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| Author | Ellery Queen |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Ellery Queen mysteries |
| Genre | Mystery novel / Whodunnit |
| Publisher | Stokes (US) Gollancz (UK) |
| Publication date | 1934 |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | |
| ISBN | 0-451-08759-3 |
| OCLC | 212314235 |
| Preceded by | The Siamese Twin Mystery |
| Followed by | The Spanish Cape Mystery |
The Chinese Orange Mystery is a novel that was written in 1934 by Ellery Queen. It is the eighth of the Ellery Queen mysteries.
In a poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, this novel was voted as the eighth best locked room mystery of all time.
A Locked Room Mystery...(?)
It is a locked room mystery by all means, but when one reads it he will be surprised why is it included in impossible crime category since there is no question of how the crime was done - the room is not locked at all ! It has another door from which anybody could have come and gone bringing and taking back the implement. Rather the question bothering the detectives is the fact that everything is turned backwards, which they try to link with facts such as that exotic languages are written backwards, that the Chinese are accustomed to pay the physician when they are not sick (a suspect is Chinese), a Chinese stamp printed backwards, a character's name that still makes sense when spelled backwards and such other things like all clothes of the victim turned backwards, furniture turned backward. It takes quite a task to get through to to the point that all this was done to camouflage the fact that the victim's collar was turned backwards which would have led the investigators to the fact that it was a priest's collar and then the identity of the victim, which the the police, Missing Person's Bureau and all the state machinery had failed to trace would have led straight to the motive and ultimately to the killer. It is at this point, just a few pages before the novel ends, that the reader faces the question of how, since under present circumstance the other simple door could never had been used - hence rising the concept of locked room and the extremely complicated method of bolting the door from the other side with the gravity of falling corpse with two spears inserted through pants to coat-neck that would slide the bolt from inside (with a couple of strings) to present the illusion that this door never could had been used to pass thus relieving the actual killer from the list of suspects. At this point we know that it was a locked room mystery after all. Such an application of impossible crime is unique and unparalleled in the annals of crime fiction. At last Ellery Queen jokingly justify the title by asserting that it is the color orange (of the stamp that was the motive ), and not the orange when someone comments that the victim's merely eating of an item from the fruit bowl is a rather weak reason to call it The Chinese Orange Mystery.
Plot summary
A wealthy publisher and collector of precious stones and Chinese postage stamps has a luxurious suite in a hotel that serves to handle his non-publishing business and the comings and goings of his staff, his relatives, and his female friends. When an odd and anonymous little man arrives and refuses to state his business, no one is surprised; he is locked (from outside only) in an anteroom with a bowl of fruit (including tangerines, also known as Chinese oranges) and left to await the publisher's arrival. When the door is unlocked, though, a truly bizarre scene is displayed.
The little man's skull is crushed, his clothing is reversed, back to front, all the furnishings of the room have been turned backwards — and two African spears have been inserted between the body and its clothing, stiffening it into immobility. The circumstances are such that someone has been observing every entrance to the room, and no one has apparently entered or left. The situation is further complicated by some valuable jewelry and stamps, the publisher's business affairs and romantic affaires, and a connection with "backwardness" for seemingly every character. It takes the considerable talents of Ellery Queen to sort through the motives and lies and arrive at the twisted logic that underlies every aspect of this very unusual crime.
Literary significance & criticism
(See Ellery Queen.) The character of Ellery Queen and the locked room mystery aspect were probably initially suggested by the novels featuring detective Philo Vance by S.S. Van Dine, which were very popular at the time. At this point in time, however, Van Dine's sales were dropping and Queen's were beginning to rise. This novel was the eighth in a long series of novels featuring Ellery Queen, the first nine containing a nationality in the title.
This particular novel is much cited in reference works discussing ways and means of the locked room mystery because of its unusual solution. It is also unusual because it is one of the few murder mysteries in which the victim's name is never known -- and it doesn't really matter to the solution.
The introduction to this novel contained a detail which is now not considered part of the Ellery Queen canon. The introduction is written as by the anonymous "J.J. McC.", a friend of the Queens. Other details of the lives of the fictional Queen family contained in earlier introductions have now disappeared and are never mentioned again; the introductory device of "J.J. McC." lasts only as long as the "nationality" mysteries.
The "nationality" mysteries had the unusual feature of a "Challenge to the Reader" just before the ending is revealed -- the novel breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the reader. "I maintain that at this point in your reading of The Chinese Orange Mystery you have all the facts in your possession essential to a clear solution of the mystery."
This was the only Ellery Queen novel to be included in a list of the top ten "impossible crime" mysteries of all time (created by noted locked-room mystery writer Edward D. Hoch). The Chinese Orange Mystery was eighth on the list.
Film, TV or theatrical adaptations
The novel was loosely adapted for the 1936 film The Mandarin Mystery, starring Eddie Quillan as Ellery Queen. Some elements of the novel were used as the basis for the 1941 film Ellery Queen's Penthouse Mystery, which was then novelized as The Penthouse Mystery by a ghost writer and published as by Ellery Queen.
External links
| Novels by Ellery Queen | |
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References
- http://mysteryfile.com/Locked_Rooms/Library.html
- A webpage about locked room mysteries, accessed on May 23 2007
- Hoch, Edward D., editor. All But Impossible!: An Anthology of Locked Room and Impossible Crime Stories by Members of the Mystery Writers of America. New York: Ticknor & Fields, 1981. ISBN 0-89919-045-6
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