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I have given this a five star rating because I, personally have enjoyed it immensely. For someone who is not a fan of period mystery novels, who does not understand life in the early twentieth century the rating would be less. Unless the reader also enjoys the early Poirot (Christie), or Wimsey (Sayers), or Saint (Charteris) novels this one will probably not be nearly a five star experience. And unless someone is already a fan of Ellery Queen in some form this is probably not a good starting point.

Each lunchtime a crowd has been gathering to watch a model conduct a live demonstration of some advante garde home furnishings in the window of a large department store. Today though the demonstration was not quite as 'live' as planned, the corpse of the wife of the owner became a part of the show. Inspector Queen was called in to investigate the case, and soon his son Ellery found himself involved when one of the suspects was revealed to be an old friend. Together father and son, assisted by the NYPD manage to solve the case despite a number of false clues. As always with this series all the clues are fairly presented for the reader to follow, and a challenge is issued for the reader to do so just before the reveal.

This series is contemporary to the period in which the story is written. This is different from a period novel in which the author is writing about a time in the past primarily because the author of a contemporary novel will assume the reader will understand the setting while the period novelist will explain many details. In this series the 21st century reader must keep in mind that besides the lack of modern day procedures and professionalism in the police force there were great differences in society in general. Household servants were the norm, jobs for middle class women were not. And rank had much more privilege then than it does now, allowing Inspector Queen to bring Ellery in on cases on a regular basis, even allowing Ellery to behave in an extremely arrogant manner to other members of the NYPD.

Despite these quirks these early novels are not without their charm. They offer a glimpse into life of nearly a hundred years ago while telling a challenging mystery story.

I am currently taking a DVD course on crime fiction. One of the many authors whom the professor has cited is Ellery Queen. Ellery Queen is the pen name of two Brooklyn cousins, Daniel Nathan and Emanuel Benjamin Lepofsky. As if all these names were not confusing enough, the two cousins were known professionally as Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington. Ellery Queen is also the name they gave to the protagonist of their series of detective novels. From 1929 to 1971 they wrote 59 Ellery Queen mysteries, including an incredible ten books written in a two year span (1965-66).

As the professor reviews different authors and genres, I find I am attracted to certain "classical" authors and I've committed to read some of these works to broaden my crime fiction exposure and to gain some appreciation for the trend-setters and mold-breakers. What particularly attracted me to Ellery Queen was his signature habit of pausing near the end of his story to advise the reader that all has been revealed; the reader knows everything that Queen does, and Queen now knows who the killer is. That was the hook for me. These books have also been described as "puzzle" mysteries; this one reminded me a bit of the Clue board game.

For reasons that escape me now, I decided to start with the second book in the series, "The French Powder Mystery(FP)". It was written in 1930 and is 405 pages long; I am guessing that this is one of the longer books in the series. The wife of a New York City department store magnate is found shot dead in the display window of their 5th Avenue store. Ellery is soon on the scene, and begins immediately to ask questions, and ask questions, and ask questions. Dad, a New York police inspector, is there as well asking his own questions but is soon stumped. He relies on Ellery for help and for not so subtle suggestions for direction. Though this was written pre-WWll, it has some current issues, namely drugs. And the deceased may have been playing around a bit.

There are a few instances were FP seems dated, maybe reminiscent of watching those glorious "Thin Man" movies, or perhaps a Bogie crime flick. There's a bit of melodrama; Ellery erupts every so often when quizzing a witness/suspect with a "Naturally!" and other exclamations that sound weird and out of place, Ellery tells a witness that he should talk because "you're not with policemen. You're with friends." There were cigarets all over the place, and a smokers puing habits provided a critical clue. Then there were pages about keys and who had what keys when and where was the missing key. Why was the body moved from the death scene? There was one African American character in the story, someone who manages a number of small apartment buildings and when he exited a scene he "shuffled rapidly". As the story nears the end, Inspector Queen and Ellery have a number of suspects come to their apartment in the upper 80's, one by one, to be interviewed for the last time

Finally, we readers get our long-awaited aside from Ellery. Soon after, he gathers all the suspects and a few police (20+ in all) in one large room at the department store apartment of the victim to lay out the case and uncover the killer. He begins his summary, and it goes on, and on, and on. It was by far the longest and most detailed such explanation of any murder I have ever read. Finally, the big bad guy is named - actually his name is the last two words of the story, so don't sneak a peek at the last page. Then, The End.

I enjoyed this as an interesting look not only at crime fiction but popular fiction of those days. Heavy reliance on dialog, not much description, no flashbacks, straight story telling. No mention at all of MOM, Motive, Opportunity, Means. It was all where were you at 1145pm? alibi, alibi, alibi. Not much in the way of issues of the day, nor did I learn too much about the characters. It gives a feel for how people lived in New York City of more than 85 years ago, no Uber, no cell phones, no CSI.

Liked it, but mostly for the novelty. As I expected, I don't plan to read another Ellery. But there's another twenty or so other 'classics' that I plan to squeeze into my regular crime fiction before the November 2018 elections.

If you enjoy the unraveling of a mysterious and inexplicable murder, you will enjoy this book. The circumstances surrounding the murder are steadily revealed with the marketer's identity revealed on the last page. An interesting and initially surprising reason for the murder of the owner's wife after store hours slowly surfaces. In classic Queen style Ellery gives the opportunity to guess who the murderer is before identifying him. What happens next was a bit unexpected but that's all I'll say.

Mystery, mystery...Did not find the name of the murderer until the author revealed his/her name....So I won't tell either...
For those who like mysteries, this is thoroughly inviting....not for deep insights, nor cosmic revelations,and don't look for the humor of Robert Parker but certainly
worth the time of serious readers of crime and suspense,,,,

The wife of a department store owner is found during a demonstration at the store, so Ellery & Inspector Queen go to work. The book is an improvement over the last novel since there are less suspects, which makes the deductions easier to follow. I loved the long summation by Ellery in the last chapter going throughout the entire process of the murder and revealing the killer with book's last two words. I still can't fathom that anyone wore a pince-nez and would twirl it around as much as Ellery does throughout the novel.

I always enjoy readin vintage Ellery Queen's novels. This is one of the best !! I recommend to fans of this genre.

Who was Agatha Christie's favorite mystery writer? Ellery Queen. There's a reason...