A novella that manages to be both over and under written. There isn’t a single well fleshed out character in the book (including Queen) and the authors seem to attempt to hide the paucity of hole-ridden plot with prose so purple it seems apoplectic. The fact that final “brilliant and mind blowing” solution was obvious from the outset made it a tedious read at best. ( )

The novel recommended in The Ultimate Reading List I've been working through was The Roman Hat Mystery, the first Ellery Queen mystery. However, the Queen novels appear to be out of print. The story "The Lamp of God" is included in a mystery anthology once owned by my mother, A Treasury of Great Mysteries and the novella first appeared in 1940 in The New Adventures of Ellery Queen.

It's written along Doyle/Christie traditional mystery lines--no sex, no obscenities, no violence--presenting a puzzle of a seemingly disappearing house. I guessed the solution to that part immediately. Another aspect of the mystery that I didn't guess seemed to me far fetched and cliched. So I don't know if I'm missing anything because the Queen books are out of print. This was entertaining but nothing about the writing or characters struck me as impressive. ( )