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A review by jessmanners
The Roman Hat Mystery by Ellery Queen
2.0
I don't really know why, but this book just couldn't hold my interest. The pacing felt off--too much time focusing on minutiae before we knew why to care about it (or the people involved), and it felt like some of those minor points were explained to death (as it were) more than once.
Eventually, it became clear that the victim was actually a bad dude, but I never cared about any of the suspects, and then, of course, the motive, when it's finally revealed, is, err, problematic.
I think, in theory, Queen (or, the two (!) people who actually wrote the novel, although I confess I forget their names right now) is trying to do something sort of interesting by placing a tough hard-boiled American cop in a formal detective novel, but it doesn't quite gel. It just means that Queen, Sr. is prone to get annoyingly angry.
Oh, also, I was sure that the obsequious apologizing to the beautiful, rich, young lady would be either a feint on their part, or prove to be some sort of clue, but no--she really was just that upset to find that a dead man had her bag, and they really did feel that bad about...telling her?
Eventually, it became clear that the victim was actually a bad dude, but I never cared about any of the suspects, and then, of course, the motive, when it's finally revealed, is, err, problematic.
I think, in theory, Queen (or, the two (!) people who actually wrote the novel, although I confess I forget their names right now) is trying to do something sort of interesting by placing a tough hard-boiled American cop in a formal detective novel, but it doesn't quite gel. It just means that Queen, Sr. is prone to get annoyingly angry.
Oh, also, I was sure that the obsequious apologizing to the beautiful, rich, young lady would be either a feint on their part, or prove to be some sort of clue, but no--she really was just that upset to find that a dead man had her bag, and they really did feel that bad about...telling her?