Tragedy of X

I wasn't as taken by this one as were most of the other reviewers, who awarded it five stars right across the board. And indeed the boy version of me would have given it six stars if I was still 12 years old. I remember being enthralled by the case in a way peculiar to am inquisitive kid, utterly fascinated by the inner workings of transportation, I guess it was, for the first murder happens on a streetcar, the second on a ferryboat, the third in a dim railway car. I might never have been on any of these strange methods of transport at that age. I just rode my bike around a lot, hitchhiked, or of course, got my mom or dad to give me a ride whenever I wanted to go anywhere. But anyhow if you're not super interested in the workings of a streetcar conductor's life, THE TRAGEDY OF X isn't that sparkling. Wasn't it Walt Whitman who fell in love with his streetcar conductor? Not I, and the ones here are a dreary lot. It's as if Ellery Queen or Barnaby Ross were so into getting their gang of suspects onto that streetcar, and onto the passenger train, that they forgot to write any characterization for them, except for Jeanne De Witt, the vampy stepmother golddigger type whom Catherine Zeta Jones was born to play. The suspects' lives in 1930s Manhattan are so banal that the existence, revealed way late in the book, of a secret past filled with violence, murder and debauchery in a Uruguayan mining town 20 years before comes as a complete shock and you can hardly say it was prepared for. Drury Lane seems to stumble on the Uruguay connection in a completely accidental way, but having done so, a child could have figured out what was up, or don't you agree? The plot suffers from the fact that Queen asks us to swallow an amazing improbability--that none of the victims ever seem to recognize the killer as someone they knew in the past, even when they see this "person" every day for years. It's like the supreme implausibility in Agatha Christie's MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA--all right, maybe a little less so. Still no matter how meandering the story gets, Drury Lane wraps things up beautifully with an extended, 40 page explanation of how he guessed everything, that almost redeems the book's manifold flaws. I love Drury Lane, but he is old school! Lives in a replica of Elsinore Castle along the misty Hudson, with a retinue composed of freaks who do his bidding without question, one a hunchback. Ageless, timeless drama queen who is able to impersonate, with theatrical makeup, one of the dead men simply to startle the killer into confession! Of course it wouldn't be an Ellery Queen without plenty of homoerotic scenes, my favorite here when Inspector Thumm comes to his appointment at "The Hamlet," Drury Lane's castle, only to find the old tease is sunbathing on a blanket, his 60 year old body brown, hard, with a light coating of golden down, the body of a teen, his private parts bulging beneath what Thumm thinks of as a "breechcloth." Queen's novels, of c

The highly popular Ellery Queen mysteries in the 1930s, 40s, 50s, and 60s were penned by an author with the same name. It is as though the Sherlock Holmes mysteries had been authored by Sherlock Holmes, rather than Dr. Watson or Sir Conan Doyle. The actual identity of Ellery Queen (the author) was secret, until much to everyone's surprise, it was revealed that the author was actually two writers that jointly created these complex stories.A few years after the the first Ellery Queen novels were published, a Mr. Barnaby Ross produced "The Tragedy of X", followed by Y and Z, and concluding with "Drury Lane's Last Case". Later the true identity of Barnaby Ross was unveiled as Ellery Queen. Confusing? The Ellery Queen and Drury Lane mysteries are catalogued under Ellery Queen in most libraries. I have long been a fan of Ellery Queen. I am nearly always baffled by the mysteries. The characteristic conclusion, a detailed logical analysis revealing the solution, always amazes me. How could I have gone astray once again and not seen the obvious conclusion? On the rare occasions that I unravel the solution, I remain exuberant for weeks.Drury Lane is an eccentric, retired Shakespearean actor of great intellect and great wealth and is sought out by New York City professional detectives (and the District Attorney) whenever they are baffled, like me. For those readers familiar with some of the more fantastical stories by Ellery Queen, it should be no surprise that Drury Lane inhabits an Elizabethan castle on the Hudson River. His close servant Quacey is an ancient hunchback, bald, bewhiskered, and wrinkled.I enjoyed this Drury Lane mystery for many of the same reasons I admire other Ellery Queen stories. The clues are visible and yet invisible, the plot is intriguing, and the detective himself is fascinating. Ellery Queen and Drury Lane both exercise precise logic that leads to a single conclusion. Having been written in the early 1930s, the story unintentionally reveals details of everyday life that now seem foreign. A weekly five dollar deposit to a savings account is evidence of frugal behavior. A doorman manipulates a speaking tube. The police awaken a sleepy elevator operator to pilot them up six floors. Longstreet, an early victim, paid bus fares for his ten guests with a dollar bill, and received change. A ten day period in the hospital for an appendix operation is considered a minimal stay. Dictaphones and carbon paper and typewriters are standard. Photographs and fingerprints are not faxed, but transmitted by a telephotographic device.Mild ethnic slurs pepper the gruff Inspector Thumm's interrogation of witnesses. The medical inspector's dialogue includes liberal use of Ja and Nein and other Germanic words We meet Italians and Irish and Germans and others in New York, but hyphenated Americans had yet to be invented.A final clue, interesting in itself but not essential for unraveling this mystery, is explained by the final word of the final sentence in

I eagerly recommend this book and "The tragedy of Y" to those who want to enter the fascinating world of Queen's detective stories. Unexpected answer, sinuous storyline, interesting personality of protagonists, exact and correct deduction. In every way this is a masterpiece of detective story.

Probably Queen's greatest book ever written - and that includes GREEK COFFIN.The plot deals with three murders committed on transport (e.g. trams, ferries and trains), with the murders themselves being peculiarly nasty (the first murder is committed by means of a nicotine-tipped-needle-filled cork ball put into the victim's pocket), including Ellery Queen's first 'dying message' (the second would appear in THE SIAMESE TWIN MYSTERY) - and ingenious.The solution to the mystery is excellent - despite similarities to both A STUDY IN SCARLET (as someone remarked) and one of the stories from G. K. Chesterton's THE INNOCENCE OF FATHER BROWN, it is ingenious, and has the reader gasping with mingled indignation, shock, and admiration. In other words - a grade of 100%.

This book goes into my short list of the very best detective stories ever. It, with "The Greek Coffin Mystery", "Cat of Nine Tails", and "Face to Face", is one of my favorite Queens. The character of Drury Lane, admittedly greater than life, is well delineated, as well as his supporting cast and his ambience. It may not be as well known as the Queen books featuring Ellery Queen because of the major figures that the writer and his famous sleuth are in our beloved genre. But "X" is a fantastic detective story, one of those I am happy to re-read every few years and enjoy all over. You will see several unforgettable scenes, a trial, a denounment scene very similar to the one in "A Study in Scarlet", red herrings, a dying message. And, surrounding it all, an intricately plotted mystery of the very top rank. Do not miss it!