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Time — As in all Gardner mysteries, now.
Place — A fashionable West Coast resort.
Some of the dramatic and colorful characters involved—
TED SHALE: all he wants is to sell wealthy Addison Stearne some hotel supplies — and he pancakes right into what looks like a double murder on a yacht.
NITA MOLINE: glamorous and seductive blonde. What is she to Stearne? and what is she doing aboard the yacht?
JOAN HARPLER: her Albatross is anchored near the palatial Gypsy Queen. She seems to spend a lot of her time aboard — when she isn’t swimming.
PEARL RIGHT: she is worried. Has her jealousy driven her husband to murder?
WARREN HILBERS: Pearl’s brother. His chief concern is his sister’s well-being and no effort seems too great to save her from her conscience.
ELWELL AND FIELDING: they don’t want Stearne to take up the option on their oil well.
FRANK DURYEA: young D.A. He finds himself sharing the investigation with the whole family—
...including...
hell-raising, foxy old Grandpa Wiggins who comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion.
Before he created Perry Mason, Erle Stanley Gardner (1889–1970) was one of the most popular writers for the mystery and adventure pulp magazines, with their sensational covers, two-fisted heroes, and non-stop action.
Among his toughest characters was Sidney Zoom, wealthy yacht-owner who prowls at night to help the downtrodden in the days of the Great Depression. “The weak and the helpless found in him a haven of refuge, a gigantic wall of strength. The oppressor found in him a grim enemy, tireless uncompromising, letting no man-made law stand between him and his prey.” “His soul craved combat,” Gardner writes, “as the soul of many men craves strong drink.”
The Casebook of Sidney Zoom is the first book-collection of the Zoom stories, and they show Gardner’s pulp style at it hard-hitting best.
It began with an advertisement in the paper requesting descendants of the late innkeeper to stay for a weekend at the inn. They arrived eager, a mixed assortment, but one of them got hideously murdered bringing the inn's stormy past to focus. Maud Silver was sent to investigate.
After seven consecutive best-sellers — Ellery Queen poses an eight problem more bizarre than “The Egyptian Cross Mystery”, more ingenious than “The Siamese Twin Mystery”; more amazing than any crime ever conceived in fiction. We do not hesitate to predict that THE CHINESE ORANGE MYSTERY will be hauled by Mr. Queen’s thousand of ardent fans as the most original of his analytico-deductive novels.
What Inspector Richard Queen wanted to know was the identity of the murdered man. How could he be expected to solve a murder mystery without knowing who was murdered? The body of the slain man was found on the 22nd floor of the Hotel Chancellor in a private room; no one even remotely connected with the investigation had ever seen the man before. His name, where he came from, why he was there — remain a baffling mystery to the end. Yet all who found themselves enmeshed in the web of the tragedy — Donald Kirk, millionaire publisher and collector; his invalid father; his younger sister; the young novelist from China; the adventurers from abroad — found their lives warped and changed by the death of this nameless nobody from nowhere!
But what perplexed Ellery Queen even more was the incredible appearance of the scene of the crime. Everything had been turned backwards! The victim’s clothing had been turned backwards, the rug upside down, the pictures facing the wall — everything movable in the room had been turned backwards. And what was the explanation of those grotesque ramrods stack up the victim’s back?
The fishing season was on — Sheriff Bill Eldon was making his regular swing through the mountains — then death struck suddenly.