The Roman Hat Mystery is the first book in the Ellery Queen Detective series.
A man is found dead in the Roman Theater. He reeks of alcohol and it seems that the poison was mixed in his drink. The seats next to and in front of him are empty and the ticket stubs for the same aren’t found anywhere. Meanwhile, well-known socialite’s purse is found in the dead man’s coat. Also, the dead man’s silk hat is nowhere to be found. Inspector Queen and his son Ellery are called to the scene of the crime.
The Roman Hat Mystery is my first Ellery Queen read and surely won’t be the last. This also happens to be my first American Mystery read! Having heard a lot of praises about this detective series, I decided to give it a try with the first book in this series and I am not disappointed. Though this is a bit out of my comfort zone, I really enjoyed the story.
Queen and Ellery, the father-son duo are way different from Holmes-Watson or Poirot-Hastings pair. Their logic of deduction is different and so their method of sleuthing. It took me some time to get used to their ‘antics’ but as the story ended, I was pretty much impressed by pappa Q’s deductive skills.
Coming back to the story, the dead man is a lawyer named Monte Field. Thomas Velie calls Field “One of the crooked-est lawyers in town.” So, who would have wanted to kill this man and why? A theatre might be a good place for murder – with low lighting and no witnesses – but why did the murderer take the dead man’s hat?
There’s quite a hullabaloo with the hat – pappa Q is frustrated. He cannot seem to get the mystery of the missing hat off his mind. The father-son duo hit roadblocks, one after the other, and as the story ends, they almost give up! Since this is the first book in this series, I will not comment more on the characters. I might read a book or two more and then decide if the father-son duo make it to my list of favourite sleuths.
Pappa Q is strict and a tad boring. His deductive skills are pretty appreciable but I liked Ellery better. The lad seemed so obsessed about acquiring a rare Falconer’s and this makes his dad annoyed at times. There’s a bit of racism in this book and I did not like it! Djuna, Queen’s servant/butler is called an imp or a monkey and his Turkish traits are made fun of – nope, not acceptable! (Given that the book was first published in 1929, was this to be expected?)
Overall, The Roman Hat was an okay-ish story.The mystery of the missing hat is annoying at times! The duo search high and lo for the hat and yet … no hat!!! The identity of the killer made me go “eh? Who?” If you haven’t read Ellery Queen before then you might not want to start with this book. Also, if you are on GR, you might see a lot of 2-star ratings for this book. It isn’t that bad – not 2-star worthy bad. A well-concocted yet slow plot might have made this book a tad boring but other than that, I found this to be a good read.
Second Opinions:
The Puzzle Doctor says “a strong debut novel that still stands the test of time”. Read his review here.
Aidan found this story to be “quite uneven and poorly paced with lengthy blocks of dialogue and a dull array of suspects”. Read his review here.
JJ has a lot of things to say about this book. Read his review here.
The Green Capsule says “The writing itself is fine, although it lacks flourish.” Read his review here.
Dead Yesterday says ” The Roman Hat Mystery is a disappointing effort from Ellery Queen, king of crime. But it would have been a promising debut for the new author Ellery Queen, two young cousins from Brooklyn with high hopes for their first novel.” Read his review here.
John says ” So, overall, while this isn’t a novel I could get enthusiastic about, I can quite see why I continued to read whatever EQ I came across until, in due course, I hit the really good stuff.” Read his review here.
RATING
Writing Style: 3.5/5
Plot/Story: 3.5/5
Character Development: 3/5
Ending: 3.5/5
Overall Rating: 3.5/5
BOOK DETAILS
Title: The Roman Hat Mystery (Ellery Queen Detectives #1)
Authors: Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee
First Published on 7th June 1929
Genre: American Mystery Classics/GAD/Crime
Purchase Links: Amazon.com | Book Depository
Featured Image Credits: Goodreads
The Book Decoder 
Glad you enjoyed this a little more than I did. There is a lot I like about the setup but I found the searching for the hat tedious. I shared my thoughts at https://mysteriesahoy.com/2017/11/18/the-roman-hat-mystery-by-ellery-queen/
I have found some of the subsequent titles in this series to be more satisfying though I still find them a little uneven (I am up to the Siamese Twin Mystery and reading them in order).
I hope you continue to enjoy and will be interested in your thoughts on later titles!
I agree, Aidan. The hat was getting on my nerves too and not just Queen’s. Lol. I will have a look at the other titles you have reviewed and then decide my next read. 🙂 Thanks for the review link. 🙂
No problem. I think if I were doing Queen again I would not have read them in order but now I feel committed to it!
I will say that others liked The Greek Coffin Mystery much more than I did (and The Egyptian Cross Mystery much less) so I would certainly get a second opinion!
I think everyone enjoyed this more than I did, but that’s to be expected at some stage in everyone’s reading. There are certainly more accessible Queen novels, and more exciting ones, so do persevere. It’s always interesting to see how people react to these books from a position of it being new to them, because I feel that early Queen is among the most dated from the opening salvo of the Golden Age. For me things improved with Halfway House, though I’m yet to read the apparently fabulous Siamese Twin Mystery, so maybe that will finally win me over 😁
This isn’t re-read worthy perhaps but as my first Ellery Queen read, it did seem like a promising debut – unlike Mysterious Affair at Styles. If I had read that first, I wouldn’t have followed Poirot series for sure. 😉
I have read some interesting reviews on The Siamese Twin mystery so maybe I should read that next. (Aidan too mentioned it this morning) And since you said Halfway House, I will give that a try too. 😁
I find it interesting how many people say that about Styles; I remember no specifics, but don’t recall it being THAT bad 😁 Thankfully, I’m near the end of Christie, so will be able to reread it soonish…here’s hoping I’m not in for a terrible realisation.
I finished the whole lot a couple of years ago and am planning to re-read them. I hope I don’t change my opinion about Poirot after a re-read. 😀😀
Ha, can you imagine?! 😨
I’m glad you enjoyed this as I always thought this was a promising debut though it’s far from Queen’s best.
Stil, ignore those who dismiss early queen as dry and dull! The series gets much better after this and you’ll find some real crackers in French Powder, Greek Coffin, Siamese Twin etc.
Thanks for the suggestions, Neil. 🙂
I’ve tried quite a few Queen novels, but the only one I could say I really liked was The Chinese Orange Mystery. The style of the books and the character of EQ metamorphoses over the series, so you might enjoy later EQ novels from around the 1940s onwards. Brad might be a good one to ask for recommendations.
Thanks, Kate. JJ and Aidan suggested Siamese Twin Mystery and Chinese Orange Mystery. Let me ask Brad for some more suggestions. 🙂