Drury Lane's Last Case by Barnaby Ross (Ellery Queen), 1933

 

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About the author/series: Barnaby Ross is a pseudonym of Ellery Queen. There are four books in the Drury Lane series:

• The Tragedy of X, 1932
• The Tragedy of Y, 1932
• The Tragedy of Z, 1933
• Drury Lane's Last Case, 1933

Major characters:

• Dr. Alonzo Choate, retiring curator of the Brittanic Museum
• Hamnet Sedlar, incoming curator of the Brittanic Museum
• Dr. Ales, a bibliophile
• Mrs. Lydia Saxon, patronne des arts
• Gordon Rowe, a young scholar
• Donoghue, guard at the Brittanic Museum
• George Fisher, bus driver
• Mr. Drury Lane
• Inspector Thumm, retired Inspector of Detectives
• Patience Thumm, his daughter

Locale: New York City and environs

Synopsis: A heavily disguised, anonymous man hires (now) private investigator Inspector Thumm to hold a sealed envelope him indefinitely; stating it holds "a clue to a secret" on which he is working. The man will phone Thumm monthly to let him know he is OK, and if he fails to phone on schedule, Thumm is to open the envelope in the presence of Drury Lane.

Meanwhile, a mystery is developing at New York's small Brittanic Museum. A bus tour of 17 Indiana schoolteachers, driven by George Fisher, had toured the museum. It is discovered two men had stowed away on the bus, and later a museum display case is found smashed. At the same time, museum guard Donoghue has disappeared.

The mystery man fails to phone the following month. Thumm and Lane open the envelope to find a simple notation: 3HS wM. At the museum, it is found a rare book was stolen from the display case and another book substituted. Thumm, Patience, and Lane seek to sort out the mystery consisting of several similar books and two similar people (Sedlar and Ales). Then one of them is found murdered, but which one is it?

Review: The setup is interesting and the action good to follow, although it gets confusing quickly between different versions of a book, and confusion between Hamnet Sedlar and Dr. Ales. The last portion of the book consists of discussion of various theories - all long and involved - before the solution is painfully analyzed. As in the other Drury Lane titles, the dénounement takes way too long. The final act in the book is somber as it brings the series to an end.