The Greek Coffin Mystery

The Ellery Queen Mysteries

By: Ellery Queen

Narrated by: Mark Peckham

In one of his earliest cases, Ellery Queen confronts a murder in blue blood. From the very beginning, the Khalkis case struck a somber note. It began, as was peculiarly harmonious in the light of what was to come, with the death of an old man. Georg Khalkis, internationally famous art dealer and collector, died of heart failure. After his funeral, his attorney found that the will was missing and immediately called in the district attorney.

When Inspector Queen and his son, Ellery, are brought in to solve the mystery, Ellery mentions the one place they have not searched for the will: the coffin. Upon exhumation of the Khalkis coffin, they find that it contains not one body - but two!

©2013 Ellery Queen (P)2013 AudioGO

Ellery Queen

interesting considering the time it was written and tries to be intellectual by being too wordy.

Anothet fun early Ellery Queen novel

I went through this story quickly. Set during Prohibition, it is chronologically a younger Ellery than we have seen to date. There actually is a Greek and a coffin this time. As usualy, a very large cast to keep track of which is hard on audio. The narrator was fine. Several false solutions, and the final one was not one I guessed.

Dated

I finished the book and am glad this was included with my membership (meaning I didn't have to pay extra for it). I vaguely remember Ellery Queen from TV, so it was a no brainer to read the source material. The TV series only lasted for one season -- that should have been a clue. The book is dated as the speech patterns are no longer used. It does go thru a lot of twists and turns, takes way too long to get to the resolution, and has no character development. I can't call this a classic, just a bore.

Long winded and boring.

A good idea poorly executed. Should have been edited into a short story. The performance wasn't bad but a relatively soft raspy voice doesn't work for me.

VINTAGE MYSTERY

This is an enjoyable listen if you take it on knowing that the prejudices of an earlier time are embedded in it and that the author was likely paid by the word. Listening to the audible version at 1.25 or 1.30 will make it more enjoyable. It's a good plot, if over-involved.