This Mystery is considered to be one of the best of the series. It was written in 1934 and it has all the elegant sophistication of William Powell in the Thin Man Series. Wealthy people live in Hotels with Secretaries and dress for dinner. The elderly Father is looked after by a private nurse and even though the Depression is on- it does not touch wealthy collectors of stamps. The writing flows like a well- filled cocktail and the who "dunnit" aspect is intriguing and led me to read these pages till four in the morning. The Chinese Orange Mystery was voted the eighth best locked- room mystery of all time by seventeen well known Detective Writers and Reviewers.
This particular Novel is also cited in reference works referring to the locked- room puzzle. It is intriguing and keeps your mind working furiously to solve it. What more could a Reader ask for than a top of the line puzzler? I know you will like it.The ending alone is a minor miracle. This is another in the golden mystery time frame that I highly recommend.
My thanks to Netgalley and Penzler Publishers
Blurb:
A topsy-turvy crime scene sends a detective on a puzzling quest for the truth.
The offices of foreign literature publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk are often host to strange activities, but the most recent occurrence―the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty waiting room―is unlike any that has come before. Nobody, it seems, entered or exited the room, and yet the crime scene clearly has been manipulated, leaving everything in the room turned backwards and upside down. Stuck through the back of the corpse’s shirt are two long spears―and a tangerine is missing from the fruit bowl. Enter amateur sleuth Ellery Queen, who arrives just in time to witness the discovery of the body, only to be immediately drawn into a complex case in which no clue is too minor or too glaring to warrant careful consideration.
Reprinted for the first time in over thirty years, The Chinese Orange Mystery is revered to this day for its challenging conceit and inventive solution. The book is a “fair-play” mystery in which readers have all the clues needed to solve the crime. In 1981, the novel was selected as one of the top ten locked room mysteries of all time by a panel of mystery-world luminaries that included Julian Symons, Edward D. Hoch, Howard Haycraft, and Otto Penzler.
The offices of foreign literature publisher and renowned stamp collector Donald Kirk are often host to strange activities, but the most recent occurrence―the murder of an unknown caller, found dead in an empty waiting room―is unlike any that has come before. Nobody, it seems, entered or exited the room, and yet the crime scene clearly has been manipulated, leaving everything in the room turned backwards and upside down. Stuck through the back of the corpse’s shirt are two long spears―and a tangerine is missing from the fruit bowl. Enter amateur sleuth Ellery Queen, who arrives just in time to witness the discovery of the body, only to be immediately drawn into a complex case in which no clue is too minor or too glaring to warrant careful consideration.
Reprinted for the first time in over thirty years, The Chinese Orange Mystery is revered to this day for its challenging conceit and inventive solution. The book is a “fair-play” mystery in which readers have all the clues needed to solve the crime. In 1981, the novel was selected as one of the top ten locked room mysteries of all time by a panel of mystery-world luminaries that included Julian Symons, Edward D. Hoch, Howard Haycraft, and Otto Penzler.
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