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Ellery Queen Detective #10
The Lamp of God
Coleção XIS, n.º 52, de 1955
Ellery Queen é convidada por um amigo advogado para ajudar a proteger os interesses de uma herdeira muito jovem. Eles conhecem-na, juntamente com um desagradável médico amigo da sua família, quando ela desembarca em Nova York de um transatlântico que chega da Inglaterra. Ela descobre que o seu pai, de quem está separada desde criança, morreu quando ela estava para se reunir com a sua família excêntrica e herdar o lendário tesouro de ouro de seu pai. O grupo conduz durante horas para chegar, ao anoitecer, a uma casa vitoriana feia e sinistra chamada Casa Negra.
A Casa Negra, onde o seu pai morreu, é inabitável - o grupo encontra a família e deita-se numa pequena casa de pedra ao lado. Quando eles acordam, a Casa Negra desapareceu como se nunca tivesse existido. Ellery deve livrar-se das armadilhas góticas e das sugestões de magia negra para descobrir o que aconteceu com a Casa Negra e o ouro.
Ellery Queen é convidada por um amigo advogado para ajudar a proteger os interesses de uma herdeira muito jovem. Eles conhecem-na, juntamente com um desagradável médico amigo da sua família, quando ela desembarca em Nova York de um transatlântico que chega da Inglaterra. Ela descobre que o seu pai, de quem está separada desde criança, morreu quando ela estava para se reunir com a sua família excêntrica e herdar o lendário tesouro de ouro de seu pai. O grupo conduz durante horas para chegar, ao anoitecer, a uma casa vitoriana feia e sinistra chamada Casa Negra.
A Casa Negra, onde o seu pai morreu, é inabitável - o grupo encontra a família e deita-se numa pequena casa de pedra ao lado. Quando eles acordam, a Casa Negra desapareceu como se nunca tivesse existido. Ellery deve livrar-se das armadilhas góticas e das sugestões de magia negra para descobrir o que aconteceu com a Casa Negra e o ouro.
64 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1951
5 people are currently reading
254 people want to read
About the author
Ellery Queen
1,781 books488 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 - 23 of 23 reviews
December 3, 2016
Oh, the joys of a vintage Ellery Queen. As soon as I started reading this I found myself relaxing back into the archetypal Queen cadences, the reveling in language, the vivid turns of phrase. This isn't one of the Queens' great classics -- really it's more of a rationalized (barely!) tall tale than anything else -- but if you don't grin at the sheer ingenuity of the thing then there's not much you do grin at. Me, I loved it, albeit not uncritically.
It's approaching Christmas and Ellery is suddenly phoned by an old lawyer friend, Thorne, with the request that he pack his bags and prepare to spend a few days helping Thorne out. Natch, Ellery goes along with this.
Thorne's problem is that he's acting on behalf of a young woman, Alice Mayhew, who, though having spent her life in the UK, is the daughter of a Long Islander called Sylvester Mayhew, whom her mother divorced when Alice was an infant. A few months ago, through Thorne, father and daughter were put in touch with each other. Now Alice has traveled to the US to visit her dad in his remote Long Island home, not knowing that, while she was en route, he unexpectedly died. It seems the old man left a fortune in gold in his house; Thorne has been guarding the house against the depredations of Sylvester's creepy stepbrother, Dr. Reinach, and Reinach's family members.
Alice, Thorne and Ellery travel with Reinach to the Reinach home, the White House, which is directly adjacent to the Black House in which Sylvester lived and died. The next morning, though, they awake to find that the Black House has disappeared as if it had never been . . .
From the concluding pages of this short novel, including an "Addendum" that essentially comprises a sort of "this is what really happened" infodump, I get the sense that the Queens intended this to be a full-length Ellery novel but then discovered that it wasn't going to go the distance and so wrapped everything up in a bit of a hurry. That may of course be entirely bogus ratiocination on my part; but that's how it seemed to me, anyway.
Aside from that scrambled conclusion, I have no real criticisms to offer. Almost every time I return to Queen I remember exactly why I so enjoyed reading the novels for the first time, decades ago, and resolve to reread more of them Real Soon Now. And then, of course, I don't. Perhaps I should line up for myself an Ellery Queen Month. And then a John Dickson Carr Month. And then a Georges Simenon Month. And then a . . .
It's approaching Christmas and Ellery is suddenly phoned by an old lawyer friend, Thorne, with the request that he pack his bags and prepare to spend a few days helping Thorne out. Natch, Ellery goes along with this.
Thorne's problem is that he's acting on behalf of a young woman, Alice Mayhew, who, though having spent her life in the UK, is the daughter of a Long Islander called Sylvester Mayhew, whom her mother divorced when Alice was an infant. A few months ago, through Thorne, father and daughter were put in touch with each other. Now Alice has traveled to the US to visit her dad in his remote Long Island home, not knowing that, while she was en route, he unexpectedly died. It seems the old man left a fortune in gold in his house; Thorne has been guarding the house against the depredations of Sylvester's creepy stepbrother, Dr. Reinach, and Reinach's family members.
Alice, Thorne and Ellery travel with Reinach to the Reinach home, the White House, which is directly adjacent to the Black House in which Sylvester lived and died. The next morning, though, they awake to find that the Black House has disappeared as if it had never been . . .
From the concluding pages of this short novel, including an "Addendum" that essentially comprises a sort of "this is what really happened" infodump, I get the sense that the Queens intended this to be a full-length Ellery novel but then discovered that it wasn't going to go the distance and so wrapped everything up in a bit of a hurry. That may of course be entirely bogus ratiocination on my part; but that's how it seemed to me, anyway.
Aside from that scrambled conclusion, I have no real criticisms to offer. Almost every time I return to Queen I remember exactly why I so enjoyed reading the novels for the first time, decades ago, and resolve to reread more of them Real Soon Now. And then, of course, I don't. Perhaps I should line up for myself an Ellery Queen Month. And then a John Dickson Carr Month. And then a Georges Simenon Month. And then a . . .
November 14, 2025
Originally published as the house of haunts in 1935, and then republished as the lamp of God in 1940, this very popular and widely praised novella is a curious piece. A clever, if somewhat artificial (in the end) impossible crime, laid against the background of a sort of Gothic tale of horror — where the writing of the background is actually superior to the plot construction of the foreground — I suspect that this story is somewhat atypical of Ellery Queen. This is my first taste, so that’s just a guess. Anyway, a fine read — though not truly spectacular, as everyone seems to say.
January 24, 2011
The novel recommended in The Ultimate Reading List I've been working through was The Roman Hat Mystery, the first Ellery Queen mystery. However, the Queen novels appear to be out of print. The story "The Lamp of God" is included in a mystery anthology once owned by my mother, A Treasury of Great Mysteries and the novella first appeared in 1940 in The New Adventures of Ellery Queen.
It's written along Doyle/Christie traditional mystery lines--no sex, no obscenities, no violence--presenting a puzzle of a seemingly disappearing house. I guessed the solution to that part immediately. Another aspect of the mystery that I didn't guess seemed to me far fetched and cliched. So I don't know if I'm missing anything because the Queen books are out of print. This was entertaining but nothing about the writing or characters struck me as impressive.
It's written along Doyle/Christie traditional mystery lines--no sex, no obscenities, no violence--presenting a puzzle of a seemingly disappearing house. I guessed the solution to that part immediately. Another aspect of the mystery that I didn't guess seemed to me far fetched and cliched. So I don't know if I'm missing anything because the Queen books are out of print. This was entertaining but nothing about the writing or characters struck me as impressive.
May 29, 2020
Clever story. I guessed at the solution and was correct, but it was only a guess. Ellery is supposed to play the role of a somber business associate to a lawyer who is supposed to be helping the heiress to a miser’s fortune. A search for gold in a rundown, ramshackle mansion that disappears in the middle of the night and in the middle of a snowstorn makes for a decent mystery. A bit short and the authors are a little heavy-handed with the emotions and outbursts, but it’s still a good story.
August 4, 2017
My Rating System:
* couldn't finish, ** wouldn't recommend, *** would recommend, **** would read again, ***** have read again.
January 31, 2016
A Treasury of Great Mysteries - My first Ellery Queen A little creepy but I could get hooked on these stories!!
April 7, 2025
A short novella but one of Queen's best stories.
October 27, 2017
From Casual Debris.
Published 32 years ago this month, the Ellery Queen novella "The Lamp of God" is technically a supernatural story. The premise finds Detective Ellery Queen invited by lawyer acquaintance Thorne to help escort a young woman, Alice, to her father's isolated house to retrieve her inheritance. Arriving at the isolated Victorian "Black House," they spend the night in the adjacent "White House" where the deceased man's remaining kin have settled. Upon waking the next morning, the black house has entirely vanished!
Though readers can deduce early on that a rational explanation will be available to explain the house's disappearance, the fact that the plot hinges on the possibility of a ghostly house categorizes the story as supernatural. In fact the story can potentially be categorized as a ghost story, if one were to be inclined to argue that vanishing house is a ghostly object, but since the plot does not reflect it being an apparition, only that it disappeared, I would refute the claim. The story was, however, originally titled "The House of Haunts," whether by the authors or publisher, but despite this detail the supernatural element is not directly investigated, nor speculated upon, so nothing in the text claims that a haunting is a possibility.
It is only at the story's denouement that the supernatural element is entirely and indisputably removed.
Though it appears that by employing the supernatural as a possibility, the authors are challenging their own conventions, along with challenging the conventions of early detective fiction. However, they are taking safe refuge with how the supernatural element is presented. The story opens with a brief segment that establishes Ellery Queen as a strictly rational man, so that no fanciful ideas can act as potential realities in his mind. When the house disappears Queen is flabbergasted, as are the other, more impressionable, witnesses. Though Queen does, on occasion, comment on the fact that God's world is shaken and there are some minor comments on his faith in the rational being challenged, his thoughts are kept conveniently away from the reader and we later discover, though it is obvious, that throughout the plot his rational brain is picking up clues and piecing the evidence together. The questioning of Queen's reality is simplistic and certainly not terribly existential; Thorne and Alice are the ones whose cores are affected, but they are secondary players in the plot so their realities are further removed. Because even much of Queen's portrayal is distanced, and though we might receive the glimpse of a thought along the lines of his worlds being shaken up, his investigative mind is kept wholly secret, so that we are left to wonder what in fact was spinning in that head of his.
As a mystery story it is a product of its time. It features stock characters and is high on melodrama. However, it is quite entertaining, and the explanation of the house's disappearance is a good one. Some might figure it out; I admit that I did not.
Published 32 years ago this month, the Ellery Queen novella "The Lamp of God" is technically a supernatural story. The premise finds Detective Ellery Queen invited by lawyer acquaintance Thorne to help escort a young woman, Alice, to her father's isolated house to retrieve her inheritance. Arriving at the isolated Victorian "Black House," they spend the night in the adjacent "White House" where the deceased man's remaining kin have settled. Upon waking the next morning, the black house has entirely vanished!
Though readers can deduce early on that a rational explanation will be available to explain the house's disappearance, the fact that the plot hinges on the possibility of a ghostly house categorizes the story as supernatural. In fact the story can potentially be categorized as a ghost story, if one were to be inclined to argue that vanishing house is a ghostly object, but since the plot does not reflect it being an apparition, only that it disappeared, I would refute the claim. The story was, however, originally titled "The House of Haunts," whether by the authors or publisher, but despite this detail the supernatural element is not directly investigated, nor speculated upon, so nothing in the text claims that a haunting is a possibility.
It is only at the story's denouement that the supernatural element is entirely and indisputably removed.
Though it appears that by employing the supernatural as a possibility, the authors are challenging their own conventions, along with challenging the conventions of early detective fiction. However, they are taking safe refuge with how the supernatural element is presented. The story opens with a brief segment that establishes Ellery Queen as a strictly rational man, so that no fanciful ideas can act as potential realities in his mind. When the house disappears Queen is flabbergasted, as are the other, more impressionable, witnesses. Though Queen does, on occasion, comment on the fact that God's world is shaken and there are some minor comments on his faith in the rational being challenged, his thoughts are kept conveniently away from the reader and we later discover, though it is obvious, that throughout the plot his rational brain is picking up clues and piecing the evidence together. The questioning of Queen's reality is simplistic and certainly not terribly existential; Thorne and Alice are the ones whose cores are affected, but they are secondary players in the plot so their realities are further removed. Because even much of Queen's portrayal is distanced, and though we might receive the glimpse of a thought along the lines of his worlds being shaken up, his investigative mind is kept wholly secret, so that we are left to wonder what in fact was spinning in that head of his.
As a mystery story it is a product of its time. It features stock characters and is high on melodrama. However, it is quite entertaining, and the explanation of the house's disappearance is a good one. Some might figure it out; I admit that I did not.
April 18, 2021
An enjoyable short read with the always interesting Ellery Queen. The solution to the mystery of the disappearing house, although it is a sensible (perhaps the only sensible) explanation, does seem rather complex and I'm not quite sure how the reader would ever be able to fully guess at what is going on. The murder plot, which is not really talked about or revealed until after the impossible mystery of the house is resolved, is definitely more satisfying than the house plot. I kept everybody in the list of suspects... other than Ellery, of course. Yet the identity of the criminal mastermind still caught me off guard. Of course, since an extended suspension of disbelief is required for as big a mystery as an entire house that disappears, I'll forgive any extravagances in the denouement. Also interesting to note the lack of Inspector Queen in this title, despite its earliness in the Queen chronology.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 24, 2013
A novella that manages to be both over and under written. There isn’t a single well fleshed out character in the book (including Queen) and the authors seem to attempt to hide the paucity of hole-ridden plot with prose so purple it seems apoplectic. The fact that final “brilliant and mind blowing” solution was obvious from the outset made it a tedious read at best.
July 21, 2019
ตะเกียงของพระเจ้า นวนิยายแนวรหัสคดีขนาดสั้น ในชุดซีรี่ย์นักสืบเอลเลอรี่ ควีน
เป็นเล่มแรกที่ได้อ่านในชุดนี้ เป็นครั้งแรกที่ได้สัมผัสกับนิยายแนวรหัสคดี เป็นเรื่องราวที่อิงสมัยยุควิคตอเรีย อันมีปริศนาที่สุดแยบยล เรื่องราวที่ดูเหมือนการแย่งชิงสมบัติกันในครอบครัว กลับมีเรื่องมีราวที่ชวนติดตามตลอดทั้งเล่ม และเมื่อมีคำเฉลยออกมา ไม่เพียงแต่สมเหตุสมผล และได้อธิบายความลึกลับและพิสดารได้อย่างครบถ้วน
เป็นเล่มแรกที่ได้อ่านในชุดนี้ เป็นครั้งแรกที่ได้สัมผัสกับนิยายแนวรหัสคดี เป็นเรื่องราวที่อิงสมัยยุควิคตอเรีย อันมีปริศนาที่สุดแยบยล เรื่องราวที่ดูเหมือนการแย่งชิงสมบัติกันในครอบครัว กลับมีเรื่องมีราวที่ชวนติดตามตลอดทั้งเล่ม และเมื่อมีคำเฉลยออกมา ไม่เพียงแต่สมเหตุสมผล และได้อธิบายความลึกลับและพิสดารได้อย่างครบถ้วน
August 5, 2019
Unlike the previous Queen novels I've read, this one contained elements not found in them. Queen is not as pretentious and more "modern" in how he is portrayed. The story itself was very entertaining and wonderfully conceived. I enjoyed this greatly and can highly recommend it to those who like mysteries.
October 23, 2021
I really enjoyed this little mystery, It was a short sweet read, well written and the plot twist hits well when you put it all together.
I highly recommend, I would love to read more mystery because of these books
I highly recommend, I would love to read more mystery because of these books
April 21, 2022
This is rather clever even though it's only a novella. It can be found inside the book The New Adventures of Ellery Queen. It is not a stand-alone book. It is 100 pages long. It starts out kind of odd and then like many books and makes sense
July 19, 2013
This was my first ever Ellery Queen. I was pleasantly surprised at the good writing and sophisticated language. The story has aged well. I think I will read more Ellery Queen.
July 30, 2021
ปริศนางั้นๆ จนคิดว่าน่าจะเวอร์ไปหน่อยด้วยซ้ำ
November 6, 2023
Mid-20th Century American Crime and Mystery
From 1935, published as "The House of Haunts" in an Otto Penzler collection entitled "Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries".
Hook - 3 : Creepy old house. Plus another one. Long winding roads.
Pace - 5: A blazing 30,ooo words or so. One-sit read, no words wasted.
Plot - 4: A house disappears (Kool!) but solution apparent too early, imo.
Cast - 4: Very good, Queen at his best. A weird, hot butler. Romance. A doctor. Weird vibes from 2 older women. Family Secrets!
Atmosphere - 4: Snowed in, Long Island. Creepy noises...drugs...more...
Summary - 4: A fun, light read!
From 1935, published as "The House of Haunts" in an Otto Penzler collection entitled "Golden Age Locked Room Mysteries".
Hook - 3 : Creepy old house. Plus another one. Long winding roads.
Pace - 5: A blazing 30,ooo words or so. One-sit read, no words wasted.
Plot - 4: A house disappears (Kool!) but solution apparent too early, imo.
Cast - 4: Very good, Queen at his best. A weird, hot butler. Romance. A doctor. Weird vibes from 2 older women. Family Secrets!
Atmosphere - 4: Snowed in, Long Island. Creepy noises...drugs...more...
Summary - 4: A fun, light read!
February 21, 2024
ได้ลองอ่านเล่มแรกของ Series นักสืบ Ellery Queen รู้สึกยังไม่ค่อยประทับใจเท่าไหร่ครับ เนื้อหาข้างในไม่ได้มีการอธิบายตัวละคร ดีเพียงพอ ส่วนรายละเอียดอื่นๆเช่นเรื่อง พล็อต ความสมเหตุสมผล ก็ยังไม่ค่อยดีเท่าไหร่ ที่ทำได้ดีคือเรื่องการบรรยายสภาพแวดล้อม และการทำเนื้อหาให้ชวนติดตาม
March 15, 2025
On an old mysteries kick and Queen is a bit dated. The premise is far-fetched but the writing is sophisticated to the point where I needed a dictionary. I also knew a lot of the plot before Ellery told me and I am old and fading
August 31, 2022
Pretty flimsy mystery -- more of an obvious puzzle.
June 7, 2024
เพลินๆ ตอนจบหักมุมได้น่าสนใจเหมือนกัน แต่รวมๆ ชอบระดับ 3 ดาว
October 18, 2024
กระชับ เฉลยหมดทุกปมไม่มีตกหล่น หย่อนเบาะแสมาตลอด แต่ก็ยังเดาไม่ออกอีก ตอนเฉลยคนวางแผนเลยแอบรู้สึกหักมุมมาก ๆ เป็นอีกเรื่องของเอลเลอรี่ ควีนที่เยี่ยมมากจริง ๆ
August 21, 2025
I'm starting to think that Lee and Dannay are much better writers when they keep their stories short. Not much of a mystery since the solution was pretty obvious, but it was fair play with valid clues and mildly entertaining. There were a couple of twists at the end which I found genuinely surprising (and a romantic subplot that I found uncomfortable at best). It doesn't deserve more than 3 stars but it was actually the highlight of a series of Ellery Queen stories I read.
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews