The chinese orange mystery

The men entering the room come upon a strange sight: A corpse lies on the floor. His clothes are on backward, with the buttons "studding the vertebrae along the spinal column." The room is "off," with lamps and chairs turned upside down, the clock facing the wall. Fortunately, one of the visitors is Ellery Queen, a sleuth named after a pseudonym chosen by two cousins, Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee, who wrote the novel in 1934. Queen the sleuth was a much-loved American variation on gentleman-detectives Hercule Poirot and Lord Peter Wimsey from the British Golden Age. Queen calls his father "Pater" and finds the scene "deucedly odd." He solves the crime in Golden Age style, too, dazzling everybody with deductive brilliance before pinning the killer. Readers familiar only with more realistic crime fiction in the contemporary vein may find this case and its solution on the outlandish side, though both are hallmarks of the traditional mysteries published between the wars. For fans of the Golden Age and its high style, this reprint, part of the newly launched American Mystery Classics series, will be welcomed with open arms.--Don Crinklaw Copyright 2018 Booklist

One of the most bizarre puzzles in crime fiction distinguishes this mystery, first published in 1934, from Queen, the pseudonym for Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, as well as the name of their gifted amateur sleuth. Book publisher Donald Kirk invites Ellery Queen to meet at Manhattan's Hotel Chancellor, where Kirk maintains an office. On their arrival, Kirk learns that a stranger is in his waiting room. Since the door between Kirk's office and the waiting room is locked from the inside, Queen and Kirk must use the door from the corridor to gain access. Inside they find the man bludgeoned to death and wearing all his clothes backwards. Furthermore, all the furniture in the room has been rearranged to face backward, and two African spears have been inserted under the dead man's coat. No one in Kirk's circle has any idea as to the corpse's identity, let alone a motive for the unusual killing. The solution is a perfect, fairly clued match for the setup. If this creates a new audience for a genre giant, Penzler, editor of the American Mystery Classics series, will have done yet another service for whodunit lovers. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.