Queen, Ellery. The Siamese Twin Mystery: A Problem in Deduction. Victor Gollancz Ltd. Great Britain. 1993
ISBN 0 600 200752
The foreword by J.J.McG in the July 1933 edition of the book makes one wonder if this adventure did really take place. So, was Ellery Queen a real-life detective?
The locale of the story is a lodge set high on a dry mountain plateau; the lower reaches of the mountain are on a ravaging and fast spreading fire. Caught unawares by it, the Queens, father and son, take the only road there in the hope of escape from the fire.
They come to a land of no return, since the road ends at the top of the mountain plateau and the only way out is down the same road. They are forced to tak erefuge in the lodge with the seemingly eccentric and haunting presence of a scientist, his wife, a pair of Siamese twins, a monstrous servant, a silent cook and the beautiful mother of the twins.
Then comes the shock for the reader. One murder follows another. As the fire creeps closer to the lodge and the searing heat becomes unbearable, so does the anticipation of finding who the killer is.
As one guess after another by the reader falls flat, one begins to sweat it out in the heat within the pages of the book and the mind of the reader.
The neat conclusion and denouement is unexpected. The reader is left with the satisfying sense of having been there and seen it all.
There is something of a good musical piece in this - a simple opening, an exploratory middle, the rise and the fall towards the end and the lingering note at the end.
I am happy to have discovered Ellery Queen.
ISBN 0 600 200752
The foreword by J.J.McG in the July 1933 edition of the book makes one wonder if this adventure did really take place. So, was Ellery Queen a real-life detective?
The locale of the story is a lodge set high on a dry mountain plateau; the lower reaches of the mountain are on a ravaging and fast spreading fire. Caught unawares by it, the Queens, father and son, take the only road there in the hope of escape from the fire.
They come to a land of no return, since the road ends at the top of the mountain plateau and the only way out is down the same road. They are forced to tak erefuge in the lodge with the seemingly eccentric and haunting presence of a scientist, his wife, a pair of Siamese twins, a monstrous servant, a silent cook and the beautiful mother of the twins.
Then comes the shock for the reader. One murder follows another. As the fire creeps closer to the lodge and the searing heat becomes unbearable, so does the anticipation of finding who the killer is.
As one guess after another by the reader falls flat, one begins to sweat it out in the heat within the pages of the book and the mind of the reader.
The neat conclusion and denouement is unexpected. The reader is left with the satisfying sense of having been there and seen it all.
There is something of a good musical piece in this - a simple opening, an exploratory middle, the rise and the fall towards the end and the lingering note at the end.
I am happy to have discovered Ellery Queen.
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