An ordinary day in Gloucestershire holds a half century of secrets and lies in this crafty and well-crafted mystery, when a skeleton turns up in a field outside the old village of Tolland. A dogtag beside it in the earth bears the name Ben Gordheimer, a young American soldier who disappeared—and was dishonorably discharged for desertion—during the war fifty years before. T An ordinary day in Gloucestershire holds a half century of secrets and lies in this crafty and well-crafted mystery, when a skeleton turns up in a field outside the old village of Tolland. A dogtag beside it in the earth bears the name Ben Gordheimer, a young American soldier who disappeared—and was dishonorably discharged for desertion—during the war fifty years before. To complicate matters for the police team of Keith Tyrell, the adept and ambitious Detective Inspector sent to Tolland, the investigation into the G.I.'
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S death unearths a second, much more recent corpse whose identity and identification as a blackmailer sets the entire village even more on edge. While Tyrell discovers the killer, long dead, of the G.I.
Topics Ellery Queen 001. Collection webcomicuniverse; comics; additional_collections. Ellery Queen 001. Identifier ElleryQueen001. Identifier-ark ark:/13960/.
Quickly enough, the village of Tolland itself proves to be a harder case to crack. The repercussions of the old murder continue to haunt the memories and disturb the souls of Tolland's inhabitants, while the fact that another killer is dwelling in their midst troubles the placidity of their closely knit daily lives.
Their distrust of Tyrell's inquiry and of the avid press only reinforces their tight-lipped secrecy. Tyrell has problems of his own as well, with the envy and betrayals of internal politics among the members of his police team increasingly impeding the progress of the investigation.
Neither the village nor Tyrell realizes, though, just how quickly time is running out for them in this case. Then a third dead body further rouses once-sleepy Tolland and confronts the beleaguered Tyrell with another nasty case of murder. I hadn't realized this as I was reading it (in reality, rereading it after a period of decades) but this was not only the last 'proper' Ellery Queen novel - i.e., with its authors being Dannay and Lee - but also the last novel to feature the fictional detective Ellery Queen.
To be honest, it'd be hard to claim that the Queens went out in glory - although at least this is not so much a step as a whole flight of stairs above the previous year's abysmal The Last Woman in His Life; I see I was ra I hadn't realized this as I was reading it (in reality, rereading it after a period of decades) but this was not only the last 'proper' Ellery Queen novel - i.e., with its authors being Dannay and Lee - but also the last novel to feature the fictional detective Ellery Queen. To be honest, it'd be hard to claim that the Queens went out in glory - although at least this is not so much a step as a whole flight of stairs above the previous year's abysmal The Last Woman in His Life; I see I was rather kinder than I should have been when I talked about the latter. When global plutocrat Nino Importuna is brutally murdered on the day that's not just his (official) birthday but also the (real) fifth anniversary of his wedding to the far younger and totally dreamboat Virginia Whyte, the obvious suspects are Virginia and her supposedly secret boyfriend Peter Ennis, Nino's private secretary. But Ellery Queen is not so sure, especially when he perceives how the case is covered in references to the number nine - nine having always been the dead man's supposed lucky number because he'd been born with two of his fingers fused together.
The connection seems ever-stronger as a stream of nine-related communications arrive on Inspector Queen's desk. Can Ellery - or anyone else? - sort it all out?
All the old EQ love of language - of wallowing in language - is here, so in that respect reading the novel was a complete delight. And Lee's ability to pinpoint character in a matter of a few words is evident, too: even the minor characters were very clear in my mind. Where the novel fell down was in its plotting.
Essentially this is a tale of red herrings, and the distraction of Ellery thereby: he believes that the solution to the murder lies in identifying and eliminating all the false clues to focus on the real one. The trouble is that the tale itself follows the same rules: as soon as you, the reader, realize you should follow Ellery's example - i.e., step back and ignore the flimflam - everything becomes pretty obvious. A lot more obvious than it is to the supposed superdetective Ellery! At a guess, at least seven out of ten Golden Age detective novels were not as good as this one and certainly, as noted, the prose is a joy to read, so possibly I'm being a bit cruel in dismissing A Fine And Private Place as a bit mediocre. On the other hand. Well, Calamity Town.
Big fan of the EQ TV show - which took me forever to track down at some backwater torrent site, by the way - I particularly like this book because it reminds me so much of that hokey, but endearing show. Especially the interaction between father Queen and son, it feels like a lost script novelized.
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And it's a bit more adult than the show, which is always welcome in my book. A Fine and Private Place is a good, old-fashioned mystery.
Something to look forward to: the amateurish yet symbolically pr Big fan of the EQ TV show - which took me forever to track down at some backwater torrent site, by the way - I particularly like this book because it reminds me so much of that hokey, but endearing show. Especially the interaction between father Queen and son, it feels like a lost script novelized. And it's a bit more adult than the show, which is always welcome in my book. A Fine and Private Place is a good, old-fashioned mystery. Something to look forward to: the amateurish yet symbolically pregnant structure. Note to self: I've given this book five stars because I am trying to rate books within their own category or genre.
Awarding stars otherwise seems a ridiculous headache. 'Ellery Queen' was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, (1905-1982) and (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 eventual aka.
'Ellery Queen' was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, (1905-1982) and (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.
Ellery Queen is the collective pen name of the writing team consisting of cousins Frederic Dannay (Daniel Nathan) and Manfred Bennington Lee (Manford Lepofsky), who wrote detective fiction together. Most of their novels featured a fictional character also by the name of. The character has been adapted to TV, film and radio. In addition to the Ellery Queen novels, the cousins also wrote a series featuring a Shakespearean actor named Drury Lane (writing as Barnaby Ross). Ellery Queen debuted with the novel The Roman Hat Mystery, which was published in 1929. Their final novel was published in 1971, which was entitled A Fine and Private Place.
Below is a list of Ellery Queen’s books in order of when they were first released: Publication Order of Drury Lane Books. Notes: The Dragon’s Teeth was also published as The Virgin Heiresses. There Was an Old Woman was also titled The Quick and the Dead. A Study in Terror was also published as Ellery Queen vs. Jack The Ripper and as Sherlock Holmes vs.
Jack the Ripper. The Player on the Other Side was ghostwritten by Theodore Sturgeon. And On the Eighth Day, The Fourth Side of the Triangle and The House of Brass were ghostwritten by Avram Davidson. The Drury Lane series was originally written using the pseudonym of Barnaby Ross. If You Like Ellery Queen Books, You’ll Love. Shop Worldwide: » » Order of Ellery Queen Books.
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