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Ellery Queen Detective #8
Il delitto alla rovescia
Il mistero della camera chiusa costituisce una delle sfide più appassionanti dell'intera storia del poliziesco. La ricetta è semplice quanto geniale: un delitto compiuto in modo tale che nessuno possa esserne l'autore. Una delle variazioni più riuscite è questo romanzo di Ellery Queen del 1934, l'ottavo pubblicato dai due cugini giallisti. Il racconto inizia quando, nella stanza ermeticamente sigillata di un grande albergo, viene trovato il cadavere di uno sconosciuto. L'uomo, morto con la testa fracassata da un pesante attizzatoio, non può certo essersi suicidato. Ma un elemento, apparentemente assurdo, rompe la ferrea logica che domina i romanzi gialli. Infatti l'uomo indossa gli abiti alla rovescia, così come sono rovesciati tutti gli elementi dell'arredamento.
247 pages, Paperback
First published April 19, 1934
251 people are currently reading
1162 people want to read
About the author
Ellery Queen
1,786 books485 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 - 30 of 218 reviews
May 15, 2024
De volta a Ellery Queen dou-me conta de como sentia a falta deste género literário pois, apesar de achar que este livro é mais "fraquinho" do que outros dos primos, o entusiasmo acompanhou-me ao longo de toda a leitura. Ellery Queen, a personagem, é uma das mais icónicas de sempre no género do romance policial e fico sempre com uma sensação de satisfação após ler mais um dos seus mistérios, o que me agrada imenso, pois hoje em dia é mais difícil tal acontecer-me.
July 19, 2021
DNF at page 123.
I'm going with 1.5 stars on this one because the crime scene was original and had promise.
The execution of the clues and writing is what sunk The Chinese Orange Mystery for me.
I was hoping that the mystery of the murder would still keep me invested but alas, that is not the case. The plot seems ridiculous and how Ellery Queen is trying to get to the conclusion of the murder seems convoluted.
This is the first book that I’ve read by Ellery Queen and it will likely be my last. I just don’t like his writing for a mystery book.
I'm sure I'm in the minority with this. It's just feels off for me.
What's the problem you ask?
It’s full of sentences in where I’m not quite sure if the character is finished with the thought or if the writer is trying to mislead the reader? Either way, it rambles and not in a good way.
I don’t mind reading books that are dated but the writing still needs to be on point to keep my interest.
Plus, I don’t like any of the main characters. The main character of Ellery Queen is pompous, shallow and one dimensional. I just can't seem to get into this lazy man of leisure.
The Chinese Orange Mystery, I'm sorry for the lack of love but I just don’t care who killed Mr. Nobody from Nowhere after all.
I'm going with 1.5 stars on this one because the crime scene was original and had promise.
The execution of the clues and writing is what sunk The Chinese Orange Mystery for me.
I was hoping that the mystery of the murder would still keep me invested but alas, that is not the case. The plot seems ridiculous and how Ellery Queen is trying to get to the conclusion of the murder seems convoluted.
This is the first book that I’ve read by Ellery Queen and it will likely be my last. I just don’t like his writing for a mystery book.
I'm sure I'm in the minority with this. It's just feels off for me.
What's the problem you ask?
It’s full of sentences in where I’m not quite sure if the character is finished with the thought or if the writer is trying to mislead the reader? Either way, it rambles and not in a good way.
I don’t mind reading books that are dated but the writing still needs to be on point to keep my interest.
Plus, I don’t like any of the main characters. The main character of Ellery Queen is pompous, shallow and one dimensional. I just can't seem to get into this lazy man of leisure.
The Chinese Orange Mystery, I'm sorry for the lack of love but I just don’t care who killed Mr. Nobody from Nowhere after all.
June 14, 2015
Rich publisher Don Kirk, owner of the Mandarin Press, maintains an extra office next to the suite occupied by the Kirk family in the Hotel Chancellor, for meeting authors and, more importantly, for conducting transactions related to his passionately indulged hobby of stamp collecting. One day a fat little guy arrives and, declining to give his name to Don's assistant, says it's important he should see the man himself. He's put into the adjacent waiting room and essentially forgotten about.
An hour or so later, after Don's return -- accompanied by his casual friend Ellery Queen -- the door into the waiting room is found to have been bolted from the far side. There is, however, an alternative entrance to the room. When it's opened, everything within is discovered to be in disarray: pictures and furniture and bookcases reversed to face the walls, a fruit bowl inverted, the carpet turned upside-down, and the anonymous man on the floor with his head bashed in. Oddest of all, the dead man's clothes have been removed and then replaced back to front, so that (for example) his shirt buttons run up his spine. In addition, two ceremonial spears have been removed from the wall and run up the man's trouser legs to his shoulders.
At moments like this, it's handy to have Ellery Queen as your visitor. Such scenes are all in a day's work for him.
As the investigation proceeds, Ellery finds more and more things that are backwards about it -- from (at least in Western eyes) Chinese script to various Chinese social customs -- as well as more and more things related to Chineseness and orangeness, such as a couple of rare misprinted Chinese stamps that happen to be orange . . . and of course the name of Don's publishing house! Then again, Don and his business partner Felix Berne are being visited by the lovely Jo Temple, freshly arrived in NYC from China, whose manuscript -- based on her youth in that country -- Don is keen to publish.
Ellery -- with the help of his dad, Inspector Richard Queen, and the redoubtable Sergeant Velie -- unearths a plethora of secrets surrounding the Kirk family, all of which give rise to speculations about possible motives for both the killing and the extraordinary manipulation of the crime scene. Just about all the principals involved had the opportunity. But every hypothesis of Ellery's is doomed to come to naught unless and until the identity of the victim can be discovered: the man's clothes were stripped of all identification and none of the hotels in New York City know of a guest of his description having gone missing. (Hm. There are plenty of "hotels" in NYC who wouldn't tell the cops even if a guest had disappeared. But let's ignore that!)
In the end, of course, Ellery manages to nail the murderer and motive, deduce the reason for the "everything backwards" stage management, and work out the modus operandi for the semi-locked room trick.
Alas, I wasn't startled by the revelation of the murderer (I got my clue from a bit of very clumsy misdirection early on) and I just couldn't buy into the necessity for the "backwards" staging and the business with the spears; the murderer could have achieved the same subterfuge using far, far less elaborate means. Of course, implausible scenarios are hardly unusual in Golden Age mysteries like The Chinese Orange Mystery (which I kept thinking of as The Clockwork Orange Mystery!), but this one seemed a stretch too far.
Aside from that, though, I very much enjoyed the novel. The Queens' style was always immensely fluent and readable, full of witty observations and asides. Ellery himself is still in the process of evolving away from precursors like S.S. Van Dyne's Philo Vance and Jacques Futrelle's Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen; the latter is directly invoked in the book's Foreword, by the fictitious "J.J. McC.": "Ellery, who is in many ways a thinking machine, is no respecter of friendships when logic points an accusing finger." He still wears a pince nez, is still a bundle of foppish affectations, and once or twice comes out with gratuitous insults and snobberies; but in places, too, he comes across as a human being -- he's definitively responsive to a couple of the women in the cast.
He's also aware of the gulf that exists between the style of detective fiction from which he was born and the hardboiled style that was beginning to make itself felt, initially through the pulps and now even in proper hardcovered books:
And again, when a female cast member suggests he might be bought off in the traditional way, he reacts thus:
This is by no means my favorite of the Ellery Queens, but it's well worth reading for all that; it's really only the denouement that, I think, lets it down. Certainly I have no regrets for the time I spent reading it.*
=======
*In strct point of fact, re-reading it. But, since the last reading must have been at least thirty and probably more like forty years ago, I hardly think it counts!
=======
This is a contribution toward Rich Westwood’s “Crimes of the Century” feature on his Past Offences blog. The year chosen for consideration in June 2015 is 1934.
An hour or so later, after Don's return -- accompanied by his casual friend Ellery Queen -- the door into the waiting room is found to have been bolted from the far side. There is, however, an alternative entrance to the room. When it's opened, everything within is discovered to be in disarray: pictures and furniture and bookcases reversed to face the walls, a fruit bowl inverted, the carpet turned upside-down, and the anonymous man on the floor with his head bashed in. Oddest of all, the dead man's clothes have been removed and then replaced back to front, so that (for example) his shirt buttons run up his spine. In addition, two ceremonial spears have been removed from the wall and run up the man's trouser legs to his shoulders.
At moments like this, it's handy to have Ellery Queen as your visitor. Such scenes are all in a day's work for him.
As the investigation proceeds, Ellery finds more and more things that are backwards about it -- from (at least in Western eyes) Chinese script to various Chinese social customs -- as well as more and more things related to Chineseness and orangeness, such as a couple of rare misprinted Chinese stamps that happen to be orange . . . and of course the name of Don's publishing house! Then again, Don and his business partner Felix Berne are being visited by the lovely Jo Temple, freshly arrived in NYC from China, whose manuscript -- based on her youth in that country -- Don is keen to publish.
Ellery -- with the help of his dad, Inspector Richard Queen, and the redoubtable Sergeant Velie -- unearths a plethora of secrets surrounding the Kirk family, all of which give rise to speculations about possible motives for both the killing and the extraordinary manipulation of the crime scene. Just about all the principals involved had the opportunity. But every hypothesis of Ellery's is doomed to come to naught unless and until the identity of the victim can be discovered: the man's clothes were stripped of all identification and none of the hotels in New York City know of a guest of his description having gone missing. (Hm. There are plenty of "hotels" in NYC who wouldn't tell the cops even if a guest had disappeared. But let's ignore that!)
In the end, of course, Ellery manages to nail the murderer and motive, deduce the reason for the "everything backwards" stage management, and work out the modus operandi for the semi-locked room trick.
Alas, I wasn't startled by the revelation of the murderer (I got my clue from a bit of very clumsy misdirection early on) and I just couldn't buy into the necessity for the "backwards" staging and the business with the spears; the murderer could have achieved the same subterfuge using far, far less elaborate means. Of course, implausible scenarios are hardly unusual in Golden Age mysteries like The Chinese Orange Mystery (which I kept thinking of as The Clockwork Orange Mystery!), but this one seemed a stretch too far.
Aside from that, though, I very much enjoyed the novel. The Queens' style was always immensely fluent and readable, full of witty observations and asides. Ellery himself is still in the process of evolving away from precursors like S.S. Van Dyne's Philo Vance and Jacques Futrelle's Augustus S.F.X. Van Dusen; the latter is directly invoked in the book's Foreword, by the fictitious "J.J. McC.": "Ellery, who is in many ways a thinking machine, is no respecter of friendships when logic points an accusing finger." He still wears a pince nez, is still a bundle of foppish affectations, and once or twice comes out with gratuitous insults and snobberies; but in places, too, he comes across as a human being -- he's definitively responsive to a couple of the women in the cast.
He's also aware of the gulf that exists between the style of detective fiction from which he was born and the hardboiled style that was beginning to make itself felt, initially through the pulps and now even in proper hardcovered books:
"Shows you that it never pays to use strong-arm methods, father dear. You've been reading too much Hammett. I've always said that if there's one class who should be excluded from the reading of contemporary blood-and-thunder of the so-called realistic school of fiction it's our worthy police force."
And again, when a female cast member suggests he might be bought off in the traditional way, he reacts thus:
Ellery sighed and hastily retreated a step. "Ah, the Mae West influence. Dear, dear! And I've always said that the Hammetts and the Whitfields are wrong in their demonstrated belief that a detective has countless opportunities for indulging his sex appeal. Another credo blasted . . ."
This is by no means my favorite of the Ellery Queens, but it's well worth reading for all that; it's really only the denouement that, I think, lets it down. Certainly I have no regrets for the time I spent reading it.*
=======
*In strct point of fact, re-reading it. But, since the last reading must have been at least thirty and probably more like forty years ago, I hardly think it counts!
=======
This is a contribution toward Rich Westwood’s “Crimes of the Century” feature on his Past Offences blog. The year chosen for consideration in June 2015 is 1934.
October 16, 2018
First, thanks to Otto Penzler, who made this book a part of his new American Mystery Classics series; I am so grateful for his efforts to preserve and to reintroduce readers to the works of great classic mystery authors like Dorothy B. Hughes, Clayton Rawson, Stuart Palmer, Craig Rice, and Mary Roberts Rinehart. Not to mention one of my all-time favorites, Ellery Queen.
But. This is a terrible Ellery Queen novel. Early Ellery is snobbish and precious, but often the puzzle and the plot make you forget that. Not here. This book is just ridiculous, with tons of pointless sidetracks, an unbelievable puzzle, and little human interest. I recently reread The Siamese Twin Mystery and was impressed with how good early Queen could be. Again, not here.
I hope Mr. Penzler reissues all the rest, and I'll definitely get them all, since this is a handsome edition that looks great on the shelf. In this book's case. you should just leave it there.
But. This is a terrible Ellery Queen novel. Early Ellery is snobbish and precious, but often the puzzle and the plot make you forget that. Not here. This book is just ridiculous, with tons of pointless sidetracks, an unbelievable puzzle, and little human interest. I recently reread The Siamese Twin Mystery and was impressed with how good early Queen could be. Again, not here.
I hope Mr. Penzler reissues all the rest, and I'll definitely get them all, since this is a handsome edition that looks great on the shelf. In this book's case. you should just leave it there.
February 7, 2018
Il delitto alla rovescia, giallo classico degli anni '30, è un romanzo di piacevole lettura. Ellery Queen, protagonista della vicenda raccontata in questo libro, deve investigare su un delitto avvenuto "alla rovescia". Cosa vorrà dire alla rovescia? E soprattutto come arriverà alla soluzione dell'enigma?
Scrittura molto scorrevole, forse un po' troppi dialoghi, ma tra interrogatori ed esposizioni di ipotesi, non poteva essere altrimenti. Schema classico: il mistero della camera chiusa, che tanto ha reso famosi scrittori del calibro di Agatha Christie ed appunto Ellery Queen, pseudonimo di due cugini scrittori americani.
Non male e piacevole alla lettura, ma nel complesso non così entusiasmante...
"Il cervello umano è uno strumento bizzarro. Assomiglia parecchio al mare, in quanto possiede abissi e secche, gelide profondità oscure e bassifondi assolati. Possiede le sue onde impetuose che si infrangono sulla spiaggia, e le sue risacche imbronciate. Rapide correnti si intrecciano sotto una superficie increspata da venti leggeri. E poi, in esso si ritrova il continuo ritmo pulsante delle maree. Perchè anche per il cervello esistono periodi di flusso, allorchè ogni ispirazione recede a lunghe distanze spumose, e periodi di riflusso, quando forti pensieri si affacciano alla ribalta imperiosi e prepotenti."
Scrittura molto scorrevole, forse un po' troppi dialoghi, ma tra interrogatori ed esposizioni di ipotesi, non poteva essere altrimenti. Schema classico: il mistero della camera chiusa, che tanto ha reso famosi scrittori del calibro di Agatha Christie ed appunto Ellery Queen, pseudonimo di due cugini scrittori americani.
Non male e piacevole alla lettura, ma nel complesso non così entusiasmante...
"Il cervello umano è uno strumento bizzarro. Assomiglia parecchio al mare, in quanto possiede abissi e secche, gelide profondità oscure e bassifondi assolati. Possiede le sue onde impetuose che si infrangono sulla spiaggia, e le sue risacche imbronciate. Rapide correnti si intrecciano sotto una superficie increspata da venti leggeri. E poi, in esso si ritrova il continuo ritmo pulsante delle maree. Perchè anche per il cervello esistono periodi di flusso, allorchè ogni ispirazione recede a lunghe distanze spumose, e periodi di riflusso, quando forti pensieri si affacciano alla ribalta imperiosi e prepotenti."
March 6, 2011
I'll just say it right out--The Chinese Orange Mystery (1944) is the best Ellery Queen novel that I've read yet. I have to take Queen in doses. I grew up with the televised version of Ellery Queen and loved those. On TV Ellery, Inspector Queen, and the policemen at the Inspector's beck and call weren't quite as hard-boiled as they seem to be in the novels. Not that we're talking Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett here--certainly not. Just a bit harder around the edges. I have to be in the right mood for it. Apparently my mood was just right.
Up till now, The Roman Hat Mystery, the first of the Ellery Queen novels, has held pride of place. But this little gem which combines a semi-locked room, a murder of a total unknown, beautiful jewels, rare stamps, and a lunatic old scholar has shoved the Hat firmly aside. Titled The Chinese Orange Mystery, it so easily, as the foreward points out, could have been named The Crime That Was Backwards. From the back of the book: "Turnabout is foul play. There were many odd things about the fat man. No one had seen him enter the luxurious suite and no one knew his name. Somehow all his clothes had been put on him backward, and all the furniture around him reversed. The room in which he was found was locked from the inside, and aside from him, was empty. It was unlike any case Ellery Queen had ever seen--except for two hard facts. The man was dead. And it was Queen's baffling job to find the murderer."
There seem to be absolutely no clues available, only confusion. The man came to visit Donald Kirk--publisher and collector of rare gems and even rarer stamps--but refused to state either his name or his business to Kirk's assistant James Osborne. Put in an anteroom to wait for Kirk's arrival, the man is later discovered dead, clothes on backwards and every item in the room reversed--rug upside down, pictures turned to the wall, and even a fruit bowl dumped and the bowl placed over the fruit. No one in the Kirk household or among his friends claim to have seen the man before and there is nothing on the body to identify him. What did he want? Was he a hopeful author? Did he have a gem or a rare stamp for sale? And why did the murderer take the time for reversal? Answer these questions and you just might beat Ellery to the solution.
I humbly admit that I did not. Not even close. But that doesn't bother me, I rarely figure out the Ellery Queen mysteries. They are such well-constructed puzzles that I just don't get them. All the clues are there--just as Ellery states in the challenge to the reader. It's never a case where the reader can cry "Unfair!" Every bit of evidence is dangled under your unsuspecting nose and all you have to do is recognize it for what it is and you'd be home and dry.
Wonderful period mystery. Lively characters--all well-drawn and with enough secrets and hidden quirks to keep you guessing while you try to puzzle your way to the solution. The motive for the murder wasn't quite as strong as I'd like, although I can see the pyschology behind it. That small quibble gives the book four 1/2 stars out of five, rather than the full five-star rating. I highly recommend this one!
Up till now, The Roman Hat Mystery, the first of the Ellery Queen novels, has held pride of place. But this little gem which combines a semi-locked room, a murder of a total unknown, beautiful jewels, rare stamps, and a lunatic old scholar has shoved the Hat firmly aside. Titled The Chinese Orange Mystery, it so easily, as the foreward points out, could have been named The Crime That Was Backwards. From the back of the book: "Turnabout is foul play. There were many odd things about the fat man. No one had seen him enter the luxurious suite and no one knew his name. Somehow all his clothes had been put on him backward, and all the furniture around him reversed. The room in which he was found was locked from the inside, and aside from him, was empty. It was unlike any case Ellery Queen had ever seen--except for two hard facts. The man was dead. And it was Queen's baffling job to find the murderer."
There seem to be absolutely no clues available, only confusion. The man came to visit Donald Kirk--publisher and collector of rare gems and even rarer stamps--but refused to state either his name or his business to Kirk's assistant James Osborne. Put in an anteroom to wait for Kirk's arrival, the man is later discovered dead, clothes on backwards and every item in the room reversed--rug upside down, pictures turned to the wall, and even a fruit bowl dumped and the bowl placed over the fruit. No one in the Kirk household or among his friends claim to have seen the man before and there is nothing on the body to identify him. What did he want? Was he a hopeful author? Did he have a gem or a rare stamp for sale? And why did the murderer take the time for reversal? Answer these questions and you just might beat Ellery to the solution.
I humbly admit that I did not. Not even close. But that doesn't bother me, I rarely figure out the Ellery Queen mysteries. They are such well-constructed puzzles that I just don't get them. All the clues are there--just as Ellery states in the challenge to the reader. It's never a case where the reader can cry "Unfair!" Every bit of evidence is dangled under your unsuspecting nose and all you have to do is recognize it for what it is and you'd be home and dry.
Wonderful period mystery. Lively characters--all well-drawn and with enough secrets and hidden quirks to keep you guessing while you try to puzzle your way to the solution. The motive for the murder wasn't quite as strong as I'd like, although I can see the pyschology behind it. That small quibble gives the book four 1/2 stars out of five, rather than the full five-star rating. I highly recommend this one!
February 18, 2014
In Ellery Queen mysteries, God is in the details. I'm always flabbergasted by the stunt whereby the author tells us that, given we were astute enough, we should solve the mystery logically. That trick never gets tired of. This particular story was lacking in form and quality and decisiveness. The appearance of Ellery Queen at Kirk, then at Sewell's place was odd and jarring. That cost the book one or two stars. The mystery itself is not perfect, as the ubiquitous rope is used to seal the locked room mystery. Been there etc. But even not at their best Ellery Queen remains a formidable writer.
October 16, 2020
I was unconvinced at the beginning, but it grew on me by the end. I don't think Queen will ever make it into my list of favorites, but I enjoyed it.
October 17, 2020
The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen (1934), was my first taste of American pseudo-author Ellery Queen, who seems to have been renowned for writing mysteries with a leaning towards the hard-boiled police drama.
In this story, Ellery Queen, who is also the main character of the series, is called to solve a mystery involving a body found wearing his clothes back to front.
I did not enjoy this book at all. Not one bit. At several points, I was tempted to DNF the book, but I only persevered to find out what the solution to the puzzle was.
The problems I had with the book were largely the same issues I had with The Hollow Man: it was a work of someone who didn’t just try to be clever but wanted the reader to know at every opportunity how clever the author, or in this case authors, were and how insufficiently clever the reader is.
The plot was preposterous from the start, but what made things worse was that the main characters was an annoying brat, whose supporting cast of characters we looked down on by the main characters just as much as the – or rather this – reader was.
And all of this was wrapped up in the sort of overly-simplistic narration that reminded me of another book I disliked immensely, Dorothy B. Hughes’ The So Blue Marble.
In addition to the issues I had with the characters, plot, pace, and style, the book also included an onslaught of slang and idioms.
I don’t mind slang or local / temporal colour at all, but it still has to work in the format, which in this case is the written book. Not a radio programme, not a stage play, it’s textual. We don’t get the benefit of tone of voice or facial expression with the slang and guffaws (in the case of The Hollow Man), and I might have liked both books a little better if we had had that.
It annoyed me even more that the characters kept talking in this slang to each other – something I don’t appreciate in any book – without actually saying anything of substance. To me this book was just one long ramble of nothing but stuffing.
There was even one scene where even Ellery’s father shouted at him “Talk English, will you?”. I may have laughed out loud.
Yeah, sorry, this book did not work for me at all.
(This review was originally posted on my blog - https://brokentuneblog.com/2020/10/16... )
In this story, Ellery Queen, who is also the main character of the series, is called to solve a mystery involving a body found wearing his clothes back to front.
I did not enjoy this book at all. Not one bit. At several points, I was tempted to DNF the book, but I only persevered to find out what the solution to the puzzle was.
The problems I had with the book were largely the same issues I had with The Hollow Man: it was a work of someone who didn’t just try to be clever but wanted the reader to know at every opportunity how clever the author, or in this case authors, were and how insufficiently clever the reader is.
The plot was preposterous from the start, but what made things worse was that the main characters was an annoying brat, whose supporting cast of characters we looked down on by the main characters just as much as the – or rather this – reader was.
And all of this was wrapped up in the sort of overly-simplistic narration that reminded me of another book I disliked immensely, Dorothy B. Hughes’ The So Blue Marble.
In addition to the issues I had with the characters, plot, pace, and style, the book also included an onslaught of slang and idioms.
I don’t mind slang or local / temporal colour at all, but it still has to work in the format, which in this case is the written book. Not a radio programme, not a stage play, it’s textual. We don’t get the benefit of tone of voice or facial expression with the slang and guffaws (in the case of The Hollow Man), and I might have liked both books a little better if we had had that.
It annoyed me even more that the characters kept talking in this slang to each other – something I don’t appreciate in any book – without actually saying anything of substance. To me this book was just one long ramble of nothing but stuffing.
There was even one scene where even Ellery’s father shouted at him “Talk English, will you?”. I may have laughed out loud.
Yeah, sorry, this book did not work for me at all.
(This review was originally posted on my blog - https://brokentuneblog.com/2020/10/16... )
October 14, 2020
The name “Ellery Queen” is one of those that I’ve long seen associated with mystery stories yet knew little else about. Was he an author? Was he a character? Imagine my surprise when I discovered he was both! Thanks to a reading group, I finally made the time to read one of the Ellery Queen novels, which proved an interesting experience.
Set in New York City in the early 1930s, the story is a classic “locked room” mystery but with a twist: not only is the body found in a locked room, but everything in it has been reversed — including the victim’s clothes! Fortunately one of the people who discovered the body was writer Ellery Queen, who calls his father — an NYPD detective — and is soon pursuing clues and unraveling secrets.
The mystery itself is a good one, and the authors give plenty of clues so as to allow readers to work out the solution for themselves. The novel is further strengthened by an interesting cast of characters, nearly all of whom have their hidden secrets and potential motives. Yet I found the lead character himself annoying, as Queen comes across as too smugly arrogant to be very appealing. From the first he exploits his relationship to his father to ensure his involvement, then presumptively drives the investigation into whatever areas suit his fancy. That Queen solves the murder in the end is, of course, to be expected, yet that hardly validates the tactics of a well-connected brat for whom the crime is just another opportunity to show off.
Set in New York City in the early 1930s, the story is a classic “locked room” mystery but with a twist: not only is the body found in a locked room, but everything in it has been reversed — including the victim’s clothes! Fortunately one of the people who discovered the body was writer Ellery Queen, who calls his father — an NYPD detective — and is soon pursuing clues and unraveling secrets.
The mystery itself is a good one, and the authors give plenty of clues so as to allow readers to work out the solution for themselves. The novel is further strengthened by an interesting cast of characters, nearly all of whom have their hidden secrets and potential motives. Yet I found the lead character himself annoying, as Queen comes across as too smugly arrogant to be very appealing. From the first he exploits his relationship to his father to ensure his involvement, then presumptively drives the investigation into whatever areas suit his fancy. That Queen solves the murder in the end is, of course, to be expected, yet that hardly validates the tactics of a well-connected brat for whom the crime is just another opportunity to show off.
July 10, 2016
Questo “giallo” non mi è piaciuto per niente. Troppe storie accessorie, dinamica e tempistiche poco convincenti, personaggi piatti e motivazioni psicologicamente non molto credibili.
October 28, 2020
An interesting mystery that gets solved because the murderer just gets too elaborate. I wasn't terribly enamoured of Ellery Queen though.
April 7, 2009
Like a 3.5, actually, but we don't have that capability.
Originally penned in 1934, The Chinese Orange Mystery is set in New York, at the high-priced ($10/day!) Chancellor Hotel. There Donald Kirk and his family have pretty much the entire floor, between suites for business (publishing, stamps and jewelry) and living space. The corridor of this floor is watched over by Mrs. Shane, who sees everyone who enters the floor. But she saw no one on the floor when a man waiting in an office for Kirk was murdered. The only way out of that room was either through another office, belonging to Kirk's assistant Osborne (who was there the entire time), or through the hall. But the door between the office and where the man was waiting was bolted from the inside. Not only was anyone seen leaving, but when Ellery Queen arrives, and finds the body, he notices that all of the clothes are on the man backwards -- and all of the furniture has been moved as well. The only clue that Queen can readily put his hands on is that a tangerine (a Chinese Orange) has been eaten -- with orange peels and seeds left out in plain view. With the help of his father, a police inspector, Queen must get to the bottom of the mystery to help his friend Donald Kirk.
This book was a bit on the unbelievable side but I suppose all "locked-room/impossible crime" type books have to be in a way. The solution to this one was a bit over the top. So if you want something wholly credible, this may not be the book for you. Otherwise, the characters (except for Ellery, of course, and maybe his dad) kind of stayed a bit underdeveloped (considering it was the 8th book in the series you'd think the authors would have known better), and the whole mystery is plot, rather than character driven.
Overall, it wasn't a bad read (I'm giving it what I consider an average rating), and I'd recommend it to people who like Ellery Queen novels, or to those who like impossible crime stories. Anyone who likes strange mysteries might enjoy this as well.
Originally penned in 1934, The Chinese Orange Mystery is set in New York, at the high-priced ($10/day!) Chancellor Hotel. There Donald Kirk and his family have pretty much the entire floor, between suites for business (publishing, stamps and jewelry) and living space. The corridor of this floor is watched over by Mrs. Shane, who sees everyone who enters the floor. But she saw no one on the floor when a man waiting in an office for Kirk was murdered. The only way out of that room was either through another office, belonging to Kirk's assistant Osborne (who was there the entire time), or through the hall. But the door between the office and where the man was waiting was bolted from the inside. Not only was anyone seen leaving, but when Ellery Queen arrives, and finds the body, he notices that all of the clothes are on the man backwards -- and all of the furniture has been moved as well. The only clue that Queen can readily put his hands on is that a tangerine (a Chinese Orange) has been eaten -- with orange peels and seeds left out in plain view. With the help of his father, a police inspector, Queen must get to the bottom of the mystery to help his friend Donald Kirk.
This book was a bit on the unbelievable side but I suppose all "locked-room/impossible crime" type books have to be in a way. The solution to this one was a bit over the top. So if you want something wholly credible, this may not be the book for you. Otherwise, the characters (except for Ellery, of course, and maybe his dad) kind of stayed a bit underdeveloped (considering it was the 8th book in the series you'd think the authors would have known better), and the whole mystery is plot, rather than character driven.
Overall, it wasn't a bad read (I'm giving it what I consider an average rating), and I'd recommend it to people who like Ellery Queen novels, or to those who like impossible crime stories. Anyone who likes strange mysteries might enjoy this as well.
January 22, 2019
A nondescript gentleman presents himself at the offices of Donald Kirk, book publisher and collector of stamps and gems. He is ushered into the office anteroom to await Kirk's arrival. When the publisher arrives -- with his friend Ellery Queen in tow -- the anteroom door is found locked...and the stranger dead on the floor. The bizarre thing about the murder scene, though, is the fact that everything in the room that could be changed has been turned backwards: the corpse is dressed in his clothes backwards, the carpet has been overturned, bookcases moves away from the walls, etc. The puzzle delights and perplexes Queen, and he sets about helping his police inspector father to solve the crime. While there are no lack of persons with access to the murder room, since the man was unknown to everyone, there seem to be no suspects with motive. And, of course, the room was locked. -- First published in 1934, this mystery -- unlike so many others -- purports to provide the alert reader all the clues he/she might need to solve the crime for him/herself. Although I enjoyed reading the book and meeting the characters and cudgeling my brain for who-dun-it, I must admit: I didn't arrive at the solution. Oh, well...maybe next time?
April 18, 2023
Amato tutto! Dai personaggi, alla trama, all'ambientazione per finire col detective! E che detective! Ellery Queen mi ricorda un po' il mio amato Poirot e sarà per questo che mi sono affezionata immediatamente.
Lettura scorrevolissima e davvero piacevole; una scoperta. Leggerò sicuramente altro.
(Poi questa chicca che "Ellery Queen" è lo pseudonimo dei due autori che han scritto a quattro mani questo libro dando lo stesso nome al loro detective per me è adorabile).
Lettura scorrevolissima e davvero piacevole; una scoperta. Leggerò sicuramente altro.
(Poi questa chicca che "Ellery Queen" è lo pseudonimo dei due autori che han scritto a quattro mani questo libro dando lo stesso nome al loro detective per me è adorabile).
Read
August 11, 2021Another challenging puzzle that Ellery Queen solved and I did not. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable listen, although Waterhouse is not my favorite narrator. This is, I believe, the fourth Queen book that I have listened to recently, and while I enjoy them for the Golden Age settings, I'm not sure that I'll continue. AudiblePlus has many in their catalog, free to subscribers, so that's a bit tempting.
December 13, 2018
While The Chinese Orange Mystery contains an excellent locked-room puzzle, Ellery's character is uncharacteristically irritating as he goes about solving the mystery. I'm glad the book has been reissued and to have read it, but if you're new to Ellery Queen puzzle mysteries, there are much more enjoyable books in the series to start with.
August 4, 2018
A body is found in a locked room, everything including his clothers have been turned backwards. Who is he? What is he doing there? Why was he murdered? Ellery Queen hunts for clues and struggles to find out whodunnit! Of course Ellery also challenges his reader to work out the mystery before he divulges the murderer's identity and reason for committing the crime.
August 4, 2018
A body is found in a locked room, everything including his clothers have been turned backwards. Who is he? What is he doing there? Why was he murdered? Ellery Queen hunts for clues and struggles to find out whodunnit! Of course Ellery also challenges his reader to work out the mystery before he divulges the murderer's identity and reason for committing the crime.
Classic detective series, it's a pity all of the Ellery Queen murder series aren't in print around the world. British Library Crime readers would love this series.
Classic detective series, it's a pity all of the Ellery Queen murder series aren't in print around the world. British Library Crime readers would love this series.
Read
April 24, 2023Not a bad story but circumstances used are unbelievable.
June 6, 2025
I remember reading this in my teens and loved all the Ellery Queen books. I tried listening to the audiobook this week and not only was it was poorly narrated, it also was deadly dull.
June 23, 2022
Os policiais clássicos sempre têm enorme efeito sobre mim. Este não foi exceção!! 🤌🏻
A história é simples: foi encontrado um homem desconhecido morto no escritório do renomado editor e colecionador Donald Kirk. Quem é este homem? Porque estava ele no escritório de Donald? Quem o matou? Ellery e o seu pai, juntos, vão descobrir tudo! E no final, ao estilo de Ellery, fica sempre o desafio ao leitor: em que nós teremos de descobrir quem foi o assassino e quem é a vítima!
Este livro é esplêndido! Para quem aprecia uma boa investigação amadora e todo um desvendar da solução através de pistas soltas, este é o LIVRO!
Nota final: tenham atenção ao título do livro e sejam perspicazes 🫣🍊😅
A história é simples: foi encontrado um homem desconhecido morto no escritório do renomado editor e colecionador Donald Kirk. Quem é este homem? Porque estava ele no escritório de Donald? Quem o matou? Ellery e o seu pai, juntos, vão descobrir tudo! E no final, ao estilo de Ellery, fica sempre o desafio ao leitor: em que nós teremos de descobrir quem foi o assassino e quem é a vítima!
Este livro é esplêndido! Para quem aprecia uma boa investigação amadora e todo um desvendar da solução através de pistas soltas, este é o LIVRO!
Nota final: tenham atenção ao título do livro e sejam perspicazes 🫣🍊😅
April 23, 2023
I've always taken the view that a reader has the responsibility to make mental accommodation for the time in which a book was written...for its society, its technology and its setting. For example, someone reading a Nancy Drew novel written in 1930 shouldn't wonder why Nancy doesn't use her cell phone to summon the police after she'd tracked the smuggling ring to their hideout. So the copyright page, after the teaser on the back cover or dust jacket, is a vital piece of preparation for any reader. It tells you where the paper-bound time capsule is taking you.
That basic mental preparation isn't always enough, though, as is the case in The Chinese Orange Mystery. This story does have a well-structured puzzle but solving it requires a more intense understanding of the customs of the time it was written (1934). The impetus for one of two major puzzles relies on a certain social standard taken for granted in 1934 that no longer exists as a rule in 2023. The reason for certain actions would have been more obvious to anyone reading this book at the time it was written, but not so much for anyone nearly one hundred years later.
There is also a locked room puzzle that - while it is plausible - takes great liberty in terms of quick thinking and timing on the part of the culprit. But, as always, Queen offers a mix of interesting characters, some interpersonal dramas and a very bizarre mystery. An Ellery Queen book is always a worthwhile adventure.
That basic mental preparation isn't always enough, though, as is the case in The Chinese Orange Mystery. This story does have a well-structured puzzle but solving it requires a more intense understanding of the customs of the time it was written (1934). The impetus for one of two major puzzles relies on a certain social standard taken for granted in 1934 that no longer exists as a rule in 2023. The reason for certain actions would have been more obvious to anyone reading this book at the time it was written, but not so much for anyone nearly one hundred years later.
There is also a locked room puzzle that - while it is plausible - takes great liberty in terms of quick thinking and timing on the part of the culprit. But, as always, Queen offers a mix of interesting characters, some interpersonal dramas and a very bizarre mystery. An Ellery Queen book is always a worthwhile adventure.
October 5, 2022
Sometimes, what you want is a good old fashioned golden age mystery. One where the detective isn’t suffering some trauma. One where the characters are mostly just potential suspects. The whole point of the venture is to figure out the puzzle. (Are you going to have the villain nailed when EQ issues his challenge to the reader? No.)
Ellery Queen books have some annoying quirks — like dying clues, murders arranged in a weird way because the villain knows Ellery will be called upon to solve things, Ellery accusing the wrong person of the murder. None of that pollutes this one. It’s a locked room puzzle with a spectacular element and a nice bit of reasoning to get to the real killer. Publishing and stamp collecting is the milieu. The one atypical element is that much of the mystery involves who was killed.
A good satisfying one with the bonus of being well written
Ellery Queen books have some annoying quirks — like dying clues, murders arranged in a weird way because the villain knows Ellery will be called upon to solve things, Ellery accusing the wrong person of the murder. None of that pollutes this one. It’s a locked room puzzle with a spectacular element and a nice bit of reasoning to get to the real killer. Publishing and stamp collecting is the milieu. The one atypical element is that much of the mystery involves who was killed.
A good satisfying one with the bonus of being well written
January 30, 2019
Ellery Queen assists his father, Inspector Queen, of the New York City Police, to investigate a locked room murder with a most unusual twist. It could be argued it is, rather a fantastical twist, but if you can suspend belief on that detail and enjoy the ride of the rest of the story, The Chinese Orange Mystery is an enjoyable read.
September 10, 2018
Thank you to NetGalley and Penzler Publishing for a digital galley of this novel.
Otto Penzler is reissuing mystery and detective fiction novels from the Golden Age of crime fiction through his American Mystery Classics series. I was glad to choose The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen (actually cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee). This one was originally published in 1934 and is a very good example of the "fair-play" idea used to give readers all the clues they need to solve the crime problem presented in the story. In this one, between chapters 15 and 16, there is a section where the author tells the reader that at that point they could have picked up on all the clues necessary to solve the mystery. I had the "who" (guilty party) but only some pieces of the "why". Even so, I just wallowed in all this old fashioned goodness.
The story concerns a dead man found in a room with a door opening into a hotel corridor. The hotel attendant outside in the corridor didn't see anyone enter the room during the time the murder must have been committed. That was bad enough for Inspector Queen and his son, Ellery, but what in the world did all the changes to the room and the corpse mean? Everything, every single thing in the room, was turned backwards. Solving this murder means the Queens have to touch on a lot of sensitive spots for the Kirk family with secrets being uncovered right and left.
The Chinese Orange Mystery was a lot of fun to read. Combine this book with a comfortable place to sit, a good drink to satisfy your thirst, a little snack to satisfy your appetite, some quiet time away from "life" and you have the makings of a relaxing indulgence that will have you feeling really good!
Otto Penzler is reissuing mystery and detective fiction novels from the Golden Age of crime fiction through his American Mystery Classics series. I was glad to choose The Chinese Orange Mystery by Ellery Queen (actually cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee). This one was originally published in 1934 and is a very good example of the "fair-play" idea used to give readers all the clues they need to solve the crime problem presented in the story. In this one, between chapters 15 and 16, there is a section where the author tells the reader that at that point they could have picked up on all the clues necessary to solve the mystery. I had the "who" (guilty party) but only some pieces of the "why". Even so, I just wallowed in all this old fashioned goodness.
The story concerns a dead man found in a room with a door opening into a hotel corridor. The hotel attendant outside in the corridor didn't see anyone enter the room during the time the murder must have been committed. That was bad enough for Inspector Queen and his son, Ellery, but what in the world did all the changes to the room and the corpse mean? Everything, every single thing in the room, was turned backwards. Solving this murder means the Queens have to touch on a lot of sensitive spots for the Kirk family with secrets being uncovered right and left.
The Chinese Orange Mystery was a lot of fun to read. Combine this book with a comfortable place to sit, a good drink to satisfy your thirst, a little snack to satisfy your appetite, some quiet time away from "life" and you have the makings of a relaxing indulgence that will have you feeling really good!
November 22, 2018
#8 in the Ellery Queen mystery series. This 1934 series entry by Ellery Queen (Cousins Manfred Bennington Lee and Frederic Dannay), the 1961 Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award winner, is my first sampling of the series. The series is noted for each book providing a break after all clues have been exposed to give the reader a chance to solve the mystery. This locked room mystery dis present all relevant clues but I was completely in the dark. I'll try others in the series.
Book publisher Donald Kirk invites Ellery Queen to meet at Manhattan's Hotel Chancellor, where Kirk maintains an office. On their arrival, Kirk learns that a stranger is in his waiting room. Since the door between Kirk's office and the waiting room is locked from the inside, Queen and Kirk must use the door from the corridor to gain access. Inside they find the man bludgeoned to death and wearing all his clothes backwards. Furthermore, all the furniture in the room has been rearranged to face backward, and two African spears have been inserted under the dead man's coat. No one in Kirk's circle has any idea as to the corpse's identity, let alone a motive for the unusual killing. The solution is a perfect, fairly clued match for the setup.
Book publisher Donald Kirk invites Ellery Queen to meet at Manhattan's Hotel Chancellor, where Kirk maintains an office. On their arrival, Kirk learns that a stranger is in his waiting room. Since the door between Kirk's office and the waiting room is locked from the inside, Queen and Kirk must use the door from the corridor to gain access. Inside they find the man bludgeoned to death and wearing all his clothes backwards. Furthermore, all the furniture in the room has been rearranged to face backward, and two African spears have been inserted under the dead man's coat. No one in Kirk's circle has any idea as to the corpse's identity, let alone a motive for the unusual killing. The solution is a perfect, fairly clued match for the setup.
April 14, 2024
Okay, look. I didn’t finish. But I’m counting it as read bc I made it 70% of the way through. Life is too short to read books you don’t like. Maybe I would have liked it more if I started with the first book in the Ellery Queen series, but I was hoping it was like Agatha Christie where you can jump in whenever. Premise of the book is so good but there are too many characters to keep up with. I have no idea who anyone is and I’m a majority of the way through. I don’t really like the father son relationship between the detective and inspector. Also, I don’t actually think he is solving anything…. Let me explain. It just feels like discoveries are being made bc of coincidence and new information instead of clever deductions or theories. It isn’t fun for me because I don’t know until I know in this book. Maybe if I made it to the end I would see more foreshadowing or a build or something, but at this point, I don’t even think I will know the characters enough for it to make sense. I’m out!
January 23, 2019
"Kapalı Oda" sistemi-uygulaması bakımından literatüre geçmiş bir roman bu. Dolayısıyla mutlaka okunması gerekli.
Gerçi olayın çözümü teknik ayrıntılar bakımından biraz kafamı karıştırdı. Tertibatı gözümde canlandırmakta epey zorlandım. Ama bir kere olayın "kapalı oda" sistemine uygunluğunu anladıktan sonra katili tahmin etmek pek de zor olmuyor. E çünkü katil başka da birisi olamaz neticede. Dolayısıyla bu kurgu "katil kim"den ziyade "cinayet nasıl işlendi" üzerinde daha çok duran ve katilin kimliğindeki sürprizi ikinci plana atan bir kurgu olmuş. Katil romanın geneli üzerindeki önemini yitirmiş sanki.
Ellery Queen okumak çok keyifli. Baba-oğulun atışmaları, amerikan polislerinin kendine özgü haldır-huldur tavrı çok eğlenceli. Yine de ben yangında konağa mahsur kaldıkları atmosferinden dolayı Siyamlı İkizler'i daha çok beğenmiştim.
Gerçi olayın çözümü teknik ayrıntılar bakımından biraz kafamı karıştırdı. Tertibatı gözümde canlandırmakta epey zorlandım. Ama bir kere olayın "kapalı oda" sistemine uygunluğunu anladıktan sonra katili tahmin etmek pek de zor olmuyor. E çünkü katil başka da birisi olamaz neticede. Dolayısıyla bu kurgu "katil kim"den ziyade "cinayet nasıl işlendi" üzerinde daha çok duran ve katilin kimliğindeki sürprizi ikinci plana atan bir kurgu olmuş. Katil romanın geneli üzerindeki önemini yitirmiş sanki.
Ellery Queen okumak çok keyifli. Baba-oğulun atışmaları, amerikan polislerinin kendine özgü haldır-huldur tavrı çok eğlenceli. Yine de ben yangında konağa mahsur kaldıkları atmosferinden dolayı Siyamlı İkizler'i daha çok beğenmiştim.
August 8, 2018
Blackmail, chicanery, high-stakes philately, and murder—Ellery Queen must deal with all of these in his latest case. Who is the mysterious dead man, and why are all of his clothes on backwards when his body is discovered? The book was written in 1934, and is one of several from the “golden age” being reprinted as one of the American Mystery Classics. There are some language patterns and stereotyping that mark it as from another era, but anyone who likes Agatha Christie should enjoy this classic locked room mystery.
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