Queen, Ellery - The French Powder Mystery

The French Powder Mystery (1930), like its successor, contains a strong initial investigation. Here however, that investigation takes up 25 chapters, or the first two thirds of the book. This investigation shows EQ's astonishing skills at constructing a detective story plot. The crime and the events surrounding it develop into ever more complex and logical patterns; Ellery moves through several stages of deduction, each leading to a deeper understanding of the crime itself. The story has considerable beauty; the inquiry about the keys, or the timetables involved show EQ's ability to create fascinating patterns of plot. This book is paradigmatic of later EQ investigations, and shows why he is so much loved as an author.

EQ likes boundaries involving space, time and knowledge. He is fascinated with rooms that have not been entered, lines that have not been crossed, apartments that have been guarded and watched. He is also concerned with who knew things and didn't know things, which in turn often depends on who has participated in events and who hasn't. These become boundary markers in the complex logical geometry of his plots.

The limitations of the novel, and its reason for still classifying it as a journeyman work, deal with the solution. Later EQ novels will often have the most startling surprises in their solutions; this book runs out of steam two thirds of the way through, and its solution adds only a single new clue, together with the identity of the murderer. These are logical and fair, but not the deeply creative finales of the great EQ books. EQ, as is his wont, has given partial solutions to the crime at several stages in the body of the book, so the reader gets a full mead of deduction and revelation in the novel. But there is almost nothing left over for the finale.

The furniture in The French Powder Mystery is probably Art Deco, although it is never called by that name in the novel. EQ calls it "modernist", and gives a vivid and accurate description of how it was viewed by its contemporaries, both artistically and sociologically. Considering the tremendous enthusiasm today for preserving America's great Art Deco heritage, with Deco societies springing up in every city, this book should be better known. EQ was deeply interested in the world around him. His books form a record of an important era in American life.

Mike Grost