Ellery Queen's Mystery
Magazine published a majestic pastiche in their May, 2007, issue,
entitled "The Book Case," written by two long-time Ellery
Queen fans, Dale
C. Andrews and the creator of "A
Website on Deduction," Kurt Sercu – anthologized a decade
later in The
Midadventures of Ellery Queen (2018). Generally, my purist
streak makes it nigh impossible to enjoy pastiches, but "The Book
Case" and its sequel can be counted among the exceptions.
Dale C. Andrew's "The
Mad Hatter's Riddle" has, as far as I can tell, only appeared in
the September/October, 2009, issue of EQMM and the story
stands with one foot each in a world of the EQ multiverse.
"The Mad Hatter's
Riddle" takes place in 1975, a transitional year, in which the
twentieth century took "a quick breath as it prepared for the
final twenty-five-year dash to the millennium." A now
seventy-year-old Ellery Queen had given up on writing detective
stories and now only edits the magazine, but Universal Studios has
hired him as a consultant on the shooting of a very special episode
of NBC's Ellery Queen – based on one of his most popular
short stories, "The Mad Tea Party" (collected in The
Adventures of Ellery Queen, 1933). The studio wants to use
the episode as vehicle to reunite two "fabled stars of
yesteryear," Ty Royle and Bonnie Stuart, who are tagged to play
Spencer and Laura Lockridge in the episode.
Bonnie and Ty have been
out of the public-eye for nearly three decades, redrawing inside a "comfortable cocoon," where they lived a quiet,
hermit-like existence. So the episode marks the first time in
twenty-five years that "the once-married duo" appeared
together. Something that was easier said than done. The studio had to
hire another, one-time consultant, Jacques Butcher, who previously
appeared in the Hollywood-period EQ novels The
Devil to Pay (1938) and The
Four of Hearts (1938).
The episode has to be
ready to air in six weeks. So, naturally, the whole shoot threatens
to come crashing down when Bonnie and Ty announce they are going to
be married (again). Something that'll end the quiet, comfortable
existence of the people around them.
A second problem comes in
the form of a typewritten, acrostic poem reminiscent of an untitled
poem by Lewis Carroll that revealed "the name of the real
Alice," but this poem only revealed a cryptic message, "trip
required no chances" – a prescient "warning in verse." On the day of their announcement, Bonnie and Ty are murdered at the
place they were staying for the duration of the shoot (echoing the
double death from The Four of Hearts). This is the point where
the story, quality-wise, splits in two parts.
The solution to the
murders is routine with a decent, but simple, dying message and an
alibi-trick that, while a delight to long-time EQ fans, is a trifle
unconvincing. I don't believe the huge discrepancy in time would have
gone unnoticed. On the other hand, the answer to the titular riddle
was excellently handled and the identity of the writer was a pleasant
surprise. You've no idea how clever the title of the story is until
you have read it. Even if it has a touch of sadness about it.
So, purely as a whodunit, "The Mad Hatter's Riddle" is a disappointingly weak story, but
the presence of the acrostic poem elevates it as an excellent code
cracker and the respectful treatment of the original characters
makes it a first-class pastiche. A better Hollywood-set EQ story than
the original and comes highly recommended to other EQ fans.
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