The Tragedy of X

An all time classic in mystery fiction and one of my favorite books of all time. The mystery is simple and yet elusive. My only regret is that the other books in this series do not measure up to this one.

A near-classic of Golden Age detection, this is the first book by Barnaby Ross (the second pseudonym of Dannay and Lee, better known as Ellery Queen) about the actor-detective Drury Lane. Lane lives in an extraordinary enclave called The Hamlet, having had to retire from the stage owing to deafness. He engages the interest of Inspector Thumm by solving a case purely by reading about it in the newspapers (the story of this case is never told) and then becomes involved in a series of baffling crimes all of which take place on public transport (a streetcar, a ferry and a train). As usual with this sort of book the murderer's plan is needlessly complex and almost certainly would never have worked in practice, but if you can overlook that show more this is a good read. show less

The first Drury Lane mystery Copyright Barnaby Ross