This collection of three novelettes and a pair of short-short stories from the Fifties and early Sixties is a real mixed bag, with results ranging from excellent to so-so. In order:
“The Death of Don Juan” is a Wrightsville story. After Double, Double in 1950, Queen stopped writing full novels about the town, although two later books have extended sequences taking place there. There are plenty of shorter Wrightsville stories, though. In this one, an aging leading man in a repertory-company play is murdered, and Ellery has to set a trap to catch the killer… but the real news is that Police Chief Anselm Newby has replaced old reliable Chief Dakin. Newby starts off predictably wanting no part of any smarty-pants amateur detectives, but fortunately by the end he’s come round. To me, few mystery subplots are duller than the local cop who keeps telling the gifted amateur to butt out, and only doubling said amateur’s determination. The clues and deductions are nothing special. C.
“E = Murder” is a dying-message short-short. Queen was the master of these cryptic clues, but this story isn’t one of the classics. C.
“The Wrightsville Heirs”, about the will of a rich murder victim, is another one where Ellery sets a trap for the killer. As far as I can make out, said killer doesn’t actually do or say anything incriminating once in said trap, but everyone seems satisfied they’re guilty anyway. Good thing, because Ellery’s reasoning identifying them is, again, just okay. C.
It gets better from this point! “Diamonds in Paradise”, the other short-short, was the first Queen mystery I ever read. It was also the first one I solved before reading the ending. The story is entertaining anyway – Manfred Lee could be very funny when he wanted to. B.
And Queen saved the best for last – “The Case Against Carroll” is a novelette seen partly from Ellery’s point of view and, atypically, partly from that of suspect John Carroll. It drives home how terrifying it would be to be under suspicion in a murder case. Ellery finds the killer through a very subtle clue. I give it an A; this one deserves to be better remembered as one of the classic Queen mysteries.
Justice for the Corpse 