Calamity Town

By Ellery Queen

Looking for trouble, Ellery Queen descends on a small town.

At the tail end of the long summer of 1940, there is nowhere in the country more charming than Wrightsville. The Depression has abated, and for the first time in years the city is booming. There is hope in Wrightsville, but Ellery Queen has come looking for death.

The mystery author is hoping for fodder for a novel, and he senses the corruption that lurks beneath the apple pie façade. He rents a house owned by the town's first family, whose three daughters star in most of the local gossip. One is fragile, left at the altar three years ago and never recovered. Another is engaged to the city's rising political star, an upright man who's already boring her. And then there's Lola, the divorced, bohemian black sheep. Together, they make a volatile combination. Once he sees the ugliness in Wrightsville, Queen sits back -- waiting for the crime to come to him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Head of Zeus
• Release date: Jun 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781784088125

Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty-two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age “fair play” mystery. Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen’s first appearance came in 1928, when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who uses his spare time to assist his police inspector uncle in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee’s death.

Reviews for Calamity Town

[sleahey_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The town of Wrightsville is a main character in this crime novel. When there is a murder with an obvious suspect, the community makes up its mind about one person's guilt, turns its back on old friends and relatives, and violence against outsiders becomes accepted. Ellery Queen is sure someone else is guilty, but finding out who, and then proving it, provide the suspense in this carefully plotted mystery.

[rosalita_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My mom had the Wrightsville Murders omnibus on our bookshelves when I was growing up. It was a big heavy hardback containing three full-length Ellery Queen novels — Calamity Town, Crazy Like a Fox, and Ten Days' Wonder — that I devoured starting in about sixth grade (40-some years ago). And I knew I had re-read it more than once, but I don't think I fully grasped how often I must have read and re-read it until I started this latest read of the first book in the omnibus, Calamity Town. On every page — nearly in every paragraph — there was a phrase or sentence or scrap of dialogue that triggered the strongest sense of dejà vu. It wasn't so much that I remember the outlines of the story or whodunit (I actually didn't) but that I remember actual words and phrases! I've never had that happen before and it was a pleasingly disconcerting sensation.Fortunately the vertigo wore off after Part I (which makes me wonder if I read and re-read just the first section over and over? I wish I could go back in time to find out, but then again that would mean living through junior high and high school again and no thank you) and I could just enjoy the book for what it is, which is a splendidly plotted mystery full of appealing characters put into realistic situations and left to find their way out.A brief plot overview: It's 1940, and famous writer Ellery Queen has traveled to Wrightsville, a small town in upstate New York, in search of "color" for his next mystery novel. While there, he is befriended by the Wright family, descendants of the town's founder. That leaves him in the perfect place to observe as one misadventure after another befalls the family, culminating in the requisite murder.Perhaps because they take Ellery out of his usual New York City locale, the Wrightsville novels have always had an extra appeal for me. Whereas the "regular" Queen mysteries set in NYC seem to rely on intricately formed plots with clues and red herrings scattered about, in Wrightsville the characters come to life fully formed and breathing. Incredibly for a novel written in the 1940s, there is virtually no offensive racial stereotyping or cheap laughs gained at the expense of the "hicks" that populate Wrightsville. Ellery does not condescend to his hosts, not even the Town Soak who is prone to declaiming Shakespeare from his drunken perch at the base of the founder's statue in the town square. It feels so much like a real town that I am half convinced I've been there before.I guess the best thing I can say about this novel is that now I remember why I read and re-read it over and over all those years ago. It's a magnificent piece of scene-setting and characterization, with a mystery that more than lives up to its surrounding structure. I have a feeling I won't wait another 30 years before reading this one again ...

[jeffreymarks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An incredible accomplishment and one of my top 5 Ellery Queen titles. The book appears on the surface to be a small town murder case, but beneath the ease of the plot are themes that still speak today. A definite recommendation.

[markatread · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The first of the Wrightsville novels. All the previous Ellery Queen novels had occurred in New York City and had his dad, the metropolitan police department, and very complex mysteries at the heart of the story. This time Ellery moves to a small town where the murder that occurrs is done by poisoning. There is much less complexity and more character development in Calamity Town. In fact the primary focus as far as the mystery is concerned is - how could someone have actually done the poisoning. There are plenty of clues and characters, but the murder is actually announced and then we watch as it happens. It is then up to Ellery to figure out how the poisoning could have happened and, of course, who did it..IF you have read very many mysteries, you will likely see the two plot points that are important to solving the mystery. But even in recognizing them both, I still enjoyed the book and especially enjoyed seeing a very different side to Ellery Queen in this book. He actually has a girlfriend and there is more humor from him.