George's Reviews > The Tragedy of Y

A mystery by Ellery Queen writing as Barnaby Ross featuring wealthy retired Shakespearean actor Drury Lane who consults with the New York Police Department helping them solve difficult cases using his powers of reasoning and observation. Set in New York City around 1930. Some bizarre things have been happening to members of the very eccentric Hatter family: the father's body is recovered in the ocean having died of poison; an attempt to poison another member of the family in the family’s Greenwich Village home; and then a murder and the only witness is a blind, deaf mute. The baffled police call on Drury Lane for help.

This is very much in the vein of S.S. Van Dime's Philo Vance mystery series.