The Greek Coffin Mystery

I consider myself a fan of classic detective fiction, but after reading this novel and the Roman Hat Mystery I don't think Ellery Queen is for me.

For one thing, The Greek Coffin Mystery was about 100 pages too long, maybe more. For another, it was needlessly convoluted. The logic didn't really track, no matter how hard the author tried, and it wasn't as clever as it made itself out to be. The only clues you need to solve the mystery come three-fourths of the way through the book, so you're left wondering why the first three hundred pages were necessary in the first place.

Then there were too many indistinguishable characters, and half of them are police officers or working for the police. Without much character development, it was hard to know who was who or to care about who committed the murder in the first place or why.

Somehow it still eked three stars out of me because I like mysteries in this genre. I'm probably going to give up on the author though.