Friday Forgotten (or Overlooked) Book: CAT OF MANY TAILS by Ellery Queen (1949)

This is a re-working and lengthening of a post from nine years ago. I might be doing this (re-working older posts) for the next few weeks as I happily read my way through as many George Bellairs books as I can find. Yeah, yeah, I'm in the middle of an author frenzy. Haven't had one of those since my Ngaio Marsh marathon of a few years ago. I get like this sometimes. But I wouldn't want to bore you by writing about Bellairs constantly, hence my mining of long ago posts. (I'm also currently reading a bunch of romances - happily ever after stuff which, again, would bore most of you to tears.)

Confession: I've always had a problem with the Ellery Queen books in general - reason why they are not on my top TOP list of favorites - and some of this stems from the two fictional characters themselves. Ellery Queen is a brilliant detective/writer who, along with the occasional help of his dad - NYC Police detective Inspector Queen - solves all the crimes that the regular police can't. But somehow - as written - these two are just not very interesting people in and of themselves. In truth, Ellery and his cop-pop are a rather boring, fuddy-duddy 'couple'. (Ellery's angst as the series progresses is actually cringe-worthy.) So it's fair to say that the crimes in these stories are meant to be more important and/or interesting than the detectives who solve them. I won't quibble with the idea. But for me, there usually has to be some sort of connection or affection for the main character(s). Otherwise, I'm only reading for the puzzle. Not that that is, necessarily a bad thing - hey, it worked for John Dickson Carr - but it's just not what lingers for long in memory. (By the way, I was never all that fond of the tv series, either.)

A quick word of expo: Ellery Queen, author of the Queen books was the pseudonym of writers/cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. They also founded the Ellery Queen magazine. Within the fictional stories, the main character is named Ellery Queen, who also edits the Ellery Queen magazine. A bit confusing, but you get used to it.

Okay, so having said that, I still enjoyed CAT OF MANY TAILS. It's a book I thought I'd already read when I settled in for a re-read a few years ago, but turns out I hadn't.

CAT OF MANY TAILS is an entertaining puzzle set in a frenzied, fearful NYC where a serial strangler has run amok. The city is in the middle of a heatwave, everyone is sweating, frightened and impatient. The newspapers run amok. The cops fester against dead ends.The NYC of the 1940's/50's is the New York I grew up in, so I do retain affectionate memories of Manhattan at that time.

'August 25 brought one of those simmering subtropical nights in which summer New York specializes. Ellery was in his study stripped to his shorts, trying to write. But his fingers kept sliding off the keys and finally he turned off his desk light and padded to the window.

The city was blackly quiet, flattened by the pressures of the night. Eastward thousands would be drifting into Central Park to throw themselves to the steamy grass. To the northeast, in Harlem and the Bronx, Little Italy, Yorkville; to the southeast, on the Lower East Side and across the river in Queens and Brooklyn; to the south, in Chelsea, Greenwich Village, Chinatown - wherever there were tenements - fire escapes would be crowded.....The parkways would be bug trails. Cars would swarm over the bridges - Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg, Queensborough, George Washington, Triborough - hunting a breeze. At Coney Island, Brighton, Manhattan Beach, the Rockaways, Jones Beach, the sands would be seeded by millions of the sleepless turned restlessly to the sea. The excursion boats would be scuttling up and down the Hudson and the ferries staggering like overloaded old women to Weehawken and Staten Island. 

Heat lightning ripped the sky, disclosing the tower of the Empire State Building.....'

I remember those times - air conditioning was in its infancy (except in ice cold theaters and some restaurants). We hung out on the stoops or the fire escapes. All we had were fans - if we were lucky. Yet, somehow we survived. That's the sweaty setting for this particular tale of serial murder.

The stranglings in CAT OF MANY TAILS are particularly ugly crimes, especially since we get to know a bit about the victims BEFORE the murderer strikes. (It always appears worse when you have something invested in the hapless victims.) The crimes appear to be conscienceless acts of random brutality. But are they? Is there a connecting link between the nine victims? The police are stumped. The press revels. The city is in a panic. The killer lurks. Obviously, the detecting brilliance of Ellery Queen is called for. Despite his on-going angst and protestations (brought about by the case in a previous book), the brilliant sleuth/writer is convinced to take on the job of special investigator, but the stranglings continue.

Anyone who is familiar with the workings of mysteries and their plotting will (by the middle of the book) figure out who is more than likely to be the culprit but still, that doesn't spoil the fun. Oh well, excuse me, death by strangulation isn't exactly fun - but you know what I mean.

Now if only the book wasn't weighed down by the psychological (and to my mind, totally unnecessary) mumbo jumbo extremes of the last couple of chapters, all would be wonderful. As it is, the book succeeds DESPITE the last bits of psycho mumbling. CAT OF MANY TAILS still manages to be a terrific book. Though the tortuous way that Ellery goes about finding the truth in the end is truly fatiguing. 

Still, I recommend the book. It brought back the world of 1940's/early 50's New York City. A funny thing: when reading this, I saw EVERYTHING in black and white. (Possibly influenced by my own few remaining photos of the time.) It was a b/w world, I suppose, until the advent of color film. But for me, Ellery Queen seems even MORE b/w than most. Something in the prose, most likely.

I've stopped reading Ellery Queen for the most part because A) wasn't crazy about the sleuth to begin with and B) the books began to wear me out. All that philosophizing, all those multiple endings...

Having said that, CAT OF MANY TAILS is definitely worth a read.

Since it's Friday, don't forget to check in once again at author Patricia Abbott's blog, Pattinase, to see what other forgotten or overlooked books other bloggers are talking about today.

Two By Ellery Queen

(Love this cover.)

Ellery Queen again?

Yup.

But not to worry, these may be the last two for awhile. If you know this blog then you're familiar with my occasional book frenzies. So do not be alarmed, it is a minor compulsion. I think.

THE CHINESE ORANGE MYSTERY (1934) is another Queen book that begins spectacularly (truth to tell all of the Queen mystery set-ups are pretty brilliant) and then, near the end sort of comes down to earth when all is revealed. The solution to this one is not as convincing as it should be and I did have to role my eyes a bit, but then that happens a lot with Ellery Queen. Still, I loved the book.

Here's my take: When an author (or authors) get you to love a book in spite of your misgivings, THAT, my friends, is audacious brilliance.

THE CHINESE ORANGE MYSTERY (LOVE that title) is a bewildering locked room puzzle. Locked room murders are a kind of sub-genre in mystery writing and when I'm reading one, I always prepare myself for a preposterous denouement (it's part of the give and take with these particular sorts of books). This mystery is no different, its reveal is Preposterous with a capital P - had to read the ending several times before I could make heads or tails of it.

This is another Ellery Queen peppered throughout with clever chapter headings (a Queen specialty) but missing the printed cast of characters (as in a play), something I find very useful with this kind of mystery. I guess in later books they did away with this little affectation which I quite liked.

Douglas Kirk, a faltering book publisher and collector of jewels and rare stamps lives, along with family members in a large suite of rooms at the Hotel Chancellor. His business offices are advantageously on the same floor, next door to the suite, so assorted other characters come and go (very convenient to the plot). Also on hand is the girl of Kirk's dreams, Miss Temple, who knows a lot about Chinese lore, since she spent several years there.

Ellery Queen's women characters are often more interesting than his male creations and Miss Temple is one of his best. Miss Temple's book on China (in the vein of Pearl Buck) is being considered for publication by Kirk, though his hard-drinking partner sneers at the idea. Kirk, smitten with Miss Temple and trying to break free from a designing femme fatale, is caught on the horns of a dilemma.

The fictional Ellery Queen, bibliophile and well-known mystery solver, is invited to dinner by Kirk and asked, with no further explanation, 'to keep an eye on things'. Intrigued, Ellery is on the scene when on the day of the dinner, an inexplicable (and rather outrageous) murder takes place in a locked room whose main door was always under observation by a hotel employee.

In that room is found the body of a mystery man. A stout middle-aged stranger who'd arrived earlier (without appointment) to see Kirk and was ushered into the waiting room by Mr. Osborne, philately associate and Kirk's keeper of the business gates.

When later, the room (unexpectedly locked) is opened, everything in it is a confusing jumble -  the furniture and even the dead man's clothing are turned backwards. Not only that, but the body has no identification on it. By the way, this is a mystery in which the actual name of the dead man is unimportant.

In the end, when events are explained all because of Ellery's insistence that the backward theme is the most important clue (the cops suppose it's only the doings of a maniac) I couldn't help but think that stripping a dead body and then re-dressing it backwards is no easy task. I still say it's impossible, given the time. But maybe that's just me. The incredibly swift (and convoluted) solution the killer puts into play when he discovers that the dead man has no neck tie strains credulity to the breaking point.

But we do get to learn quite a few interesting bits and pieces about Chinese culture and stamp collecting.

At any rate, despite my misgivings, I loved this book even if one of the main characters embodies a pet peeve of mine: the hysterical man. It's probably not politically correct, but I can stomach a hysterical woman much better than I can a man.

You can see that I am quite willing to overlook all sorts of things when it comes to Ellery Queen. As I said before, that's brilliance. Far as I'm concerned anyway.

THERE WAS A OLD WOMAN (1943) has a kind of 'alice in wonderland' plot (though it owes a great deal to Mother Goose) with Ellery in the role of 'Alice'.

The outrageous, contentious, highly eccentric and very wealthy Potts family live in a huge Riverside Drive mansion in upper Manhattan, ruled with an iron fist by the elderly Potts matriarch, Cornelia Potts. Their fortune results from trade: Potts Shoes are America's Shoes - $3.99 Everywhere. On the grounds of the elaborate mansion sits an incongruous sculpture of a shoe over which a neon sign declares 'The Potts Shoe.' Hence the old woman who lived in a shoe analogy.

The cantankerous (and sickly) elder Potts dominates the lives of her six grown children, three from a first marriage, three from a second. The first three, spawn of Bacchus Potts (declared dead), are the apples of Cornelia's eye, despite their colorful general unpleasantness. The second three are the spawn of a certain Steven Brent who, forced to change his last name to Potts, lives in the house as an ineffectual shadow father. His progeny are the sane (and therefore resented) half of the family.

Steve Potts, nee Brent, is a mildly interesting character relegated to the background because of his wife's indifference and contempt. He shares his life with an old (unmarried) male friend who also lives in the house. Very odd relationship viewed from today's point of view. Are these two men sharing more than endless games of checkers? The author does not elaborate.

"Marry Steve - yes, ma'am. But Steve, he'll die without me, ma'am. He's just a damn lonesome man, ma'am," Major Gotch had said to Cornelia. 'Seeing that you're so well-fixed, seems to me it won't ruffle your feathers none if I sort of come along with Steve.'

...and Major Gotch moved right along in and settled down to share his friend's incredible good fortune and make himself, as he liked to say, thoroughly useless."

In fact, most of the Potts, except for Cornelia herself and the twin sons of the second marriage (both of whom successfully run the shoe company), are entirely useless. With maybe a reservation or two for the plucky heroine, Sheila Potts, Thurlow's half-sister, who catches Ellery's eye though she is engaged to the family's lawyer Charlie Paxton.

It is Paxton, a friend of Ellery's, who draws the amateur sleuth into the Potts family doings.

Thurlow Potts (Built incredibly like a baby kangaroo.), the eldest of the 'original' Potts and Cornelia's favored son is a pompous loony who passes the time bringing lawsuits against anyone who dares insult the family name. He revels in his grotesque pursuits and precipitates tragedy by challenging his half-brother to a duel. The contretemps with real guns is held on the grounds of the mansion with Ellery acting as an unwitting 'second.'

The old woman who lived in a shoe analogy adds a kind of grim ridiculousness to the Potts' deadly doings which result in two murders, a natural (and very convenient) death, forgery, general unhappiness and hysteria and the attempted murder of Ellery himself.

The crimes' solutions (there are three or maybe four) are as improbable and convoluted as anything ever dreamed up by the authors, the last taking place in the middle of a wedding. But again, I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it highly.

These two books are particularly well-written, they shine with excellence and a sense of joy in the writing (imagined or real) which, I believe, must stem from the inventive genius of the author tandem of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee.

Mysterious Press has re-issued a bunch of Ellery Queen (though not, as far as I know, There Was an Old Woman - I got my copy at the library) titles in nicely done trade paper-back editions.

Forgotten (or Overlooked) Books Friday: THE FRENCH POWDER MYSTERY (1930) by Ellery Queen

THE FRENCH POWDER MYSTERY has the greatest beginning - not surprising that the rest of the book doesn't quite live up to it. But this is still a pretty good puzzle mystery. An improbable crime, no question, but it has tons of mystery impedimenta and many suspects (which I love). And as usual Ellery gathers up clues like a human vacuum cleaner, but this time out (in the second Ellery Queen book in the series) he's not as annoying as he seemed in the first book. (Not reason enough NOT to read the books, by the way.) I do like the warmth of feeling between father  (Inspector Richard Queen) and eccentric son.

Cyrus French, retail giant and owner of French's Department Store in central Manhattan (sort of like Macy's) is also head of the Anti-Vice Squad - his own personal war on drugs, gambling and other assorted human vices. He is a man full of rectitude who doesn't realize that vice has slowly crept into his family sphere. Imagine his surprise and shock when his second wife's dead body makes a startling debut in a French Department Store window during a room and furniture design demonstration. When the model pulls down the wall bed, out pops the dead body of Mrs. Winifred French.

Great beginning.

I loved the hubbub of horrified street-side gawkers, uniformed cops trying to keep order, the confused bustle of shoppers in the store being corralled before anyone knows what's really going on, store detectives attempting to take charge, executives and other hirelings running to and fro while Cyrus French takes one look at his wife's body and collapses. Fabulous furor. The sort of thing that starts a mystery off with a very satisfying bang.

When a harassed (the new Police Commissioner is an officious pain in the butt) Inspector Richard Queen arrives on the scene, his son Ellery in tow, they are met with the kind of Important Crime which must be solved asap if not sooner.

As if the murder wasn't enough, it turns out that French's step-daughter Bernice Carmody has gone missing and not only that, she appears to be a drug addict - unknown to the elderly French, head of the Anti-Vice Squad, as I mentioned. Talk about shock and awe.

Atop French's Department Store is a convenient apartment used exclusively by Cyrus French and other French family members as a kind of pied-a-terre and setting for important business meetings. Only a limited few have keys (with incised initials) to the pent-house which is reached by private elevator. The authors supply a handy map for the reader's edification.

What is the motive for this heinous crime? How are access to the apartment and the murder linked? Where is Bernice? Is this a case of unspeakable matricide? How is the wife's ex-husband, an imperturbable antique-dealer involved? What about the European interior decorator? And what to make of the mysterious doings in the store's book department? What about the board of directors who very conveniently were having a meeting that morning in the store-top apartment? Is it true that one of the store's directors was Mrs. French's lover?

Ellery soon figures it all out with the help of an old school friend who works for French's as the old man's assistant. As I said, it is all very improbable but I don't really mind - improbability is often key to a good mystery.

We have lots of suspects from which to choose and while I did, once again, pick the killer, it was more or less done by guess work on my part based on my own personal mystery reading experience and my recognition of certain mystery story telling tropes. So I take no credit.

I do find the final chapter in which Ellery lectures everyone - cops and suspects and even, the Police Commissioner - and grandly announces his methods and how the clues came together, a bit much. Okay, Nero Wolfe does the same, but it seems somehow more do-able when Wolfe does it.

I'm currently reading THE SIAMESE TWIN MYSTERY, so it's obvious I am immersed in all things Ellery Queen at the moment.

Stay tuned.

Don't forget to check in at Patti Abbott's blog to see what other Forgotten (or Overlooked) books other bloggers are talking about today.

Vintage Mysteries: Book One

First book of the New Year:

Coincidentally, the book I'm reading on this first day of the new year is not merely a great mystery, but a great vintage mystery (published in 1949) - perfect for kicking off the Vintage Mysteries Reading Challenge hosted by My Reader's Block.

The book is titled: CAT OF MANY TAILS. All about a mad strangler at large in NYC. It's part of a three book anthology I picked up at the library.

I'm sure there will be even more Ellery Queens on my TBR pile before the end of this year. I though I was starting out with one I'd read many years ago, but as I'm reading it, I'm thinking well, maybe not. We'll see as I go along. Terrific story, so far.