What do you think?
Rate this book
The Madman Theory
A police inspector tracks a lunatic after a murder in a state park
A party of backpackers hikes along the silver strand of the river, in awe of the overwhelming beauty of King’s Canyon. They are amateur hikers, coworkers at a chemical lab who came from Fresno to heed the call of the wild. They have endured blisters, bug bites, and sunburn, but no discomfort can prepare them for what comes next. The peaceful silence of nature is shattered by a shotgun blast. When the echoes fade, there is a dead man in the canyon.
There are no roads into the park, so Inspector Omar Collins flies in via helicopter. Tracking a killer on 3,000 square miles of parkland is impossible, but what if he’s closer than Collins realizes? The murderer could be a madman or a genius. Either way, his bloody work isn’t done. . . .
A party of backpackers hikes along the silver strand of the river, in awe of the overwhelming beauty of King’s Canyon. They are amateur hikers, coworkers at a chemical lab who came from Fresno to heed the call of the wild. They have endured blisters, bug bites, and sunburn, but no discomfort can prepare them for what comes next. The peaceful silence of nature is shattered by a shotgun blast. When the echoes fade, there is a dead man in the canyon.
There are no roads into the park, so Inspector Omar Collins flies in via helicopter. Tracking a killer on 3,000 square miles of parkland is impossible, but what if he’s closer than Collins realizes? The murderer could be a madman or a genius. Either way, his bloody work isn’t done. . . .
207 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 1, 1966
12 people are currently reading
101 people want to read
About the author
Ellery Queen
1,764 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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 12, 2018
Well, it was short.
Five men go for a backpacking trek in General Grant National Park, California. A couple of days out, one of them has his head blown off by a double shotgun blast from the bushes. When the rest pluck up the courage to investigate, they find the shotgun has vanished -- presumably carried off by the fleeing killer -- and there's no shred of evidence left aside from the marks on the branch where the shotgun rested.
The men had noticed another hiker following the same route as theirs, but thought little of it. Could it have been someone stalking them with murderous intent? Could there be a psychopath -- the madman of the title -- hunting random trekkers amid the wilderness of the National Park?
Call for Inspector Omar Collins of the Fresno PD. As his investigations take him into the world of bars/music clubs, further murders occur that he knows must be related to the one in the park. The Madman Theory becomes less and less plausible. But who could have wanted the victim -- a wealthy and philanthropic pharmaceutical entrepreneur -- to die when everyone around him seemed to benefit from his being alive?
Despite the author's best efforts, there's not a lot of mystery in the whodunnit aspect of this tale, unless you subscribe to the notion that in mystery novels it's never the most obvious suspect who's the culprit.
The howdunnit is a bit more of a puzzle. The only trouble is that, when it's explained, the solution's just rank silly. I'll explain my thinking on this below, behind a Spoiler Curtain.
Jack Vance, who ghosted this novel under what was by then essentially the house-name of Ellery Queen, is of course better known by far for his science fantasy. I confess I've never been a huge enthusiast for his work because of the (for me) overfloridity of his prose. Here, though, as Omar Collins plodded through what's essentially a police procedural, I found myself yearning for some of that floweriness of language -- perhaps as much as the "real" Ellery Queen might have applied. It's not that the prose is drab, but . . . on second thoughts, it is that the prose is drab. That and the fact that the characterization is pretty minimal made me feel as grimly dogged in my reading as Collins is in his investigation.
So, not one I can get excited about. I'm still interested, though, in the novels produced by other hands during this late phase of Ellery Queenery, and will persevere.
SPOILER STUFF:
Five men go for a backpacking trek in General Grant National Park, California. A couple of days out, one of them has his head blown off by a double shotgun blast from the bushes. When the rest pluck up the courage to investigate, they find the shotgun has vanished -- presumably carried off by the fleeing killer -- and there's no shred of evidence left aside from the marks on the branch where the shotgun rested.
The men had noticed another hiker following the same route as theirs, but thought little of it. Could it have been someone stalking them with murderous intent? Could there be a psychopath -- the madman of the title -- hunting random trekkers amid the wilderness of the National Park?
Call for Inspector Omar Collins of the Fresno PD. As his investigations take him into the world of bars/music clubs, further murders occur that he knows must be related to the one in the park. The Madman Theory becomes less and less plausible. But who could have wanted the victim -- a wealthy and philanthropic pharmaceutical entrepreneur -- to die when everyone around him seemed to benefit from his being alive?
Despite the author's best efforts, there's not a lot of mystery in the whodunnit aspect of this tale, unless you subscribe to the notion that in mystery novels it's never the most obvious suspect who's the culprit.
The howdunnit is a bit more of a puzzle. The only trouble is that, when it's explained, the solution's just rank silly. I'll explain my thinking on this below, behind a Spoiler Curtain.
Jack Vance, who ghosted this novel under what was by then essentially the house-name of Ellery Queen, is of course better known by far for his science fantasy. I confess I've never been a huge enthusiast for his work because of the (for me) overfloridity of his prose. Here, though, as Omar Collins plodded through what's essentially a police procedural, I found myself yearning for some of that floweriness of language -- perhaps as much as the "real" Ellery Queen might have applied. It's not that the prose is drab, but . . . on second thoughts, it is that the prose is drab. That and the fact that the characterization is pretty minimal made me feel as grimly dogged in my reading as Collins is in his investigation.
So, not one I can get excited about. I'm still interested, though, in the novels produced by other hands during this late phase of Ellery Queenery, and will persevere.
SPOILER STUFF:
May 17, 2020
"Ο τρελός δολοφόνος", εκδόσεις ΒΙΠΕΡ.
Συγγραφέας του βιβλίου δεν είναι άλλος από τον Τζακ Βανς, τον δημιουργό της υπέροχης τετραλογίας "Ιστορίες της Ετοιμοθάνατης Γης", καθώς επίσης και άλλων βιβλίων φαντασίας και επιστημονικής φαντασίας. Ο Τζακ Βανς έγραψε τρία αστυνομικά μυθιστορήματα με το ψευδώνυμο Έλερι Κουίν -προφανώς μετά από συμφωνία με αυτούς που κατείχαν τα δικαιώματα χρήσης του ψευδωνύμου-, ένα εκ των οποίων είναι αυτό το αρκετά ενδιαφέρον, ψυχαγωγικό και καλογραμμένο whodunit αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα. Πέντε φίλοι πάνε για πεζοπορία στο εθνικό πάρκο Κινγκς Κάνιον της Καλιφόρνια θέλοντας να περάσουν κάποιες όμορφες στιγμές, μέχρι που σε κάποιο μονοπάτι ένας εξ αυτών δέχεται πυρά στο πρόσωπο, από άγνωστο δράστη. Πρόκειται για λάθος από κάποιον κυνηγό ή για το έργο ενός μανιακού, που απλώς ήθελε να σκοτώσει άνθρωπο; Ή μήπως κάποιος είχε κίνητρο να σκοτώσει τον συγκεκριμένο άντρα; Ο επιθεωρητής Ομάρ Κόλινς καλείται να βγάλει μια άκρη, ενώ δυο νέοι φόνοι, φαινομενικά άσχετοι με την υπόθεση, κάνουν τα πράγματα ακόμα πιο δύσκολα... Πρόκειται για ένα ωραίο αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα με όλες τις απαραίτητες δόσεις μυστηρίου και δράσης, με τη γραφή να είναι σίγουρα πολύ καλή και άκρως ευκολοδιάβαστη, με ρεαλιστικές περιγραφές και φυσικούς διαλόγους. Προφανώς και δεν υπάρχει κάτι το τρομερά πρωτότυπο στην πλοκή ή τους χαρακτήρες, όμως η ώρα περνάει γρήγορα και ευχάριστα, θεωρώ ότι είναι ένα θριλεράκι που θα ικανοποιήσει τους λάτρεις των παλπ ιστοριών μυστηρίου.
Συγγραφέας του βιβλίου δεν είναι άλλος από τον Τζακ Βανς, τον δημιουργό της υπέροχης τετραλογίας "Ιστορίες της Ετοιμοθάνατης Γης", καθώς επίσης και άλλων βιβλίων φαντασίας και επιστημονικής φαντασίας. Ο Τζακ Βανς έγραψε τρία αστυνομικά μυθιστορήματα με το ψευδώνυμο Έλερι Κουίν -προφανώς μετά από συμφωνία με αυτούς που κατείχαν τα δικαιώματα χρήσης του ψευδωνύμου-, ένα εκ των οποίων είναι αυτό το αρκετά ενδιαφέρον, ψυχαγωγικό και καλογραμμένο whodunit αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα. Πέντε φίλοι πάνε για πεζοπορία στο εθνικό πάρκο Κινγκς Κάνιον της Καλιφόρνια θέλοντας να περάσουν κάποιες όμορφες στιγμές, μέχρι που σε κάποιο μονοπάτι ένας εξ αυτών δέχεται πυρά στο πρόσωπο, από άγνωστο δράστη. Πρόκειται για λάθος από κάποιον κυνηγό ή για το έργο ενός μανιακού, που απλώς ήθελε να σκοτώσει άνθρωπο; Ή μήπως κάποιος είχε κίνητρο να σκοτώσει τον συγκεκριμένο άντρα; Ο επιθεωρητής Ομάρ Κόλινς καλείται να βγάλει μια άκρη, ενώ δυο νέοι φόνοι, φαινομενικά άσχετοι με την υπόθεση, κάνουν τα πράγματα ακόμα πιο δύσκολα... Πρόκειται για ένα ωραίο αστυνομικό μυθιστόρημα με όλες τις απαραίτητες δόσεις μυστηρίου και δράσης, με τη γραφή να είναι σίγουρα πολύ καλή και άκρως ευκολοδιάβαστη, με ρεαλιστικές περιγραφές και φυσικούς διαλόγους. Προφανώς και δεν υπάρχει κάτι το τρομερά πρωτότυπο στην πλοκή ή τους χαρακτήρες, όμως η ώρα περνάει γρήγορα και ευχάριστα, θεωρώ ότι είναι ένα θριλεράκι που θα ικανοποιήσει τους λάτρεις των παλπ ιστοριών μυστηρίου.
May 28, 2024
The Madman Theory is a mystery novel that was written by Jack Vance under the pseudonym of Ellery Queen, a fictitious author that was used by the publisher for a series of mystery novels. It was first released as a 191 page novel in a Signet paperback edition that was published in 1966. Kinnell press released a hardcover edition in 1998. The novel was later released in 2006 as a supplement to the Vance Integral Edition under the title “The Man Who Walks Behind”. That VIE book was published as a leather bound very limited release and is quite rare.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...
Inspector Omar Collins of the Fresno Sheriff's office is called to King's Canyon park to investigate a probable murder. Five men, all good friends, had gone backpacking in the park when one of them was ambushed and killed with a shotgun. The killer disappeared and left no evidence. The men had noticed being followed by a mysterious stranger who was camping alone but near to them, and this unknown camper initially becomes the main suspect.
There appears to be no motive for the killing, however, and the idea is advanced that it was possibly a madman who engaged in a random murder. This is referred to as the “madman theory.” Collins and his team search the immense park area and write down the license plates of all vehicles parked in the park’s parking lot. They then look up the owners names and addresses after checking to see when the vehicle’s owners had arrived and departed. While checking out these clues one of the potential suspects is reported to have been found mutilated and murdered out of state in a train boxcar. This turns out to be the same man who was camping alone and seemed to have been shadowing the group that the victim was with.
As Collins and his small team continue to investigate the clues that they find lead to additional suspects and possible motives. The plot for this novel is fairly complex with good suspense and there is some minimal character development during the murder investigation by our down to earth inspector. I enjoyed reading The Madman Theory, more so the second time, but suspect it will be mostly of interest to Vance fans and perhaps some mystery novel readers. I read it twice so far and rated it 3 the first time and 4 the second.
For the most recent review and other Vance reviews please see:
https://vancealotjackvanceinreview.bl...
Inspector Omar Collins of the Fresno Sheriff's office is called to King's Canyon park to investigate a probable murder. Five men, all good friends, had gone backpacking in the park when one of them was ambushed and killed with a shotgun. The killer disappeared and left no evidence. The men had noticed being followed by a mysterious stranger who was camping alone but near to them, and this unknown camper initially becomes the main suspect.
There appears to be no motive for the killing, however, and the idea is advanced that it was possibly a madman who engaged in a random murder. This is referred to as the “madman theory.” Collins and his team search the immense park area and write down the license plates of all vehicles parked in the park’s parking lot. They then look up the owners names and addresses after checking to see when the vehicle’s owners had arrived and departed. While checking out these clues one of the potential suspects is reported to have been found mutilated and murdered out of state in a train boxcar. This turns out to be the same man who was camping alone and seemed to have been shadowing the group that the victim was with.
As Collins and his small team continue to investigate the clues that they find lead to additional suspects and possible motives. The plot for this novel is fairly complex with good suspense and there is some minimal character development during the murder investigation by our down to earth inspector. I enjoyed reading The Madman Theory, more so the second time, but suspect it will be mostly of interest to Vance fans and perhaps some mystery novel readers. I read it twice so far and rated it 3 the first time and 4 the second.
June 18, 2020
This is one of the numerous “fake” Ellery Queen books released as paperback originals in the 60s. If you are expecting a fair play mystery with gorgeous writing, you will be disappointed. The only connection with the real Ellery Queen books is an extravagant and ultimately silly murder method.
The style is watered down Dragnet prose that fits the police procedural plot. The story takes an awful long time to roll out and is pretty pedestrian once the whole thing stretches out. The setting (Fresno, San Jose, Kings Canyon National Park, Country Honky Tonks) is promising, but ultimately dull.
Zz.
The style is watered down Dragnet prose that fits the police procedural plot. The story takes an awful long time to roll out and is pretty pedestrian once the whole thing stretches out. The setting (Fresno, San Jose, Kings Canyon National Park, Country Honky Tonks) is promising, but ultimately dull.
Zz.
January 13, 2024
Warning! This book does not have Ellery Queen as a character in any way, shape or form!
It's written by the same authors, but without Ellery Queen as a character I don't think it should be considered part of the Ellery Queen series.
That said, it is well written with good characters. I enjoyed the story. It had tension and buildup towards the climax.
It's a nice read, but I wouldn't have actually read it if I hadn't been mistaken about it being a part of the series and not a stand alone novel.
It's written by the same authors, but without Ellery Queen as a character I don't think it should be considered part of the Ellery Queen series.
That said, it is well written with good characters. I enjoyed the story. It had tension and buildup towards the climax.
It's a nice read, but I wouldn't have actually read it if I hadn't been mistaken about it being a part of the series and not a stand alone novel.
November 30, 2020
A few thoughts:
1) Jack Vance could write under spec;
2) Jack Vance could write a decent whodunit/mystery, using all the right genre conventions and a "proper" style approach;
3) This kind of book isn't really my thing (but one of these days I'll tackle the last Dalgliesh; I can't believe it's already 12 years...)
1) Jack Vance could write under spec;
2) Jack Vance could write a decent whodunit/mystery, using all the right genre conventions and a "proper" style approach;
3) This kind of book isn't really my thing (but one of these days I'll tackle the last Dalgliesh; I can't believe it's already 12 years...)
September 16, 2024
Maybe two and a half stars. Not boring, although writing is rather bland. Murder method stretches credibility and would only work in fiction.
A "fake" Ellery Queen written by Jack Vance, who I can't imagine being one of the ghostwriters for the "real" Ellery Queen books (with the possible exception of Cop Out).
A "fake" Ellery Queen written by Jack Vance, who I can't imagine being one of the ghostwriters for the "real" Ellery Queen books (with the possible exception of Cop Out).
July 30, 2023
An OK mystery. Lots of clues! I got to the murderer and half the method and 33.3% of the motive.
Just an OK narrator. I liked him, but his ability to differentiate between character voices is weak.
Just an OK narrator. I liked him, but his ability to differentiate between character voices is weak.
August 23, 2024
Um grupo de 5 amigos decidem dar uma caminhada nas montanhas e acampar. Durante o percurso um deles é morto com um tiro de caçadeira. Segue-se a investigação e mais umas mortes até se descobrir o verdadeiro culpado
October 30, 2018
Pretty good mystery. Not fair play but interesting plot.
April 4, 2020
I think this is the weakest Queen I've read of many. A lot of characters. A lot of dull and a sudden conclusion without reason
March 9, 2025
a steady good read.
One can always count on Ellery Queen to give readers a good story. Well worth reading. I enjoyed it. Amen.
One can always count on Ellery Queen to give readers a good story. Well worth reading. I enjoyed it. Amen.
August 29, 2025
Ottimo giallo classico, un po' sottovalutato. Si legge tutto d'un fiato.
April 9, 2013
This book is by Jack Vance writing under the house name of Queen. It's called 'The Madman theory'. As one would expect with Vance it's an absolute gem.
May 13, 2013
An enjoyable and quick mystery from one of my favorite authors. Something I would suggest for a lazy afternoon when a quick mystery is desired. ;-)
January 28, 2017
The Man Who Walks Behind was published by Ellery Queen as The Madman Theory.. Superb whodunit.
May 16, 2016
Policial à moda antiga, não se destaca particularmente.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews