Mystery Review: The Dutch Shoe Mystery is the third in the Ellery Queen (author and detective) series, set in the 1920's, and is simply a good story meant to entertain during a train ride and then be discarded upon arrival at the reader's destination. It's not much more than average, simply a good but small premise stretched over an entire novel. A carefully plotted puzzle but without much enthusiasm or passion. The story focuses more on the mystery than on the characters, which are only thinly developed. Not much there, there. Even Ellery Queen himself lacks charm and is given to uttering pompous and affected quotes at the drop of a hat (such a dated phrase!). The casual racism of the first book (centered on the Queens' manservant) is fortunately more muted here. The resolution of The Dutch Shoe Mystery is insubstantial. It seems cheap and easy when a nonentity of a character suddenly and for the first time gets center stage just in time to conclude the story. The method is overly elaborate, and the motive is unpersuasive. Solely as an intellectual exercise, however, there is some fun to be had. The Ellery Queen books have a "Challenge to the Reader" toward the end to give mystery fans a chance to play detective. The title The Dutch Shoe Mystery has nothing to do with wooden shoes, just as the first Queen mystery had nothing to do with legionnaire's helmets. Just clever wordplay. The question I'm still pondering is that Ellery Queen was a big noise back in the day, but neither of the two books I've read have seemed anything special. I have more EQ books on the shelf so I may figure it out eventually. [3★]
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