Calamity Town

by Ellery Queen
Category: "Fiction - Mystery"
Pages:286
Year of Publication:1942
Date Added:02/24/2021
Date Read:10/07/2021
Notes:Armed Services Edition

Ellery Queen, mystery writer and detective, travels to the town of Wrightville and takes lodging with the Wright family. his purpose is to gather color for his next novel. He befriends the Wright's youngest daughter Pat, but his interest is in middle daughter, Nora. She recently married Jim Haight, but Ellery and Pat think Jim is trying to poison Nora. Then Jim's sister arrives in town, makes a big splash and then dies of poison from a drink given to her by Nora. Nora also gets sick, so everyone things Jim tried to poison Nora and the sister died accidentally. Jim is tried for murder and convicted. He then escapes and dies. Nora dies in childbirth. Ellery figures out that the "sister" was really Jim's first wife, whom he thought was dead. Nora figures this out and poisoned the woman. Jim knew this, but didn't want Nora convicted so he said nothing.
My Rating: 6

Reviews for Calamity Town

Review - Calamity Town

I didn't figure out all the details early on, but I did figure out that Jim was already married and that his "sister" was really his wife. There was some small-town color and some character development, but mostly the story was just a string of clues. There were a few plot devices that were just ridiculous.

Reviewed by Roger on 2021-10-07 21:46:38

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