Zločin z omylu

by Ellery Queen

Obsahuje povídky Zločin z omylu (Wife or Death), Africký cestovatel (The Adventure of the African Traveler) a Tři chromí muži (The Three Lame Men).

Genres: Mystery, Fiction

160 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

aka 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.

Reviews

[auggie :3 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finished most of this this afternoon. Kind of campy and trashy but a fun read. Guessed the killer like halfway thru #GOAT

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the pulpiest Ellery Queen novel I've read, with a vaguely sordid storyline and a definite tendency to lean into the madonna/whore dichotomy with the two main female characters. But it's also still a good fair play mystery and a fast-paced read, which helps to take some of the pain out of the painfully 1963 setting.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came across this recently and pounced on it, thinking that at last I'd found an Ellery Queen that I hadn't read before. No such luck. It's one of a series of paperback originals that Dannay and Lee licensed to be written by ghosts for publication under the Queen name. This one was in fact written by Richard Deming. (There's a very informative page about this series here).

Wife or Death is nothing like an Ellery Queen novel: it's a lot raunchier and much more hardboiled. But it was a pleasant surprise anyway: if we ignore the Queen connection, what we have here is a damn' fine little mystery of the kind you expect(ed) to find on the Black Mask/Munseys site.

Jim Denton, editor and publisher of a small-town newspaper, is embarrassed by but no longer resentful of the fact that his ex-stripper wife Angel is a bedhopper and is a bit too dim to hide the fact. Her latest conquest is the local DA, but it becomes obvious at the Halloween Ball that she's thrown him over for someone new. Later that night Jim overhears a snatch of conversation that suggests she's making a rendezvous with her new beau. When he finds next morning a note from her telling him that she's left him for good, he's more relieved than anything else.

That changes a couple of weeks later when her murdered body is found in the woods. For obvious reasons, the cops regard Jim as the primary suspect, and the DA, who seems unlike anyone else to have actually fallen for Angel rather than just enjoying the carnal delights while they lasted, is especially vindictive.

Jim is given great support by his old friends George and Corinne Guest, but then George, who believes he has an idea who the killer is, dies in an "accident" that's too darn' convenient to be anything but another murder. By now the town has decided that Jim and Corinne are secret lovers and that they've knocked off their inconvenient spouses . . .

The solution to the mystery both surprised and didn't surprise me: the killer was one of a couple I'd suspected, but the motive for killing Angel cleverly blindsided me.

I'm now, of course, quite keen to read others in this series, especially if they're written by Deming -- this is one of nine for which he was responsible.

[Gypsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did not realize until I started this book that Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee (co-authors/creators of the Ellery Queen books) had ghost-writers for some of the books written in the 1960s and '70s. Previously, I had tried House of Brass and found it to be slimy, unlike the previous books of the series, and simply unreadable for me; I now know that it was ghost-written by Avram Davidson and will avoid any others by him.

This one by Richard Deming, however, was quite good. The story focuses on a man whose wife is known to be a serial adulterer. When she is found murdered, he is the first and most likely suspect, so begins his own investigation to prove his innocence. It was well-plotted, interesting, and engaging. I figured out most of it, but still enjoyed it enough that I wouldn't hesitate to read another by Deming.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 3 out of 5]

In a small town in the 1960s, the wife of a newspaper reporter is murdered, and the widower, suspected of the murder, wants to find the real killer. No detective appears; the newspaperman hunts up clues himself, and luck plays a big role in what he finds. And although the reveal of the murderer at the end is a bit of a surprise, it was mostly the procedural accumulation of clues rather than clever deduction that got us there. Though set in the 60s, the cultural milieu could have been the 40s or even earlier, making the book feel even more dated than it is. The characters are okay, but none stand out, nor are there any outstanding themes or twists. A very average book.

[Brett Bayne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Newspaper publisher Jim Denton's big problem—his beautiful but bored wife is cheating on him—is about to be replaced with an even bigger problem: she's been murdered and he is being framed for the killing. This is a novel with a great deal of potential suspects, all of whom seem to have a motive. Ghost-written by Richard Deming, the book reflects his style pretty well; I've never read an "actual" Ellery Queen novel, so I have nothing else to compare it to. I found it quite enjoyable, although it's not quite as captivating as the books Deming wrote under his own name.

[terry stallings · Rating 5 out of 5]

Who Killed Angel?

Angel Denton has been murdered! But who did it? Was it her husband Jim? Or the DA ? Or any one of the many lovers she had? Read it, and find out. You'll be glad you did!

[Inrisrini · Rating 3 out of 5]

like the writing style, simple crisp, to the point, no more dragging or bragging.....tnx EQ

[Juan Carlos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice story with surprising end. Not an Ellery and Richard Queen book

[Pat · Rating 3 out of 5]

good story

I enjoyed this. Though of course it had nothing to do with Ellery Queen. But an interesting story. Surprise ending.

[Gillis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Een 'no nonsense' misdaadroman. Leest super vlot. Niet super origineel of verrassend, maar simpelweg goed. Niets meer - niets minder. Het blijft mij daardoor bij als een aangename leeservaring en ik zou op basis hiervan zeker nog andere boeken van deze auteur(s) ter hand nemen!

[Jade]

Well, I have to take into consideration that this does not seem to truly be an Ellery Queen novel when rating it. As a mystery it is passable but without the character of Ellery Queen or his father this is very ordinary--a good enough mystery but without the great ambiance of the Queen novels or the humor Ellery and his father bring to the books. I am not sure if this is just a novel written by the authors that write as Ellery Queen or if it is a mistake (I purchased it as an ebook and the listing here says it's Ellery Queen) but other than having the author's name it has none of the panache. Can't say I would recommend.

[Kati · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nejvíce se mi líbila právě první povídka, Zločin z omylu (Wife or Death), i když v ní neúčinkovali otec a syn Queenovi, nýbrž pouze originální postavy. Byly ale moc fajn a i zápletka byla zajímavá. Zbývající dvě povídky byly velmi krátké, takže tam na nějaký rozvoj postav nebyl moc prostor.

[Rose]

Ick...very ridiculous book. Total waste of time to read :(

[Neer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Richard Deming writes as Ellery Queen about a wife who goes missing.

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