Four Johns Blow Hot

by Ellery Queen

great paperback book

Genres: Mystery

160 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

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

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This mystery duo was entertaining and kept my attention for the 2 and half days it took me to read it. The Four Johns features the titular four gentlemen (Boce, Thompson, Viviano and Pilgrim), all of whom fall under the suspicion of their desperate acquaintance Mervyn, who's discovered a body in his car's trunk and turns impromptu amateur sleuth in order to clear his name before the local police follow the carefully laid trail the true murderer has wrought. Does Mervyn succeed? Well, now, that's spoilers! I will say, though, that in this case it is vital to look outside the box. Blow Hot, Blow Cold also features murder as the crime to solve, but this time the victims are two and the investigator a professional local police member. Readers are not treated to his inner musings, but to his resulting actions. The character we must travel closer along with is excited and gravely concerned neighbor Nancy, whose sharp mind rivals that of Lieutenant Masters. Were she as trained as he, doubtless she would've solved the case on her own. As it is, we see Nancy and Masters arrive upon the last tableau within minutes of each other, even though Masters had completely ascertained the details which Nancy (and the reader) proceed to fill in at that point. All in all, this book is a great choice for travel or bedside reading.