifts; but he then disappears and cannot be found.
A series of wrapped gifts arrives daily, along with tantalizing threats. Then a stranger is discovered murdered in the library, and the daily gifts/threats continue; until John Jr. - as predicted - is murdered himself.
Ellery ponders the meanings of the written threats but is unable to find the solution, and the murders remain unsolved.
In Book 3 (1957), the police are cleaning out some dead files and Ellery is asked if he would like the dusty evidence box from the case. He looks over the contents and the solution suddenly is evident.
Review:
This is another Ellery Queen shell game novel - involving doubles, substitution, etc., and he switches things around even better than Erle Stanley Gardner does with Perry Mason and guns. When twins are introduced at the beginning, you just know there is going to be some of the old switcheroo coming. The murderer leaves a series of obscure clues/threats (in advance of the murder, no less) which fails to prevent its occurrence. (Well, if the clues succeeded, we wouldn't have a murder mystery).
However, the clues and related gifts have no obvious connection to anything and when their significance is finally revealed, it is so obscure that only a person with specific historical knowledge would recognize it. Most readers will not; and will just to accept Queen's word on this point.
The novel also provides a couple of rather blatant product placement promotions: The Roman Hat Mystery (Ellery Queen) and The Poisoned Chocolates Case (Anthony Berkeley) - both actual novels - receive frequent mention without being part of the plot.
Overall, a good page turner. Several red herring story lines had me fooled; I did expect a better explanation of the gifts/threats but we just have to accept them as they are. Writing logical threats are usually not high on a murderer's priority list anyway.
June 24, 2019
Con i due cugini americani che firmavano le proprie opere con il noto pseudonimo di Ellery Queen ho una rapporto molto instabile. Molte opere le considero dei veri capolavori di logica e deduttività (in Queen infatti regna suprema, nella maggior parte dei casi, la ragione), come "Il mistero delle croci egizie", "Il caso dei fratelli siamesi" e tutto il ciclo di Drury Lane; altre invece le considero vere e proprie occasioni mancate (e di tanto), come il terribile "La porta chiusa" e lo scialbo "La poltrona n°30". Tra tutti i Queen, quelli che preferisco, ma solo per mia attitudine personale, sono quelli che girano attorno al bizzarro, come "Delitto alla rovescia", in cui l'elemento bizzarro è brillantemente risolto ma non altrettanto l'intera vicenda. Ecco, "Colpo di grazia" si colloca in questo filone. Un romanzo gradevolissimo, che ruota attorno ad uno strano burlone, che poi si rivelerà ben peggio di un simpatico buontempone, che adora far trovare ogni giorno, per un totale di 12 giorni a partire da Natale, un regalo con accluso un biglietto con su una poesia. Regali peraltro strani, accompagnati da versi ugualmente strani: si pensi che tra questi vi è una casa, un pesce, un bue, una frusta... La vicenda tiene desto l'interesse, culminando poi in ben 2 omicidi, e tra rovesciamenti vari, colpi di scena, stranezze varie, si giungerà insieme ad Ellery, dopo ben 27 anni da quello strambo caso, alla sua soluzione. Il mistero dei regali è davvero difficile da risolvere, perché richiede una conoscenza approfondita di un certo argomento (io, sebbene faccia linguistica e avendo affrontato l'argomento, non ci avrei mai pensato), non molto per l'assassino, ma comunque la soluzione è buona. Sono arrivato anche io a sospettare il colpevole, non per le prove addotte da Ellery, ma per il fatto che per piazzare quei regali, ben 12 e alcuni di un certo volume, l'assassino-burlone deve pur averli nascosti da qualche parte dove nessuno potesse vederli, ed essendo quasi tutti ospiti, portandoli dall'esterno si sarebbero scoperti, ragion per cui ho subito eliminato dai sospetti gli invitati stessi. Quindi 4 stelle, solo per la troppa complessità della soluzione.
December 28, 2019
This is a very old fashioned style book that most likely wouldn't appeal to the modern reader, in fact, I would be willing to bet that most people today have never even heard of Ellery Queen. The prose is long and sometimes boring, which is why it took me so long to finish it. There are no "action" scenes, the suspense is long and drawn out, with the murder not happening until the third to the last chapter, adding an element of creepy suspense to the story. The modern reader is accustomed to modern police procedure, whereby everyone concerned is gone over with a fine tooth comb and their background and finances are ruthlessly gone into, any and all secrets gone over and possibly exposed as motive. But this book was written during a time when the wealthy and powerful were handled with kid gloves and no one wanted to offend anyone else's sensibilities. So, caution and discretion was used on the part of the police, even if it was a homicide investigation.
Also, there are no real clues for the modern reader. The clues, such as they are, would be for a generation raised with a much different education; namely a classical education. The modern reader has no idea what they mean, even if they were recognized as clues, any more than someone from the 1920's would know what an emoji is.
Having said that, it is still a "manor house mystery" with everything taking place in a large mansion where the Christmas guests are stranded in a snow storm with no way out. Also, by not recognizing the clues, the modern reader has no idea who-dunnit, or why, until the last chapter. All in all, this really isn't a book for someone who wants the action to start at page one and continue through to the last page. The police don't move quickly due to no technology, the mood is a very important element, and the prose is slow in coming. Therefore, I can't say that I would recommend this book to everyone, but a die-hard mystery reader might like it.
Also, there are no real clues for the modern reader. The clues, such as they are, would be for a generation raised with a much different education; namely a classical education. The modern reader has no idea what they mean, even if they were recognized as clues, any more than someone from the 1920's would know what an emoji is.
Having said that, it is still a "manor house mystery" with everything taking place in a large mansion where the Christmas guests are stranded in a snow storm with no way out. Also, by not recognizing the clues, the modern reader has no idea who-dunnit, or why, until the last chapter. All in all, this really isn't a book for someone who wants the action to start at page one and continue through to the last page. The police don't move quickly due to no technology, the mood is a very important element, and the prose is slow in coming. Therefore, I can't say that I would recommend this book to everyone, but a die-hard mystery reader might like it.
September 2, 2023
Un giallo classico con tutti i pregi e i difetti del genere. Poco carico di tensione, molto cerebrale, quasi più enigmistica che narrativa, ma un enigma ben costruito, logico e credibile, con la giusta dose di misdirection, come il prestigiatore che attira la tua attenzione e il tuo sguardo su altro mentre hai sotto gli occhi, e non vedi, la parte importante del gioco di prestigio che sta facendo.
La storia si svolge su tre piani temporali, ognuno dei quali separato da circa 25 anni, e narrati in sequenza, come si usava allora (e non come nei contemporanei saltando dall’uno all’altro).
Nel 1905 apprendiamo le circostanze della nascita di John Sebastian, i cui genitori, molto facoltosi, muoiono quando ha pochi giorni di vita, lasciandogli una cospicua eredità che sarà amministrata da un tutore fino al suo venticinquesimo compleanno.
Durante le feste di Natale del 1929, assistiamo a un festeggiamento che si protrae per tutto il periodo natalizio e a cu sono invitate dodici persone, fra cui John Sebastian (destinato a entrare in possesso dell’eredità proprio il giorno della Befana, a conclusione delle feste) e il giovanissimo Ellery. Nella festa succedono cose strane, un Babbo Natale che nessuno sembra conoscere (eppure sulla neve che circonda la magione non ci sono impronte), un misterioso uomo ucciso (fisicamente diverso da quello vestito da Babbo Natale) altrettanto sconosciuto a tutti, strani regali con lettere in versi enigmatiche e minacciose, fino alla morte di uno dei dodici, che resterà inspiegata.
Infine, negli anni 50 Queen riprenderà per caso in mano il dossier della polizia, e farà i collegamenti mancanti che gli permetteranno di scoprire la verità che aveva avuto sotto gli occhi e gli era sfuggita.
La storia si svolge su tre piani temporali, ognuno dei quali separato da circa 25 anni, e narrati in sequenza, come si usava allora (e non come nei contemporanei saltando dall’uno all’altro).
Nel 1905 apprendiamo le circostanze della nascita di John Sebastian, i cui genitori, molto facoltosi, muoiono quando ha pochi giorni di vita, lasciandogli una cospicua eredità che sarà amministrata da un tutore fino al suo venticinquesimo compleanno.
Durante le feste di Natale del 1929, assistiamo a un festeggiamento che si protrae per tutto il periodo natalizio e a cu sono invitate dodici persone, fra cui John Sebastian (destinato a entrare in possesso dell’eredità proprio il giorno della Befana, a conclusione delle feste) e il giovanissimo Ellery. Nella festa succedono cose strane, un Babbo Natale che nessuno sembra conoscere (eppure sulla neve che circonda la magione non ci sono impronte), un misterioso uomo ucciso (fisicamente diverso da quello vestito da Babbo Natale) altrettanto sconosciuto a tutti, strani regali con lettere in versi enigmatiche e minacciose, fino alla morte di uno dei dodici, che resterà inspiegata.
Infine, negli anni 50 Queen riprenderà per caso in mano il dossier della polizia, e farà i collegamenti mancanti che gli permetteranno di scoprire la verità che aveva avuto sotto gli occhi e gli era sfuggita.
January 11, 2022
Pentru Claire Sebastian, noul an începu ca o încântare. Copilul era foarte vioi.
— Tu ce crezi, n-o fi cumva un mânz, John?
În intimitatea camerei de hotel, ea îl lăsă pe soţul ei să-i pipăie pântecul în care mica vietate se răsucea izbind-o cu picioruşele. Soţii Sebastian au râs mult timp împreună în săptămâna aceea.
John se gândise să petreacă anul nou la New York şi să ducă pentru câteva zile o „viaţă de oraş”.
— În ultimele luni, cât ai stat închisă la Rye, ţi-a lipsit veselia, Claire! îi spusese el. Cred că n-ar fi rău să facem o escapadă înainte de a trebui să te consacri gravelor răspunderi de mamă.
Claire socotise că era oarecum riscant să se amestece în vârtejul vieţii mondene a New York-ului, în starea în care se afla. În cele din urmă, ajunsese însă la o indiferenţă îngăduitoare, ignorând cu bună ştiinţă silueta deformată pe care i-o înfăţişa oglinda.
— N-au decât să se zgâiască la mine cât or vrea cucoanele din New York!
Până miercuri 4 ianuarie, escapada lor se desfăşurase cum nu se poate mai plăcut. John rezervase un apartament la Waldorf şi lăsase baltă în timpul sărbătorilor afacerile firmei Sebastian & Craig.
— Săptămâna asta îţi aparţine, iubito, o asigurase el. Editura şi Arthur Craig se pot descurca câteva zile şi fără mine, chiar dacă unele lucruri au să şchioapete puţin.
O sărută drăgăstos. Claire roşi de-a binelea. Se simţea ca în luna de miere.
— Tu eşti pe cale să devii un pupăcios fără pereche, John, chicoti ea. Crezi că am putea merge să dansam undeva, unde cântă o orchestră de jazz?
— Tu ce crezi, n-o fi cumva un mânz, John?
În intimitatea camerei de hotel, ea îl lăsă pe soţul ei să-i pipăie pântecul în care mica vietate se răsucea izbind-o cu picioruşele. Soţii Sebastian au râs mult timp împreună în săptămâna aceea.
John se gândise să petreacă anul nou la New York şi să ducă pentru câteva zile o „viaţă de oraş”.
— În ultimele luni, cât ai stat închisă la Rye, ţi-a lipsit veselia, Claire! îi spusese el. Cred că n-ar fi rău să facem o escapadă înainte de a trebui să te consacri gravelor răspunderi de mamă.
Claire socotise că era oarecum riscant să se amestece în vârtejul vieţii mondene a New York-ului, în starea în care se afla. În cele din urmă, ajunsese însă la o indiferenţă îngăduitoare, ignorând cu bună ştiinţă silueta deformată pe care i-o înfăţişa oglinda.
— N-au decât să se zgâiască la mine cât or vrea cucoanele din New York!
Până miercuri 4 ianuarie, escapada lor se desfăşurase cum nu se poate mai plăcut. John rezervase un apartament la Waldorf şi lăsase baltă în timpul sărbătorilor afacerile firmei Sebastian & Craig.
— Săptămâna asta îţi aparţine, iubito, o asigurase el. Editura şi Arthur Craig se pot descurca câteva zile şi fără mine, chiar dacă unele lucruri au să şchioapete puţin.
O sărută drăgăstos. Claire roşi de-a binelea. Se simţea ca în luna de miere.
— Tu eşti pe cale să devii un pupăcios fără pereche, John, chicoti ea. Crezi că am putea merge să dansam undeva, unde cântă o orchestră de jazz?
July 31, 2020
Finishing Stroke presents an interesting meta-question: Were Dannay and Lee, getting on in years, capable of writing another top shelf Era 1/2 Queen book instead of the Era 3 style they'd run with for a couple of decades?
The set-up of the book is promising. We find an expansive list of characters akin to early Queen detailed after the table of contents. And, though there is no map, there are a number of printed diagrams throughout the book. Moreover, the book is set in 1929-30 and plays like a lost adventure of Ellery's youth. There's even a nod to the classic "Challenge to the Reader". Clearly, Dannay and Lee were well aware what kind of project they were engaged in.
The book entertains throughout- from a pretty quick opening detailing an important tragedy to a prolonged stay at an isolated house with a closed cast, the plot moves quickly, providing more and more grist for speculation.
Unfortunately, it's the solution that falls flat on its face. It is Queen at his esoteric worst. Sometimes Queen is too obvious. Occasionally, he hits an ingenious sweet spot. And in other cases, he references facts Ken Jennings would scratch his head at and makes them the necessary centerpieces of solving the case. Finishing Stroke falls in the final category, and thus, fails to feel fair or satisfactory.
Ultimately, a fun read let down a bit by the solution. Also, an answer to the question posited above: no.
The set-up of the book is promising. We find an expansive list of characters akin to early Queen detailed after the table of contents. And, though there is no map, there are a number of printed diagrams throughout the book. Moreover, the book is set in 1929-30 and plays like a lost adventure of Ellery's youth. There's even a nod to the classic "Challenge to the Reader". Clearly, Dannay and Lee were well aware what kind of project they were engaged in.
The book entertains throughout- from a pretty quick opening detailing an important tragedy to a prolonged stay at an isolated house with a closed cast, the plot moves quickly, providing more and more grist for speculation.
Unfortunately, it's the solution that falls flat on its face. It is Queen at his esoteric worst. Sometimes Queen is too obvious. Occasionally, he hits an ingenious sweet spot. And in other cases, he references facts Ken Jennings would scratch his head at and makes them the necessary centerpieces of solving the case. Finishing Stroke falls in the final category, and thus, fails to feel fair or satisfactory.
Ultimately, a fun read let down a bit by the solution. Also, an answer to the question posited above: no.
December 19, 2020
This is your typical Ellery Queen whodunnit, and it’s really cool the way the whole story takes place over three distinct time periods divided into three books within the story: the first just after Christmas 1905; the second during the 12 days of Christmas in 1929-30; and the third, 27 years after that in the middle of summer.
I particularly liked the way the 12 days of Christmas were worked into the bulk of the story that culminates in a murder, complete with clues and all kinds of suspects running around a country house.
I do think the book involves a bit of a “cheat“ in the sense that we are supposed to be able to solve these Ellery Queen mysteries based on all the information provided to us…but on a couple of occasions, the information is not there initially- it’s introduced much later in the story, and knowledge of it would have made a difference in the analysis. There’s also one aspect of it that requires a very specific knowledge of a very arcane subject.
So while I quite enjoyed this book, I do think, in places, it’s a little unfair to the reader who may want to try to solve it.
I particularly liked the way the 12 days of Christmas were worked into the bulk of the story that culminates in a murder, complete with clues and all kinds of suspects running around a country house.
I do think the book involves a bit of a “cheat“ in the sense that we are supposed to be able to solve these Ellery Queen mysteries based on all the information provided to us…but on a couple of occasions, the information is not there initially- it’s introduced much later in the story, and knowledge of it would have made a difference in the analysis. There’s also one aspect of it that requires a very specific knowledge of a very arcane subject.
So while I quite enjoyed this book, I do think, in places, it’s a little unfair to the reader who may want to try to solve it.
November 24, 2022
Most unusual plot structure I have ever encountered. The first chapter which takes place in 1905 reveals key background information and hints at the underlying motive for the mystery. The next 15 chapters take place in 1929-30 during the Christmas holidays in a private mansion where there are two murders which are never solved. The final chapter takes place in 1957 when Ellery unravels the secret codes and messages which the killer had left as warnings before the murders, and he finally finds the killer. It would have taken a genius with special knowledge in literature, the publishing business, and proofreading to solve the crimes, and Ellery fits the bill. There is a surprising plot twist which occurred in 1905 and is the key to solving the crime, but of course this was not mentioned in the first chapter, and only Ellery could figure it out. Written in the 1950s but style is reminiscent of 1920-30s pulps with stilted and disjointed prose and unnatural dialogue. There is an illustration of a book title page which Ellery says was the key to the solution, but it is not explained.
September 28, 2018
This was well paced, clever & a good brain teaser.
I enjoyed it.
It was a really good puzzle. I couldn’t figure it out. And I appreciated that I was using my brain trying to work thru the clues to solve it.
About ¾ way in, I thought I had it figured. It seemed soooo obvious. I was in pace w/Ellery & his thinking.
Then, BAM!!! a twist. Information is revealed to say it’s not what you think.
Where did we go wrong in our sleuthing?
I had to pause & go back over all my thoughts & retool as it were. Cool!
When the mystery is solved…yeah…I never would have figured it out.
Well done Ellery Queen…well done!
This is the 3rd one in this series that I’ve listened to on audio.
I like the Queens. (Inspector Dick Queen-cop dad, Ellery Queen-writer/amateur sleuth son)
The mysteries in these stories are good puzzles w/lots of pieces (ie. clues) to put together.
My big criticism is that they can be slow in the beginning. And there’s a lot of stuff about superfluous characters which don’t end up being important in the end.
It’s a lot like the Agatha Christie template of having red herrings.
I enjoyed it.
It was a really good puzzle. I couldn’t figure it out. And I appreciated that I was using my brain trying to work thru the clues to solve it.
About ¾ way in, I thought I had it figured. It seemed soooo obvious. I was in pace w/Ellery & his thinking.
Then, BAM!!! a twist. Information is revealed to say it’s not what you think.
Where did we go wrong in our sleuthing?
I had to pause & go back over all my thoughts & retool as it were. Cool!
When the mystery is solved…yeah…I never would have figured it out.
Well done Ellery Queen…well done!
This is the 3rd one in this series that I’ve listened to on audio.
I like the Queens. (Inspector Dick Queen-cop dad, Ellery Queen-writer/amateur sleuth son)
The mysteries in these stories are good puzzles w/lots of pieces (ie. clues) to put together.
My big criticism is that they can be slow in the beginning. And there’s a lot of stuff about superfluous characters which don’t end up being important in the end.
It’s a lot like the Agatha Christie template of having red herrings.
January 7, 2025
This book ticked me off.
It's the story of a rich guy who sits for 20 days getting daily anonymous and increasingly menacing letters and just stays merrily put until he is murdered.
The idiot detective lets it happen, too busy mulling over the meaning of the riddles to worry about protecting his friend.
Whatever, the dead guy was secretly horrible to everyone so nothing of value was lost, except the reader's time.
But wait, that was actually his secret... well, I won't spoil it, but it's the laziest and most unfair trick in the history of mystery books.
But wait, it's not even an actual trick here, just a needless complication thrown into the matter to make it more convoluted.
As for the actual 'trick'... Really, it took the idiot detective 27 years to consider a different hypothesis that could have been obvious from the start? This basically let the killed off scot-free.
Once you know the solution, all the drama of the prologue and the secret *spoiler* subplot basically add nothing to the story except for more needless pages.
Queen at his worst yet.
It's the story of a rich guy who sits for 20 days getting daily anonymous and increasingly menacing letters and just stays merrily put until he is murdered.
The idiot detective lets it happen, too busy mulling over the meaning of the riddles to worry about protecting his friend.
Whatever, the dead guy was secretly horrible to everyone so nothing of value was lost, except the reader's time.
But wait, that was actually his secret... well, I won't spoil it, but it's the laziest and most unfair trick in the history of mystery books.
But wait, it's not even an actual trick here, just a needless complication thrown into the matter to make it more convoluted.
As for the actual 'trick'... Really, it took the idiot detective 27 years to consider a different hypothesis that could have been obvious from the start? This basically let the killed off scot-free.
Once you know the solution, all the drama of the prologue and the secret *spoiler* subplot basically add nothing to the story except for more needless pages.
Queen at his worst yet.
December 1, 2018
Het verhaal speelt zich af in drie periodes in de tijd, haast 3 generaties al gaat het grotendeels over dezelfde personen. Een prachtig kerstverhaal met een blije kerstsfeer die langzaam omslaat in argwaan en haat naargelang de geheimzinnigheid voortduurt en de gasten bij mekaar opgesloten blijven. De minder fraaie kantjes van de karakters komen meer en meer naar boven, ook Ellery maakt geen al te fraaie indruk, al is het oplossen van het mysterie bij hem de reden van zijn asociale gedrag.
Eigenlijk een stel moorden die Ellery niet kan oplossen tot hij, vele jaren later, door toeval het mysterie kan ontrafelen. Het meesterschriversdou achter de naam Ellery Queen, die tevens de hoofdrol speelt in het verhaal, slaagt er weer eens in een whodunit topper af te leveren volgens de regels van de kunst. Een besloten gezelschap, een moord waarvoor iedereen schijnbaar een alibi heeft, politie die geen oplossing vindt, ...
Eigenlijk een stel moorden die Ellery niet kan oplossen tot hij, vele jaren later, door toeval het mysterie kan ontrafelen. Het meesterschriversdou achter de naam Ellery Queen, die tevens de hoofdrol speelt in het verhaal, slaagt er weer eens in een whodunit topper af te leveren volgens de regels van de kunst. Een besloten gezelschap, een moord waarvoor iedereen schijnbaar een alibi heeft, politie die geen oplossing vindt, ...
May 16, 2020
Ritorno all'adolescenza con un classico come Ellery Queen, mia antica passione.
I 12 ( o giù di lì) protagonisti, ognuno dei quali appartenente ad uno dei 12 segni zodiacali, sono confinati in una residenza di campagna per i 12 giorni che vanno da Natale all'Epifania (the twelfth night), alle prese con un assassino misterioso che si diverte a spargere indizi. Il nostro eroe (Ellery) è tra gli ospiti, e intuisce il bandolo, ma questo non impedirà all'assassino di operare. Un giallo di impianto classico con personaggi interessanti ma un qualcosa che proprio non mi va giù e che non posso dire qui perché altrimenti spoilerei troppo. Comunque secondo me c'è un errore grande come una casa. La soluzione si basa su di una situazione che non può sussistere. Un errore che nessun giallista che si documenti anche superficialmente potrebbe mai commettere. Se qualcuno lo avesse già letto mi piacerebbe parlarne.
I 12 ( o giù di lì) protagonisti, ognuno dei quali appartenente ad uno dei 12 segni zodiacali, sono confinati in una residenza di campagna per i 12 giorni che vanno da Natale all'Epifania (the twelfth night), alle prese con un assassino misterioso che si diverte a spargere indizi. Il nostro eroe (Ellery) è tra gli ospiti, e intuisce il bandolo, ma questo non impedirà all'assassino di operare. Un giallo di impianto classico con personaggi interessanti ma un qualcosa che proprio non mi va giù e che non posso dire qui perché altrimenti spoilerei troppo. Comunque secondo me c'è un errore grande come una casa. La soluzione si basa su di una situazione che non può sussistere. Un errore che nessun giallista che si documenti anche superficialmente potrebbe mai commettere. Se qualcuno lo avesse già letto mi piacerebbe parlarne.
August 31, 2018
Molto carino! Eccellente il passaggio temporale tra la nascita della storia, il suo evolversi e la sua soluzione: 1905, 1929,1958. Distrae il lettore dalle cose importanti, come un abile prestidigitatore e illude di aver trovato la soluzione del mistero. Un omicidio avviene nel Natale del 1929 in una villa vicino a New York, Ellery è uno degli ospiti e si ritrova invischiato in una storia incredibile di Natale, omicidi e nascite misteriose. Troverà la soluzione già in quel momento ma ne avrà la certezza solo dopo altri 25 anni o giù di lì. Il lettore viene fuorviato più e più volte ma come al solito... Cherchez la femme... ah no, qui bisogna seguire qualcos'altro! Ottima prova degli autori che si nascondevano sotto il nome di Ellery Queen.
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