The House of Brass [Large Print] [Hardcover]

Ellery Queen (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Thorndike Press (October 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0783895984
• ISBN-13: 978-0783895987
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,797,681 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Will the goose lay an egg of gold, or brass?, May 12, 2002

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The House of Brass (Hardcover)

This sequel to INSPECTOR QUEEN'S OWN CASE: NOVEMBER SONG *can* be read without first reading its predecessor (I did that myself), but you'll get more out of the two books if you read them in order, so if you haven't read NOVEMBER SONG, shoo.

Picking up where NOVEMBER SONG left off, Ellery almost goes into cardiac arrest when he receives Richard's telegram announcing his engagement to Jessie Sherwood, but after he flies home in a panic from Istanbul, he and Jessie each find that their fears are groundless, and Ellery gets to give his father away during the ceremony. :) But by the time the Queens return from their honeymoon, Ellery has taken off again, so when Jessie receives a mysterious invitation to Hendrik Brass' country home, containing $100 and half a $1000 bill, Jessie and Richard once again get to tackle a case on their own. (This time, though, Ellery returns for the last chapter and wraps up the final loose ends in the grand finale.)

Hendrik Brass is an old man now, but he once ran a Fifth Avenue jewelry store - the House of Brass, specializing in gold. Richard's first reaction is to steer clear, but Jessie wants a little adventure, so after checking up with a few phone calls, they accept the invitation to the house party upstate. (Yes, this is an American version of the classic country house-party murder.)

Apart from Jessie Queen, retired nurse, the other guests are a mixed bag. The Alistairs are con artists. Dr. Thornton is the GP of his medical practice, too soft-hearted to make real money. Cornelia Openshaw is a stereotypical old maid. Keith Palmer can't settle back into civilian life after too many copter crashes in Vietnam. Lynn O'Neill seems like a good egg, but as a layoff victim she needs money. According to old man Brass, each of them is the son or daughter of someone who did him a good turn once, having been unearthed by a private investigator, and he intends to return the favor by at least supplying the missing half of each $1000 bill. If they'll stay for a few weeks and let him get to know them, he'll decide which of them should be in his will.

The only catch is, Jessie (after hearing her supposed connection to Brass) knows that she's not the woman he's looking for. At that point, Richard Queen starts getting interested in just how much is rotten about this setup, and how many ringers have been invited to the party...

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Inspector Queen's case than Ellery's, January 23, 2010

By 

Neal C. Reynolds (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: House of Brass (Paperback)

This is a fun read, using one of the basic mystery plots...an ill-assorted group of characters brought together by a promise of wealth and of course somebody ends up dead. True authorship of this novel is murky being one of those written during the time of the TV series. However, it is snappy writing and well worth the reading.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Snappy Writing, January 7, 2010

By 

R. Schultz (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: House of Brass (Paperback)

This paperback edition is a good entry in the Ellery Queen series, although Ellery himself doesn't put in an appearance until near the end of the book. It's left up to his father to do most of the preliminary work of confronting the mysteries of this house.

The premise is a staple of classic murder mysteries. What initially seems like a randomly assorted group of people receive invitations to a house party at the eccentric mansion of an equally eccentric old man. However after the guests arrive, they discover that they have some connection in common with the old man after all.

Having been promised his fortune of millions if they can find it, they first assume the obvious - that he must have converted all his money into brass. Everything in the house is brass. Brass tables, brass chairs, brass lamps, brass beds. However the guests soon realize that claiming their fortune is not going to be that easy. Maybe the old man was lying. Maybe he had no fortune and was just entertaining himself by dangling the prospect of wealth in front of these people. As it turns out, there's more than just murder to solve here.

The writing in this book is characteristically snappy, inventive - with some sentences having twist-endings of their own - as in, "Bill said nothing, eloquently."

The house itself and its foundry where all the brass plating was done are described as being "... rather like a Walt Disney conception of Vulcan's forge, dim and blackened and peopled with the ghosts of busy little men."

Other sentences that paint a picture, conjure a feeling are:

"He made a secret of his mouth."

It was a day "as crisp as peanut brittle."

Writing a book is usually thought of as being the quintessentially solo task. The Ellery Queen mysteries present one of the few exceptions to the generally necessary loneliness of producing a novel, since the byline of "Ellery Queen" actually stood for the collaboration of two men - Lee Bennington and his cousin Frederic Dannay. I'm not absolutely sure though that this particular Queen mystery was in fact a collaboration of these two men, since it's jacket advertises the book's connection to the TV series starring Jim Hutton. However, whether this book was partially re-written by a TV scriptwriter or whether it's all the work of the classic team of Bennington/Dannay - it will be apparent fairly soon that there are some real riches between these covers. Unlike Ellery and father in "House of Brass," you won't be faced with any arduous task of hunting high and low for the goods.