Ten Days' Wonder
| Author | Ellery Queen |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Ellery Queen mysteries |
| Genre | Mystery novel / Whodunnit |
| Publisher | Little (1st edition, USA, 1948); Gollancz (1st edition, UK, 1948) |
Publication date | 1948 (1st edition) |
| Publication place | United States |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Preceded by | The Murderer is a Fox |
| Followed by | Cat of Many Tails |
Ten Days' Wonder is a novel that was published in 1948 by Ellery Queen. It is a mystery novel primarily set in the imaginary town of Wrightsville, USA.
Plot summary
Howard Van Horn, son of millionaire Diedrich Van Horn, comes to Ellery Queen with the request that Ellery investigate what Howard has been doing during a recent bout with amnesia. The trail leads to the small New England town of Wrightsville and what seems to be a love triangle with Howard's step-mother, the beautiful young Sally, from the "wrong side of the tracks" in class-conscious Wrightsville. A series of small and unusual crimes over the next nine days seem to be committed by Howard during amnesiac blackouts, and Ellery Queen suddenly realizes the bizarre pattern that underpins the series of crimes. But it is only after the murder of one Van Horn and the suicide of another that Ellery Queen can reveal the true pattern underlying events and bring a crime home to the criminal.
Literary significance & criticism
(See Ellery Queen.) After many popular mystery novels, a radio program and a number of movies, the character of Ellery Queen was at this point firmly established. This novel is the third to take place against the setting of the imaginary New England town of Wrightsville (following Calamity Town and The Murderer is a Fox) and, as is common in the Wrightsville novels, depends more on characterization, atmosphere and the observed minutiae of small-town American life than many other Queen novels; this novel less so, because of the necessity to make characters and events fit into the underlying format.
The book was made into a 1971 film called La décade prodigieuse (English-language title Ten Days' Wonder) directed by Claude Chabrol and starring Orson Welles and Anthony Perkins as Van Horn father and son, and Marlène Jobert as the stepmother, but not containing any character resembling Ellery Queen.
External links
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