I'd heard of Ellery Queen before, usually for different short story collections or the magazine, but I'd never read one of the books.I decided to pick up The Perfect Crime as my first foray into the series.The front cover claimed "Murder impossible-Ellery's trickiest challenge".The teaser sounded like a great place to start.The novel began with Walter, Queen's old buddy, putting a check for $250,000 into Detective Ellery's hands with a simple request.Garten, Walter's fiance's father, is in financial ruin after taking on a crooked financial partner.Who happens to be Walter's uncle.Left with little choice Garten has decided to sell off his massive collection of rare novels.Trying to please his fiance and future father-in-law Walter has decided to secretly buy up the collection using Queen as the sit in buyer.Queen drops into the role in expert fashion, taking great pleasure in buying the books one by one.The stuck-up spectators who came to bid on the books are at first baffled then irritated by Queen's purchasing.But soon the euphoria is gone.Soon after the auction Queen gets shocking news.Walter's uncle has committed suicide.However, when Queen and the other on the police force look at the body they find that although the scene was meant to look like suicide, the killing was clearly murder.Even worse, the only logical suspect seems to be Ellery's friend Walter, who had been visiting his uncle at the time.Queen is soon on the case trying to solve what appears to be an impossible crime.The book was an entertaining novel and seemed to zip along.There were a few fun things added, such as a crime scene drawing and a timeline sheet, to try to help the reader solve the case before Queen reveals the answer.Those savvy enough in detective work and willing to put in a little time could probably figure out the mystery themselves.But nothing is lost for those wanting to read the novel from start to finish.After reading the book I discovered that the novel is actually a novelization of a movie which was in turn loosely based on another Ellery Queen book titled The Devil to Pay.The book itself didn't mention this fact, but knowing this didn't detract from the story.I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a fun pulp fiction novel.This is a classic detective fiction.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
The Perfect Crime by Ellery Queen - A Fun Pulp Fiction Novel
I'd heard of Ellery Queen before, usually for different short story collections or the magazine, but I'd never read one of the books.I decided to pick up The Perfect Crime as my first foray into the series.The front cover claimed "Murder impossible-Ellery's trickiest challenge".The teaser sounded like a great place to start.The novel began with Walter, Queen's old buddy, putting a check for $250,000 into Detective Ellery's hands with a simple request.Garten, Walter's fiance's father, is in financial ruin after taking on a crooked financial partner.Who happens to be Walter's uncle.Left with little choice Garten has decided to sell off his massive collection of rare novels.Trying to please his fiance and future father-in-law Walter has decided to secretly buy up the collection using Queen as the sit in buyer.Queen drops into the role in expert fashion, taking great pleasure in buying the books one by one.The stuck-up spectators who came to bid on the books are at first baffled then irritated by Queen's purchasing.But soon the euphoria is gone.Soon after the auction Queen gets shocking news.Walter's uncle has committed suicide.However, when Queen and the other on the police force look at the body they find that although the scene was meant to look like suicide, the killing was clearly murder.Even worse, the only logical suspect seems to be Ellery's friend Walter, who had been visiting his uncle at the time.Queen is soon on the case trying to solve what appears to be an impossible crime.The book was an entertaining novel and seemed to zip along.There were a few fun things added, such as a crime scene drawing and a timeline sheet, to try to help the reader solve the case before Queen reveals the answer.Those savvy enough in detective work and willing to put in a little time could probably figure out the mystery themselves.But nothing is lost for those wanting to read the novel from start to finish.After reading the book I discovered that the novel is actually a novelization of a movie which was in turn loosely based on another Ellery Queen book titled The Devil to Pay.The book itself didn't mention this fact, but knowing this didn't detract from the story.I would recommend the book to anyone looking for a fun pulp fiction novel.This is a classic detective fiction.
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