Saturday, December 17, 2011

The Roman Hat Mystery: A Problem in Deduction

Title: The Roman Hat Mystery: A Problem in Deduction
Author: Ellery Queen (cousins Manford Bennington Lee and Frederic Dannay)
Publisher: International Readers League
Copyright Date: 1930 (Some places say 1929, but the library copy I read said 1930)
Pages: 325

So this was my second Vintage Mystery... It was slow going, not because it wasn't interesting, but because I just seem to be a slow reader when it comes to vintage writing. The story is interesting. A murder takes place in the Roman Theater (in New York) and Inspector Queen (and his son Ellery) work toward solving it. The subheading - a Problem in Deduction - is a huge part of this writing. Every detail is hashed and rehashed. Any additional discoveries or deductions must be carefully explained whether between themselves while trying to move forward with the investigation or to some other involved and interested party. I have to say I didn't care for all the references to Djuna, the Queens servant, being like a monkey.

Would I read another book in this series? Perhaps. I certainly want to try the TV show.

12 comments:

  1. Loved Ellery Queen's mysteries on TV. Do the reruns still air? I wonder if I can view them on Hulu or streaming Netflix. If not, no doubt our library has this on DVD.

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  2. I don't know, but my library has it.

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  3. The TV show is great. I grew up with Jim Hutton as Ellery Queen and loved him. My husband got me the entire run of the show on DVD for Christmas a couple years ago. Hop you like it!

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  4. Ha! Our library has it too! It's at another branch, so I'm requesting it be sent over to the one I visit most often. :) Thanks for posting this. I probably would have never check out the DVDs without your gentle push.

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  5. Bev - Awesome. Something to look forward to.

    J. Kaye - You're lucky then. My library won't send feature films or television shows from one branch to another at request. Lemme know when you start and I'll start too.

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  6. Jo, I just got an email that it's in. I'm going Thursday to pick it up. The only problem is I can only have it checked out for a week if someone has a hold/reserve on it. I doubt anyone will, but there's that possibility. Let me know which day (Thurs or after) will be good for you and how much you want to watch. I'm an excited about watching this series! :)

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  7. I only get a week too. If it's in, I'll try to pick it up today.

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  8. Jo, did you get it in? Got my copy!

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  9. Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner. Are you watching it? Enjoying it? Our copy is missing. =/ We just switched to a new system at my library and I think something may have happened to it while we were offline. I'll watch it as soon as it's located, or I go to the other branch that has it (we can't request TV shows or feature films).

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  10. Jo, I am watching now. One question that I remember having back when was why did they get such a short actor to play the father? (lol)

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  11. I have it! I haven't watched any yet, but I'm off today so...

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  12. I've only watched the first show. I'll start again tonight. :)

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