The Roman Hat Mystery

The Roman Hat Mystery is a detective novel by Ellery Queen, first published in 1929. It is the first novel in the long-running series featuring amateur detective Ellery Queen and his father, Inspector Richard Queen.

During a packed performance of Gunplay! at New York's Roman Theatre, the disreputable lawyer Monte Field is found poisoned in his seat. Strangely, several seats surrounding the dead man are empty, and no one in the crowded theater seems to have noticed how the murder was committed.

Inspector Queen and his son Ellery begin questioning the audience and theater staff, uncovering numerous people who had reasons to fear Field, a man involved in blackmail and other questionable activities. Among the clues, one detail becomes particularly important: the victim's top hat has disappeared, and the investigators suspect that it may have contained documents connected to the crime.

With a theater full of suspects and apparently contradictory evidence, Ellery must rely on careful observation and logical deduction to reconstruct what happened and reveal the murderer. The novel establishes the puzzle-driven style that would become characteristic of the Ellery Queen mysteries.

"The dramatic season of 192– began in a disconcerting manner. Eugene O'Neill had neglected to write a new play in time to secure the financial encouragement of the intelligentzia; and as for the "low-brows," having attended play after play without enthusiasm, they had deserted the legitimate theatre for the more ingenuous delights of the motion picture palaces."