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About the author: Ellery Queen is a crime fiction pseudonym created in 1929 by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, and later used by other authors under Dannay and Lee's supervision. Dannay and Lee's main fictional character, whom they also named Ellery Queen, is a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murders. (from Wikipedia - full article).
Major characters:
- Abigail "Abby" Doorn - hospital benefactor, victim #1
- Hulda Doorn - her daughter
- Hendrik Doorn - her brother
- Sarah Fuller - her companion/housekeeper
- Dr. Francis Janney - head surgeon, victim #2
- Dr. John Minchen - medical director
- Philip Morehouse - attorney
- Moritz Kneisel - a scientist
- Lucille Price - a nurse/secretary
Locale: New York City
Synopsis: Ellery Queen drops in to Dutch Memorial Hospital for a quick visit with his old friend, Medical Director Dr. John Minchen. Minchen gives him (and the reader) a tour, and invites him to stay and observe an operation on the hospital's benefactor, Abby Doorn. A diabetic, she had fallen and injured her gall bladder.
Ellery takes a seat in the operating theatre's gallery. The patient is brought in, but something is wrong. She is dead, garroted with wire. Ellery takes charge of the scene until the authorities arrive.
It is quickly determined the deed was done in the adjacent Anteroom. While the patient was there, someone dressed in hospital uniform came in and bent over the patient. The nurse assumed it was surgeon Dr. Francis Janney, due to his signature limp, but it seems someone posed as him to gain access to the patient. Janney was meeting at the time with Thomas Swanson, who can provide a solid alibi, but Janney is secretive about Swanson's identity. The perpetrator's clothes are found stashed in a phone booth, including two canvas uniform shoes, one of which is the shoe of the title.
Doorn's attorney, Philip Morehouse (also Hulda Doorn's boyfriend), is questioned about possible motives. Abby was about to sign a second will, but died before signing, so her first will remains in force. The first (but not the second) leaves a significant amount to scientist Moritz Kneisel, who has a secret laboratory in the hospital; which is dependent on her funding.
Review: I enjoyed this one, it moved right along and mixed in a number of red herrings along the way.
The brief period in between making a new will and signing it is quite hazardous in Golden Age mysteries, and this one is no different.
My edition has two sketch maps, one of. the entire hospital floor, and one of Janney's office; both are helpful in following the action. .
The shoe thing comes up rather quickly after murder #1, but then there is no mention at all of it until the denouément at the very end. The solution, as explained by Ellery, is really a logic grid puzzle of this type, in which only one person has a certain set of characteristics, so he has to plod through all of them in a tedious manner:
I found three things unexpectedly amusing:
1. The "Interlude" in which the case is reviewed by the Queens - and is printed using extra wide margins for note taking by the reader! A funny gimmick which I am sure caused headaches for the printer. Fortunately, no prior owner of my copy ever availed themselves of this option.
2. One occurrence of the n-word. However, as soon as it is uttered, the speaker is reprimanded that "we don't use that word any more!" (So why is it in there at all?)
3. The description of the operating room states the doors "swung open on heavily oiled hinges" - one of my favorite mystery tropes! I even have a blog page devoted to their oiliness.
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