The Roman Hat Mystery (Ellery Queen Detective #1) in Reading the Detectives

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The Roman Hat Mystery (Ellery Queen Detective #1)

Ellery Queen

Start date: November 1, 2023

Finish date: November 30, 2023

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: This mystery set in the theatre is next in our Scenes of Classic Crime challenge
[close] This mystery set in the theatre is next in our Scenes of Classic Crime challenge

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Group Challenges

* May 25: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie (1926)
By Susan · 17 posts · 22 views

last updated May 06, 2025 06:35AM

* May 25: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - SPOILER Thread - (1926)
By Susan · 15 posts · 15 views

last updated May 06, 2025 07:37AM

What Members Thought

May 05, 2015 Kavita rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: usa, mystery, jazz-age, movie-was-better

A man is found dead in a theatre during a play and the police are called in. Inspector Richard Queen shows up with his son Ellery, and thus begins the story of the first Ellery Queen novel. The plot starkly brings out its setting in the 1920s since the mystery basically hinges around a missing top hat. The victim's hat is missing and no one went out of the theatre with two hats. Where is the missing hat and what is its significance? The plot is well-constructed and hangs together remarkably well A man is found dead in a theatre during a play and the police are called in. Inspector Richard Queen shows up with his son Ellery, and thus begins the story of the first Ellery Queen novel. The plot starkly brings out its setting in the 1920s since the mystery basically hinges around a missing top hat. The victim's hat is missing and no one went out of the theatre with two hats. Where is the missing hat and what is its significance? The plot is well-constructed and hangs together remarkably well.

But nevertheless, I was not overly impressed by this first effort of Messrs. Daniel Nathan and Manford Lepofsky. What could have been a great read was rendered mediocre because the authors chose to follow the police action and hide everything of interest from the reader till the last chapter. The narrative hinges around the missing hat to such an extent that it takes up the bulk of the book. Without character development, we don't get a sense of the various characters, not even as seen through the eyes of Queen. The narrative gets stuck in finding the hat and apart from a couple of interactions with the suspects, the dialogues are mostly the Queens and the policemen discussing the case among themselves, which was not sufficient to retain interest. The narrative is also repetitive with the same thing being rehashed over and over again.

Ellery was a vague character throughout the book and in the second half, he just disappears. Inspector Queen seems to be suffering some sort of personality disorder since he consistently changes mood, even within the same scene. One moment he is bright and cheerful and the next, he is bawling out at people. He also has a creepy dependency on his son and goes into depression when Ellery so much as goes for a vacation! However, this is the one character who is fully fleshed out in the book.

There is some racism in the book as well, but that's to be expected. Still, it hits you rather hard when the black houseboy of Queen is consistently compared to a monkey, and leaves a bad taste in the mouth. It's rather hard to take even taking the times into account. The motive for the crime is also slightly racist but it appeared realistic and interesting because it fit the period.

The book is certainly of historical interest and to mystery lovers, it's the first of an important series of golden age mysteries that defined the genre. So it must always be of interest to some of us. But taken purely as a novel, it does not stand up very well. ...more

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Aug 02, 2021 Lady Wesley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: listened, aud-plus, mystery-golden-age-or-similar

My first Ellery Queen book and thoroughly enjoyable. The narrator is best heard at 1.1 speed.

First published in 1929, this book is naturally dated in some of its social attitudes, particularly with respect to the Queens' servant. It does not bother me, but others may disagree.

Queen's books are neat logic puzzles, and there is a point in the book where the narrator announces that all of the clues have been disclosed that should enable the reader to identify the murder. Of course, I couldn't, but ...more

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Oct 19, 2023 Susan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This is my first Ellery Queen novel and the first by the authors (Queen being a pseudonym) published in 1929. This is of its time, and having read a lot of British Golden Age crime, I recognised some similarities and some differences. However, it shared a victim that was not particularly sympathetic, a theatrical setting, which often crops up in mysteries of this era, and a lot of working out the mystery, in this case mainly between Inspector Queen and his beloved, bibliophile son.

When Morgan Fi ...more

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Dec 29, 2020 ShanDizzy rated it liked it · review of another edition

"These, roughly, are the facts: A man of shady character, Monte Field, probable head of a vast criminal organization, with undoubtedly a host of enemies, is found murdered in the Roman Theatre ten minutes before the end of the second act, at precisely 9:55 o鈥檆lock. He is discovered by a man named William Pusak, a clerk of an inferior type of intelligence, who is sitting five seats away in the same row. This man, attempting to leave, pushes his way past the victim who before he dies mutters, 鈥楳ur "These, roughly, are the facts: A man of shady character, Monte Field, probable head of a vast criminal organization, with undoubtedly a host of enemies, is found murdered in the Roman Theatre ten minutes before the end of the second act, at precisely 9:55 o鈥檆lock. He is discovered by a man named William Pusak, a clerk of an inferior type of intelligence, who is sitting five seats away in the same row. This man, attempting to leave, pushes his way past the victim who before he dies mutters, 鈥楳urder! Been murdered!鈥� or words to that effect. A policeman is called and to make sure the man is dead, secures the services of a doctor in the audience, who definitely pronounces the victim killed by some form of alcoholic poisoning. Subsequently Dr. Prouty, the Assistant Medical Examiner, confirms this statement, adding that there is only one disturbing factor鈥攖hat a man would not die so soon from lethal alcohol...said Ellery. 鈥淏ut let鈥檚 leave that for the moment and get on to the problem of Field鈥檚 tophat.鈥�
鈥淭he hat鈥攚ell, what do you think of it?鈥� asked Queen curiously.
鈥淛ust this. In the first place, we have fairly established the fact that the hat is not missing through accident. The murdered man was seen by Jess Lynch with the hat in his lap ten minutes after Act II began. Now鈥攆or the moment, let鈥檚 forget the problem of where the hat is now. The immediate conclusion to draw is that the hat was taken away for one of two reasons: first, that it was in some way incriminating in itself, so that if it were left behind it would point to the murderer鈥檚 identity. What the nature of this incriminating indication is we cannot even guess at the moment. Second, the hat may have contained something which the murderer wanted. You will say: Why couldn鈥檛 he take this mysterious object and leave the hat? Probably, if this supposition is true, because he either had not sufficient time to extract it, or else did not know how to extract it and therefore took the hat away with him to examine it at his leisure. Do you agree with me so far?鈥�

Read this book on Scribd: ...more

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Nov 09, 2018 Nanosynergy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, mysteries-thrillers-espionage, fiction, fiction-1920s, 2018read

Ellery Queen is the pseudonym of cousins Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee. Together they created and published this popular series. The Roman Hat Mystery was published in 1929 and is the first in the series. Inspector Richard Queen investigates the murder of an lawyer during a broadway show. His son, Ellery Queen, a book collector and author, assists his father throughout the investigation - and is who Inspector Queen credits for solving the murder. For this case, the key to the myster ...more

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Oct 11, 2022 Becky rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2022reviews

First sentence: The dramatic season of 192- began in a disconcerting manner. Eugene O'Neill had neglected to write a new play in time to secure the financial encouragement of the intelligentsia; and as for the "low-brows," having attended play after play without enthusiasm, they had deserted the legitimate theatre for the more ingenuous delights of the motion picture palaces.

Premise/plot: The Roman Hat Mystery--the first in the Ellery Queen series--stars a father and son. Inspector Queen is a po First sentence: The dramatic season of 192- began in a disconcerting manner. Eugene O'Neill had neglected to write a new play in time to secure the financial encouragement of the intelligentsia; and as for the "low-brows," having attended play after play without enthusiasm, they had deserted the legitimate theatre for the more ingenuous delights of the motion picture palaces.

Premise/plot: The Roman Hat Mystery--the first in the Ellery Queen series--stars a father and son. Inspector Queen is a police inspector. Ellory Queen, the son, is a mystery writer and amateur detective. The crime in this murder mystery takes place during a Broadway show. The only clue they really have to work with--their biggest clue--is that the murder victim's top hat is missing. Since they didn't find the hat on or near the victim, or even at the theatre, someone either wore it out of the theatre or carried it out of the theatre. The theory goes that if you can trace down what happened to the hat, you'll find the murderer.

My thoughts: I found The Roman Hat mystery to be incredibly dull. Perhaps methodical would be the best way to phrase it in polite terms? Perhaps investigations are truly tedious and lack dramatic interest. Perhaps it is just a ton of paperwork and matter of fact, ho-hum questioning. But it was just so much to get through. And the pay off--to me--didn't seem worth it. Dare I say you could read the first two or three chapters and jump straight to the last chapter without missing anything??? You wouldn't miss fleshing out of any characters, that's for sure. And I would even say that the father and son aren't all that fleshed out either. Perhaps they are in later books? Or at least the son?

The book was first published in 1929. Expect the morals and values of 1929. In other words, certain things have not aged well at all. Certain descriptions and plot points are just what most people would call backward. I didn't notice this so much in the dull-as-dirt middle but in the big reveal, it's hard to miss.

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Sep 24, 2011 Jan C rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012, mystery

This is the first of the Ellery Queen stories.

I enjoyed most of it.

However, it took far too long in the wrap-up where Inspector Queen was explaining the whole thing to his boss and the DA.

I suppose my view of the ending wasn't helped any because the day that I finished the book was one of those days where I just kept dozing off. Which includes the time that I was finishing the book.

Maybe it gets better with future books. ...more

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Sep 23, 2013 Carol Evans rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, mystery

I read a lot of "vintage" mysteries and enjoy them. The Roman Hat Mystery, however, was just not that good., but it's the first in the series, so I'm willing to give the Queens another chance. I liked Ellery, even if he is a bit in the background here, mostly observing, and his dad is an interesting man. One of the problems with this mystery is that it could only have taken place in the 20s, which is good and bad at the same time. It gives us a picture of a bygone era, complete with bootleg liqu ...more

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Oct 30, 2014 Ruskoley rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery, book-1

It's not that it is dated. Older stories are still easily read and valued - there's dozens of examples of that. The problem with this one is that the main character is a churlish s.o.b. who has somehow captured a teenager and forced him into some sort of servant role. The other characters are flat and/or annoying. Most of all: though this is an exercise in deduction and clue-work, it is also abusively slow and tedious. It really grinds along with nothing of interest for chapter after chapter. ...more

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Dec 09, 2020 Shabbeer Hassan rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2024, whodunit, audiobook, 2020, police-procedural, murica

The American answer to Peter Wimsey scores in the first book. The mystery wasn't too intriguing, but the atmosphere and characters seemed quiet alive, to begin with, and quite interesting rather!

An excellent beginning to what seems to be a long-running mystery series! The audio dramatization was neatly done.

My Rating - 3.5/5 ...more

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