Do you remember this nursery rhyme?
Rich Man, Poor Man,
Beggar Man, Thief,
What comes next? Does it matter? It does. Somebody is killing off people according to this rhyme. First the 'town miser' died. Nobody knew he was a rich man. Then the rich man committed suicide. Only he wasn't rich. He was bankrupt and only way out was suicide. When the 'town drunkard' disappeared, it wasn't difficult for Ellery Queen to guess that he was also the 'beggar man' and somebody was killing people probably with no reason but in accordance to a rhyme. Next, the thief was killed before the eyes of Ellery Queen. Will he find out who comes next? And stop the killings? Everything is not as it seems. Everything is Double, Double. There are various versions of the rhyme, which one is the serial killer following?
Did I guess the killer? I did, but then I didn't! Everything is Double, Double. Here is my full review.
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5 comments:
Valli - That's one of the things I've always liked about the Ellery Queen stories. They often include really interesting puzzles like this one. It's an intriguing challenge to the reader.
What a great book and author to feature. A reminder to me to start reading some Ellery Queen books. This is another author I read when I was younger but need to catch up on again. I read the full review; it was very good. I have been watching episodes of the TV show and I enjoy the summing up there too.
Oh, I love books based on rhymes and poems. Agatha Christie did that also with her Hickory Dickery Death and others. I've only read a few Ellery Quote stories and this was not one of them. I wonder if it's available on Amazon for Kindle.
Margot- I love the puzzles and riddles Ellery Queen create!
Tracy- i love the summing up where the motives, oppurtunity, true nature of the characters are revealed. I haven't seen the Tv episodes, I will look for it.
Clarissa- I love Agatha Christie's rhyme mysteries too! If your interested the ebook can borrowed from the openlibrary.org
Mystery writers are always a special kind of people. Making it hard to guess the who and what is not the goal for most; it is the "I should have seen that coming" moment that is worth all of the hard work.
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