Talk Back

[edting]

A dud.

It’s a good premise though. A dim-witted groundskeeper working at a rich estate suddenly starts getting letters in the mail telling him to do things. He’s bored, so he does them. Then the letters start telling him to kill people, which he does.

The problem with all of this is, since we’re watching him kill these people, we know more than Ellery does for ¾ of the book. After Ellery catches up with us, things start to get interesting again, but by then 160 pages have elapsed. Also, this is the first EQ mystery where I was able to guess the solution.

It’s not well done. The plot is way too simple, and far removed from the ultra-complex conundrums of the Golden Age stories. It was ghost written by sci-fi writer Theodore Sturgeon.

(Doug, this may the book you were referring to earlier. The groundskeeper gets notes written to him via a typewriter with individual letters stamped in them.)

[shaw]

Not the same book.

Mine had this woman having an affair, and the alphabet list involved locations that she would meet lovers and things.