Susan's Reviews > The Tragedy of Y

Ellery Queen, who is, of course, Barnaby Ross, is so much a better writer than was the creator of Philo Vance, but this book is definitely in Vance's territory. And Queen, the perfect logician, doesn't manage the frisson of horror that is a feature of so many of Van Dine's books. York Hatter is a suicide, but his wealthy and tyrannical wife Emily and their children still live in their Greenwich Village mansion. His deaf-mute, blind stepdaughter Louisa is almost poisoned. A second attempt on Louisa's life ends in Emily's death. Only retired actor Drury Lane can come close to solving the puzzles around this murder, and Lane doesn't want to reveal the solution.