The famous sleuth comes out of retirement to help his father hunt down a New York City serial killer: “Marvelous . . . one of his best” (Classic Mysteries). In the dog days of August, it is no surprise to see New Yorkers perspire. But this summer, a killer called the Cat gives the city a new reason to sweat. He selects his victims seemingly at random and strangles them, then escapes without … escapes without leaving a clue. As the death toll climbs, and the press whips the public into horrified frenzy, Gotham teeters on the edge of anarchy. Ellery Queen, the brilliant amateur sleuth, has gone into retirement when the Cat begins to kill. As his father, a seasoned homicide detective, leads the investigation into the murder, Ellery tries to avoid getting involved. But as the body count rises, he can no longer resist the urge to hunt. The Queens are known for their curiosity–and everyone knows how curiosity can affect a cat.
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I loved the Ellery Queen books forty or fifty years ago and collected all the titles, but unfortunately they haven’t stood up too well to the passage of time. In “Cat of Many Tails”, the racism and sexism that were widely unquestioned in the late 40s and 50s are grating enough to take me briefly out of the story, which is annoying. As a person with a master’s in psychology, I found the psychiatric/psychoanalytic jargon and concepts dated and awkward, too.
On the other hand, I still love Ellery and Inspector Queen; their relationship and Ellery’s vulnerability to his own sense of failure are a refreshing change from their contemporaries’ hardboiled arrogance. In sum: attractive main characters, a clever plot, but irritating depictions of minorities and women.
This is Ellery Queen at his best. His descriptions are wonderful and sometimes are a challenge to my vocabulary, especially when he describes psychiatric matters. A great finish — I didn’t guess until just before the end.
I enjoyed the book, but many may not understand some of the more erudite language used. Some of the psychological material seemed too long-winded and also hard to understand. However, the mystery was original and the characters were well drawn and some quite funny. Altogether a good read.