The Glass Village

by Ellery Queen

When mere accusation takes the place of evidence, freedom is in peril. What happens after the murder is the story of what Johnny Shinn -- late of Army Intelligence and veteran of two wars, in spite of himself, does about it. The tense lynch trial that is the focus of the action is really the trial of Johnny Shinn as an American.

Genres: Mystery, Fiction, Suspense, Crime, Detective

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

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

[Stratos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Καλή ιστοριούλα υπό την προϋπόθεση να θυμόσουν τα πολλά ονόματα που εμπλέκονταν στην υπόθεση

[Daniel Hiland · Rating 4 out of 5]

While the book is very much a product of its time- i.e., 1954 small-town America, the red scare, etc.- it's also highly entertaining. An Ellery Queen book, neither Ellery or his father (Inspector Queen) are present. Instead we get to watch Judge Shinn and a war vet named Johnny try to unravel the truth behind the murder of a local artist. After a battle between a local mob and the state police over the fate of a transient accused of the killing, the judge hatches a plan to conduct a phony trial in order to avoid a lynching and get the accused killer out of town (and on to a fair trial). And this is where the story gets good. In an abrupt change of tone (from the violent and suspenseful first half), a healthy dose of humor infuses the sham trial, as one rule of trial procedure after another gets steamrolled in an effort to buy more time for the accused. The trial's explosive finish, the ensuing chase, and the final solution keep the story moving to a satisfying conclusion. Some readers dislike all the sermonizing about the "goodness" of small-town American folk, etc., but if you take the story for what it is, it's highly entertaining.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of Queen's novels not starring Ellery Queen the character, and it's also one of the most quietly chilling. Although the book is exploring the social impacts of McCarthyism, it's all too familiar to some of what's going on today. If you want to see how history runs in cycles or need a non-news source to vent your frustrations on - or even just the reassurance that people have always been people, cold comfort as that may be - this is a book you should read.

[Cudeyo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Una anciana asesinada en un pueblecito perdido en la Nueva Inglaterra puritana, en un Estados Unidos recién salido de la guerra de Corea. Un vagabundo, y además extranjero. Una población inculta, fanática, convencida de que ellos son los más indicados para decidir quién es el culpable, al que ya han señalado. Y sólo dos personas, un juez retirado y un exmilitar para evitar un linchamiento.

Un libro lento, pausado, pero que casi sin notarlo te atrapa, no sólo para saber quién es el culpable (lo sospeché casi desde el primer momento), sino por cómo el juez y su sobrino pueden evitar un linchamiento, en un juicio esperpéntico e hilarante, a la vez que surrealista (el juez hace de fiscal, un jurado de testigo, ....). Resultando además en un estudio de la idiosincrasia de una población aislada en sus constumbres y tradiciones, con poca cultura, y recelosos de todo extranjero (considerando extranjero a toda persona de fuera del pueblo).

[Huub Nollet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vond op zolder nog een hele zak met wat oudere ongelezen boeken. Een daarvan was dit boekje. In eerste instantie dacht ik dus een oude thriller. Maar eigenlijk is dit een aanklacht tegen de vooroordelen van de maatschappij met een spannend sausje. Na een moeilijk begin, gevoelsmatig duurde alles wel erg lang, kwam de snelheid er in. Boek van 1960, maar eigenlijk wat actueel!

[Arwen56 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Avendolo letto così tanti anni fa, praticamente non lo rammento quasi per nulla a livello di trama gialla, ma ricordo che avevo apprezzato il modo in cui un banale romanzo poliziesco aveva saputo restituire una certa atmosfera tipica della "puritana" New England. Niente affatto disprezzabile. :-)

[Rick Mills · Rating 5 out of 5]

Major characters:
Judge Lewis Shinn
Johnny Shinn,  the Judge's distant cousin
Laban Hemus, a local farm hand, killed in a fight Joe Gonzoli
Joe Gonzoli, itinerant farm worker who killed Laban
"Aunt" Fanny Adams, elderly artist
Ferriss Adams, her grand-nephew
Josef Kowalczyk, itinerant 
Judge Andrew Webster
Roger Casavant, art expert

Locale: Shinn Corners, somewhere in rural New England

Synopsis: New Yorker Johnny Shinn comes to visit his distant cousin, Judge Lewis Shinn. The Judge is the local 'head' of rural Shinn Corner, a small village slowly fading away in the shadow of two larger nearby towns (Comfort and Cudbury). He is preparing to give his traditional Fourth of July oration on the town square.

The Judge tells Johnny of the long-standing animosity between the dwindling local 'Puritans' and outsiders. Years ago, the situation escalated when farm hand Laban Hemus found his girlfriend, Adaline Greave, lying with itinerant farm worker Joe Gonzoli in the hay loft. Enraged, Laban went for Joe with a pitchfork. Joe replied with a knife, killing Laban. The townsfolk wanted vengeance on Joe for killing their native son, but it went to trial and he was acquitted on self-defense.

Now an itinerant farm worker, Josef Kowalczyk, has visited artist "Aunt" Fanny Adams, spillting her firewood in exchange for a meal. When he leaves, she is found dead; and the outrage against outsiders grows. Kowalczyk is brought to a sham trial (intended to calm the locals). The underlying fear is that if he is innocent, one of their own imust be guilty.

Review: The opening is a poignant story of a fading small town, and Ellery Queen describes small town life like no other. My edition has a sketch map of the town and the writer takes us through each street and building introducing the characters.

There is no Ellery Queen, detective in the story. That role is played by Judge Shinn and Johnny Shinn. Their plan to calm the locals and find the killer is clever, although frought with danger. The process of elimination to find the killer is suspenseful, even though it ultimately fails to do so. The answer is found when an outside art expert arrives on the scene.


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[Alonzo Church · Rating 4 out of 5]

The setting — a dying New England town, insular, suspicious of outsiders. Norman Rockwell, but in need of a fresh coat of paint and less inbreeding.

The plot — a brutal murder of a beloved grandmother and Grandma Moses style painter. A lynch mob mentality descends on the town, because a foreign born tramp seems like a good fit for the killing.

The detective — well, it might be the old judge who hatched a scheme to come up with a phony trial to satisfy the village lynch mob. Or it could be the young PTSD veteran who thinks life has lost its meaning, but does like himself some puzzles. It isn’t Ellery himself (a good thing.)

The verdict — Um, this is reckoned to be one of the EQ classics. It’s McCarthy hating heart is in the right place. But I found the whole fake trial scheme silly, in the context of a 1950s setting. (It would work well in one of those earnest political westerns they liked in the 50s.)

Read it or not? — I give it 3.5 stars. It feels like failed Rod Serling to me, with its overt moralizing. But setting and the excellent Queen prose of this era helps the moralizing go down well.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the first Ellery Queen novel I've read and I picked it up secondhand because I remembered the TV series and wanted to reacquaint myself with the detective. As it turned out, this novel doesn't feature Ellery Queen (the character) so initially I was disappointed. Coupled with the very long, sometimes tedious, run up to the murder where the characters in a small town are painstakingly introduced I almost put it down. However, once the murder happens, the resultant witch hunt and the faux-trial were very engaging, and the actual denouement was excellent and well-plotted (elevating it above a two star book). I also enjoyed the politics evident within the reading, that America is broken, that these characters and their prejudiced views need to be erased (or taught better). Overall, I'd read something by Queen again, although will look out for a novel with that detective within it.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's barely a mystery here. I expect that of late Queen, but this was written in 1954. Any armchair sleuth of nearly any ability is going to figure this one out as soon as a critical passage appears. Instead of a meaty mystery, we get of surfeit of characters- mostly unnecessary and a lot of social commentary. The only plus is a nice map that makes the proceedings feel more concrete. That's the nicest thing I can say. It drags for quite a while and took me the better part of a week reading on and off.

Also worth noting that this is the one stand-alone novel by the Ellery Queen duo. So, on all accounts, very safely skippable.

[Mark Isaak · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a small town (population 38) with Puritan sensibilities, a long-time resident is murdered, and the remaining people want to string up a drifter who is implicated. Only four people want him to get a fair trial and recognize that he will not get it there, but the rest will not let them move the trial, so they must do their best in the face of closed minds. Several passages make it clear that book is Queen's condemnation of McCarthyism, but its themes are just as relevant today. As a mystery, it can be faulted for not showing the reader certain clues until a character has finally recognized their importance, but it still works well enough as a murder mystery too.

[Glen U · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the few books by the cousin duo that makes up Ellery Queen to not feature either Ellery Queen nor his father, Inspector Queen. This follows a murder of a Grandma Moses type character and the subsequent prejudice against a "furriner" and the mock trial that follows. More of a Perry Mason story than a Nero Wolfe type of story. Interesting, well paced and clever, it is a social commentary that transcends the 65 years since it was written. Not up to the literary standards of a normal Ellery Queen offering, it still was an enjoyable and entertaining read.

[Rog Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book does not feature Ellery Queen!

[Ron Kastner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clever, but disturbing

[Keegan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wonder if Harper Lee drew inspiration from this

[Trevor Denning · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much heavier book (subject wise) than I was anticipating. Still, a very well-written mystery.

[Lef Syr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Κλασικό αστυνομικό, σύντομο, διαβάζεται ευχάριστα. Στα μείον οι πολλοί χαρακτήρες που πρέπει να θυμάσαι

[Πάνος Τουρλής · Rating 3 out of 5]

Μετάφραση Τασσώς Καββαδία παρακαλώ πολύ. Ένα κλασικό whoduneit με τη γνωστή πλοκή έργων της Αγκάθα Κρίστι. Σε κρατάει γιατί έχεις να κάνεις με υπόπτους σε συγκεκριμένο χώρο. Κι οι ύποπτοι μειώνονται ένας ένας. Μέρος της αλήθειας κρύβεται στους ζωγραφικούς πίνακες του θύματος. Γι' αυτό μόνο δε μου άρεσε, μου θύμισε τα Πέντε μικρά γουρουνάκια της Αγκάθα Κρίστι, που κι εκεί το θύμα ζωγράφιζε ό,τι έβλεπε, δυσχεραίνοντας τη θέση του δολοφόνου. Ένα κλειστό χωριό 30 κατοίκων, ένας ξένος που όλοι τον θεωρούν ύποπτο γιατί αποκλείεται να σκότωσε τη ζωγράφο ένας συγχωριανός τους. Κι όμως... :)

Στα ελληνικά από τον Πάπυρο το 1975 και την εφημερίδα Το Βήμα το 2009.

[Sergio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ricordo con chiarezza il giorno di fine estate in cui ho comprato questo giallo tanti anni fa: leggerlo mi entusiasmò anche se non ricordo più nulla della trama...uno dei più bei gialli di Ellery Queen

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Train book. OK. Turns out I have read it before. Out of all the Ellery Queen books I pick up one I've read already.

[Jo-Anne McBride · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Babete · Rating 4 out of 5]

( A Aldeia de Vidro )

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the best they've written....love me some hot afternoons, air conditioning and a good book.

[Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Besides the mystery, there are some interesting social ills to contemplate.

[Susannah]

Part 2 of 10. 34.46 minutes into the story.

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: there are accusations and there is evidence. This tense lynching trial is about Johnny Shinn and the values of an American.

[Darinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Small town murder. Clever and entertaining.