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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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 Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 4:09 pm Post subject: 24. The Siamese Twin Mystery by Ellery Queen |
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24. The Siamese Twin Mystery by Ellery Queen
This is another of the early EQ Golden Age mysteries (written in 1933) and the best of them that I’ve read so far. It anticipates the bizarre plots of the novels of the 1950s and 1960s.
While driving back from Canada, Ellery and his father are forced to escape a raging forest fire. They seek refuge by driving up a mountain with the fire raging behind them. They get lost as they ascend, in the Twilight Zoney sort of way. Finally, at the summit, they find a big spooky mansion with all sorts of odd people inside. These people are clearly hiding something, and events take one weird turn after another.
There is no CHALLENGE TO THE READER in this one. Ellery solves the murder straight through, while hunched in the cellar with the rest of the cast as the fire is just about to consume them. |
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shaw
Java Man
Joined: 04 Aug 2003
Posts: 1025
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| Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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| I never got through the ABC murders; I can't wait to find out what you think. |
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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:49 am Post subject: |
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Doug:
You are talking about the Agatha Chrisite book, The ABC Murders?
I think I have it somewhere in that box that I bought. I'll dig it out if it's there. Your mileage will vary, but I don't think Agatha Christie was a very good writer.
-Ed |
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shaw
Java Man
Joined: 04 Aug 2003
Posts: 1025
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:01 am Post subject: |
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| edting wrote: | Doug:
You are talking about the Agatha Chrisite book, The ABC Murders?
I think I have it somewhere in that box that I bought. I'll dig it out if it's there. Your mileage will vary, but I don't think Agatha Christie was a very good writer.
-Ed |
There was an ellery queen book where the big clue was a typewritten list with 26 nouns, each beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. I never got thrrough it, and it turned me off to Ellery Queen entirely. |
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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 10:27 am Post subject: |
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Doug:
I'll look for it. I just won an ebay book lot with 54 EQ mysteries in it so you're going to be stuck reading these reviews for a while.
-Ed |
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jeffp
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 990
Location: Los Gatos, CA
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 1:57 pm Post subject: |
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54 more? Just how many EQ books are there?
Even allowing for a few duplicates in your new lot, Ed, you're going to be reading these things for a very long time. I'm sure that makes you one happy boy.
--jeffp |
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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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| jeffp wrote: | 54 more? Just how many EQ books are there?
Even allowing for a few duplicates in your new lot, Ed, you're going to be reading these things for a very long time. I'm sure that makes you one happy boy.
--jeffp |
There are between 90 and 95 of these, depending on how you count them. And yes, I've already reached the point where I am bidding on book lots on ebay just to get one or two titles that I'm missing. Maybe I'll give away or paperback-swap the duplicates. |
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jeffp
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 990
Location: Los Gatos, CA
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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90 - 95 of them, eh?
Bet you $10 you can't buy and read them all by the end of the year!
--jeffp |
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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:32 pm Post subject: |
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| jeffp wrote: | 90 - 95 of them, eh?
Bet you $10 you can't buy and read them all by the end of the year!
:twisted:
--jeffp |
Jeff:
Hmmm....that's an interesting one. The issue isn't necessarily reading them, it's:
a) finding them all and
b) defining what constitutes a "book".
For example some "Ellery Queen" books are simply collections of reprints of stories from the EQ magazine. Does that count, or doesn't it? My sense is that mystery buffs tend to look down on the anthologies.
Assume I can find them all, and that there are 95 "books" (to take the high number and be conservative.) By my count, I have read 19 of them. As of today, Feb 21st 2006, there are 312 days left to read 76 books. That's a book every 4.11 days - a tall order.
By the way, I now have 64 Ellery Queen books coming my way via ebay. Once I get all this stuff, I'll sort through them and see how many I really have once I eliminate the duplicates. |
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jeffp
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 990
Location: Los Gatos, CA
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 5:41 pm Post subject: |
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Ed,
I'll take the lower number (90) and let you determine how you count them yourself. I still think you can't do it by the end of the year, but I'd love to watch you try! 
--jeffp |
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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 6:34 am Post subject: |
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| jeffp wrote: | Ed,
I'll take the lower number (90) and let you determine how you count them yourself. I still think you can't do it by the end of the year, but I'd love to watch you try! :)
--jeffp |
OK, I've spent some time (probably too much time) researching this. There are 95 EQ novels:
* There were 43 original Ellery Queen novels written by the two cousins (Dannay and Lee). Some consider these to be the only "true" EQ books
* The cousins also wrote 4 "Drury Lane" novels that did not feature the Ellery Queen character.
* The cousins also wrote 2 unclassifiable mysteries that did not feature any "star" detective.
* There are 6 "Faux EQ novels" that the cousins had a hand in, but did not write themselves.
* There are 28 "Faux EQ Paperback Mysteries" ghost-written by various authors.
* There are 11 "Ellery Queen Jr." juvenile mysteries. These are very difficult to find.
* There is one unclassifiable anthology.
So, in trying to come up with a challenging task, and in making this a gentleman's game, I'll make a goal of collecting and reading all but the juvenile series.
That's 84 books.
I've read 19.
There are 65 left.
That's a book every 4.78 days.
Boy, that's going to be tough.
-Ed |
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shaw
Java Man
Joined: 04 Aug 2003
Posts: 1025
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:20 am Post subject: |
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You guys are betting ten dollars?
I remember when bets were more... creative.
Ed and I once made a bet where I wrote down what the loser had to eat, and Ed wrote down where he had to eat it.
I say...
Ed draws the loser's avatar.
Jeff writes a sentence to go under the loser's avatar.
Both Ed and Jeff send me their contributions, which I will combine into an avatar, which will be used by the loser throughout January of 07. |
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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 7:44 am Post subject: |
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Hey Guys!
Hold on, I think I'm going to lose this bet!
I've just finished putting the 95 book titles into a spreadsheet and annotated it. Just looking at it, it's daunting. I don't think I'll even be able to acquire all these books by the end of the year, let alone read them all!
-Ed |
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jeffp
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 06 Mar 2005
Posts: 990
Location: Los Gatos, CA
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:20 am Post subject: |
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I'll be nice and let Ed off the hook.
It's not that I am afraid of the avatar bet... It's just that it seems like it's too lopsided towards my winning. He'd have to acquire a bunch of books that were published many years ago for starters. Juat the getting of them would probably be too much for the year.
On the other hand, if you decide you're still interested, Ed, I'm game.
--jeffp |
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edting
Homo Sapiens
Joined: 07 Jan 2005
Posts: 277
Location: Amherst, NH
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:44 pm Post subject: |
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Guys:
I was thinking about this, and maybe a good goal for me might be to read all of the original series, plus the Drury Lane series.
Of the original series, I own 28 out of 43, and have read 11 out of 43.
Of the Drury Lane series, I own 3 out of 4, and have read 0 out of 4.
If I can accomplish this, then I will have read every work that the original Dannay/Lee team wrote. This is a challenging enough goal that I might not make it, but it is not so far-fetched that I will be constantly thinking about my totals.
-Ed |
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