Customer Reviews

The Greek Coffin Mystery

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

 

 

The Ellery Queen stories will remain among the most remarkable American classic mysteries ever written. And this superbly constructed story, The Greek Coffin Mystery, is among the best of Ellery Queen.

Ellery Queen first appeared in June, 1929 in The Roman Hat Mystery, followed by The French Powder Mystery (1931), and The Dutch Shoe Mystery (1932). The plot in the fourth story, The Greek Coffin Mystery (1932), actually pre-dates The Roman Hat Mystery and reveals a younger, less-experienced Ellery Queen. We readers see an overly confident Ellery Queen stumble in his deductions and are led through not one, but a several flawed solutions.

Not only is this "younger and cockier" Ellery Queen misled and chastised, but it will be a rare reader indeed that does not likewise become ensnared in faulty deductions and erroneous conclusions. Ellery Queen regains any lost prestige in his final, remarkable deductions that lead unerringly to the actual solution.

The New York City setting is an old, drooping brownstone at 11 East Fifty-Fourth Street. Adjacent to the Georg Khalkis residence is one of the oldest private cemeteries in the city. Georg Khalkis had died, apparently of heart failure. His burial is in an old brick-lined subterranean crypt.

I am hesitant to say anything more about the plot itself for fear that I might unwittingly say too much. Just be prepared to be surprised.

The reader acquainted with Ellery may notice that his penchant for quoting literature (and thereby exercising his ivy league education) is more marked in The Greek Coffin Mystery than in his later stories. We encounter literary and philosophical observations in English, French, German and Latin. Ellery is even able to roughly translate a note in modern Greek from his knowledge of the classical Greek language. Who but Ellery Queen would quote Byron, Goethe, Terence, La Fontaine, Chaucer, Rousseau, and Schopenhauer while solving a muder?

Like Nero Wolfe, another famous master of deduction, Ellery also enjoys an occasional vocabulary excess, treating the reader to expressions like `eremitic in its furnishings', `caparisoning his cousin', `greatest animus', and `the charming amanuensis'.

The Greek Coffin Mystery is classic Ellery Queen. The plot is intriguing, the characters are memorable, and Ellery Queen's exercise in deduction is simply dazzling. The Greek Coffin Mystery is no longer in print, but used copies, especially in paperback, are still available. Make the effort to find a copy. This is definitely a five star Ellery Queen masterpiece.

This is one of the first Ellery Queen's books that I read. Before I used to read books by 'Agatha Christie'. Being introduced to EQ character and his method of deduction for the first time had me hungry for more. As with the other reviews regarding this book I agree with them totally. The grand finale is mind boggleling.

Not even Agatha Christie in her prime could construct a detective story plot of this complexity, with so many delicious twists and turns. Ellery Queen investigates the murder of a man who was found mysteriously buried in another man's coffin. There are many suspects, and as the story progresses the plot just gets more and more complex (for most mysteries it's the reverse).

What's notable about THE GREEK COFFIN MYSTERY is the number of solutions. There are no less than four solutions to the mystery, but only one of them--the last one--is the true one. The final solution comes as a genuine shock--when I found out who the murderer was, I was momentarily tempted to throw down the book in disbelief. But Ellery Queen's careful deductive processes show that only (blank) could possibly have committed the crimes. This is an absolute tour de force, a must-read for mystery readers like myself who have, until this point, lived under the illusion that only English writers can construct ingenious plots. Ellery Queen has more than proven that the quality can be an American one as well.

I have read al lot of detective stories, but I have never found one with a more complex plot than this one. This is not like an Elizabeth George detective or something like that. This book focuses on the mystery. Even more special: the reader gets all the clues the detective finds (not like Sherlock Holmes, who keeps everything to himself), so you can find a solution yourself,........ but than you have to be brilliant!!
Read it!

The two cousins from Brooklyn are no longer with us, but their literary creation is still alive and kicking. One of their earliest mysteries, published in 1932, this book has a difficult puzzle to perturb problem-solving mystery fans and a more human detective than the thinking machine with which they started. Remember this was still the heyday of best selling Philo Vance detective stories which were the model for successful detecting until the tough guy series came to the fore. The story starts simply enough, the wealthy owner of an art gallery has died of natural causes, arousing no perplexing problems but the search for a new will has proven fruitless. In the search for that will another body is found, this one surely the product of murder. The puzzler has mystery, a bit of romance, many interesting characters and a less than infallible amateur detective who tags along with his eminent police inspector father. The co-authors write well, create memorable characters, spin many a web of puzzlement. While denser in style than their later works, this one is still an easy read, captures ones imagination, and involves one with its people. Still a first rate example of its genre.

It is my habit to read a "mystery" series from first published to last. Poirot, Lord Peter, Oliver Thorn, Albert Campion, Travis McGee, Doc Ford, Elvis Cole, Kinsey Milhone and, of course Sherlock Holmes -- all read from beginning to end. I am currently in the Ellery Queen series and am finding it a very difficult read. The Greek Coffin Mystery (of those that I have read) is the most difficult.

Excellent period mystery [early 1930s]. Poor overall condition of book -- small type, yellowed pages, poor paper quality, plenty signs of use -- even though complete. Next time I'll go with new or excellent.