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  • The Roman Hat Mystery

  • By: Ellery Queen
  • Narrated by: Robert Fass
  • Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (168 ratings)
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The Roman Hat Mystery cover art

The Roman Hat Mystery

By: Ellery Queen
Narrated by: Robert Fass
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Summary

Despite the dismal Broadway season, Gunplay continues to draw crowds. A gangland spectacle, it's packed to the gills with action, explosions, and gunfire. In fact, Gunplay is so loud that no one notices the killing of Monte Field. In a sold-out theater, Field is found dead partway through the second act, surrounded by empty seats. The police hold the crowd and call for the one man who can untangle this daring murder: Inspector Richard Queen. With the help of his son Ellery, a bibliophile and novelist whose imagination can solve any crime, the Inspector attacks this seemingly impenetrable mystery. Anyone in the theater could have killed the unscrupulous lawyer, and several had the motive. Only Ellery Queen, in his debut novel, can decipher the clue of the dead man's missing top hat.

©2013 Ellery Queen (P)2013 AudioGO

What listeners say about The Roman Hat Mystery

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Horrific racism - content warning

Towards the end of the novel there is suddenly an upsetting and horrendous passage of racism. So awful 😞

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14 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Slow but Satisfying

This crime mystery will not keep you at the edge of your seat, but it does deliver in lots of little satisfying ways. If you are into crime novels, but don't want to be subjected to all the contemporary sexual violence and social realism, this audio book is good company, with one exception.

Spoiler: in the unfolding of the solution at the end of the book there is a section of racist remarks regarding "the negro race", which must have been of the time, but were absolutely abhorrent. The arrogant and misconceived racism is only expressed in this one small section and is not a theme throughout the book.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Very dated and rather dull

I grew up with the Ellery Queen TV show which I loved but this is a rather laboured tale about pretty unpleasant characters

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting insight into American society

How times have changed, or have they? Prejudices run deep. Clever piece of deductive detection.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Very disappointing

an appalling piece of racism is part of the denouement at the end of this book.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars

Didn't get through the first chapter...

...which is a shame as I've wanted to listen to this for quite a while.

Tha narrator's voice is just wrong for me. Nasal, and too sing-song, I found it impossible to actually follow the narrative. It became just a series of words that failed to combine in a logical sentence.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Jk
  • 09-08-21

Era warning but enjoyable

I remember by mother reading these when I was a child and thought I would try it.

Skip the preface aka chapter’1’ and start at the next chapter.

Some of the material is of its time -1929, and place -USA. Attitudes and customs have changed, but overall enjoyable although the detail of the denouement came from left field for me.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Of it’s time.

An easy listen if you’re ok with the golden age of crime. A slightly frustrating story for the modern listener as they tend to draw out lesser points and almost ignore the elephants in the the room clues until late in the day. Ideal for radio serialisation. Robert Fass does a great job across the many characters and the sometimes stodgy dialogue. His delivery throughout is with enthusiasm, zeal and zest. He kept me going to the end.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Great to get to sleep with

The orator has such a sleepy voice he’d be great doing bed time stories. I’d be off in 5 mins. There was no story in first hour so I gave up. Boring…..

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Queen mystery

I love the writing of Ellery Queen - always so evocative of the era in which the story is set. Solid characters and plot lines without resort to cliches. Yes there is one distasteful view expressed towards the end of the story which has to be viewed in the context of the limited scientific and cultural views of the time. What i consider to be sad is that there are still people in the world who would have no problem with the expressed view.
The narration was excellent with just some minor blips in the recording in chapter 13 and the last chapter.
I thoroughly enjoyed this tale whilst recovering from a bout of flu.

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1 person found this helpful