The Tragedy of Y by Barnaby Ross (Ellery Queen), 1932

 

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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:

• York Hatter, chemist, dead as story begins
• Emily Hatter, his wife/widow
• Louisa Campion, Emily's daughter by her first husband
• Barbara Hatter, a poet
• Conrad Hatter, a waster
• Martha Hatter, Conrad's doormat wife
• Jackie Hatter, Conrad and Martha's 13-year old son
• Billy Hatter, Conrad and Martha's 4-year old son
• Jill Hatter, a hedonist
• Captain Trivett, a peg-leg old sea dog
• Mrs. Arbuckle, cook and housekeeper
• Drury Lane, investigator
• Walter Bruno, District Attorney
• Inspector Thumm
• Dr. Schilling, medical examiner
• Dr. Merriam, family doctor

Locale: New York City and environs

Synopsis: In The Tragedy of X, X stood for the murderer. In this book, Y stands for the first victim, York Hatter. As the story begins, the body of chemist York Hatter is pulled from the water. Medical Examiner Dr. Schilling determines he was poisoned, apparently self-administered as he left behind a suicide note. 

York leaves behind a dysfunctional family: his widow, overbearing Emily Hatter, three children (poet Barbara Hatter, waster Conrad Hatter, and party girl Jill Hatter) and a stepdaughter, Louisa Campion (by Emily's first marriage). Louisa is severely disabled, being blind, deaf, and non-verbal.

Routinely, housekeeper Mrs. Arbuckle prepares a glass of egg-nog for Louisa each afternoon, placing it in a certain spot on the table. One afternoon as Louisa approaches, 13-year old Jackie Hatter (son of Conrad and his doormat wife Martha Hatter) gets there first and takes a gulp, and reacts violently. He recovers under the care of family doctor Dr. Merriam, who finds the egg-nog poisoned with strychnine, and calls in the police as an attempted murder of Louisa. Inspector Thumm consults with Drury Lane, but additional deaths occur before it can be resolved. 

Review: This was a dark book, on several levels, albeit a product of its time. There is the condescending treatment of Louisa due to her disability (although she does contribute vital clues). There is the episode near the end as the writer explains an unnamed "shameful disease" has. spread through the family, and is part of the motive of the crimes. While off-limits in 1932 to discuss sexually transmitted diseases., the symptoms and presentation certainly indicate syphilis, given to Emily by her first husband, resulting in Louisa's disabilities, and further infecting her second husband and their children. Finally, there is the cringy discussion on the last page of what to do with the murderer. The result is not explicity stated, but my interpretation is that Drury Lane arranges his own justice to be served, resulting in the murderer's own death.

Those aspects aside, Drury Lane turns in a good performance, and realistic in that he tries various approaches, not all successful; yet he plugs on. The use of his theatrical skills are minimal, and even rejected at one point. 

There is a lot of precision involved in the solution - various measurements (all carefully documented) of heights, footsteps, shelf spacing, etc. and elaborate descriptions of arrangement of bottles on shelves, and so on. 

The solution - the identity of murderer and what drove the murderer to act - is pretty clever and an approach I had not seen before.

You may also enjoy this review by Bev Hankins on My Reader's Block.