Customer Reviews

The Devil to Pay

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ellery is in Hollywood for the first time in this mystery and assumes an identity as a reporter named Hillary King in order to investigate the murder of a well hated millionaire who's bilked a number of people ruining them. The humorous writing style is top notch and Ellery's deductions as usual are spot on, but the fact that any experienced mystery reader will spot the murderer early on is disappointing and the explanation seemed overly contrived; therefore I rate this as average, or typical run-of-the-mill.

Ellery Queen was a master at the "fair play" mystery story. All the clues were there, even if the reader was unable to decipher them. Unfortunately the series (both the books starring the fictional detective and those only written by him) are hard to find. I applaud the print on demand method of keeping these classics alive. Anyone unfamiliar with Queen's work firsthand will love this mystery about a despised man who is murdered. Hardly anyone mourns for his loss, but how do you find a murderer amongst practically everyone the deceased knew?

Ellery Queen in The Devil to Pay (1937) has been persuaded to rush to Hollywood to assist in writing a major production only to find that the producer is unavailable. While waiting for his first assignment, he inadvertently becomes involved in solving a bizarre murder of a hard-hearted, unethical financier. The murder weapon is an Italian dueling sword of the seventeenth century; its tip is coated with molasses and cyanide.

Ellery's remarkable reputation on the eastern seaboard is of little value in Los Angeles and he is soon ejected from the murder scene. Masquerading as Hilary "Scoop" King, a colorful investigative reporter, he regains access to crime scene and to confidential information.

Suspects include the murdered financier's partner Rhys Jardin, Rhy's daughter Valerie, and her fiance Walter, the estranged son of the murdered man. Walter seems to suspect Valerie's father, while he in turn is apparently suspicious of Walter. Another key suspect is an unethical lawyer with an obvious interest in the dead financier's flirtatious girl friend.

Surprising everyone, especially the police, the rather ridiculous Hilary King stumbles upon one clue after another. This light-hearted mystery may not be among the best Ellery Queen mysteries, but it is fun. The Devil to Pay, rates three, perhaps even four stars.

The Devil to Pay has been reprinted often and is not difficult to find. I have two paperback copies, one is a 1971 Signet Mystery paperback, and the other is a 1980 Signet Double Mystery paperback that also contains The Door Between (1936), another EQ mystery.

Another source: The Devil to Pay (1937), The Four of Hearts (1938), and The Origin of Evil (1951) take place in Hollywood. Four Walls Eight Windows published these three together under the title The Hollywood Murders (2000).

In the late '30s, Hollywood seemed like the Land of Oz with the tin Christmas trees around the lamp-posts under ninety-degree sun. There were restaurants shaped like lighthouses and hats; the Walk of "Stars" was begun with stars like Cary Grant, Robert Sterling, et.al pressing their hands in wet cemet, not television game show hosts. How'd he get down there in the first place?

This is a love story/murder mystery combined. Who took his coat and why? Why was the victim stabbed in his own bar? "I didn't see anything. I didn't hear anything. I didn't do anything." Sound familiar. Do things ever change. No one is guilty of anything!

There didn't seem to be anything left to say... They had come full circle; it was all a trick by that fool in Denver which had mushroomed into a full-fledged prank turned into a crime. Nots to all of you, the has-beens who are foistering their ill-begotten fame on gullible people. The instigator held on with a pathetic tenacity as the network turned into a ploy for Wink's tour guide business on the side.

There was no artistic efficiency, nothing to do but wait for further developments. They'd picked on the wrong person this time. With eloquence and tenacity of her own, she set out on a design so they'd all have the devil to pay -- even the godly one. Those who pretend to be so good are the ones to pay the most as the devil is active in them. Case solved, and the guilty one is left-handed!