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Ellery Queen (Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee)

Classic Detection

Ellery Queen was the pen-name of two cousins, Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay (both also pseudonyms), as well as the pen-name used by the detective himself in his alter-ego as a mystery writer (and that is pseudonymous too, according to J.J.McC., the original 'presenter'). Confusing? Yes. EQ, especially Dannay, was also editor of the best of the detective story magazines (Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine).

The first ten or so books, dating from the early 1930s (but actually the first few are set in the late 1920s), could be called the 'country series' (Dutch Shoe, Chinese Orange, etc.), and are sub-titled 'A Problem in Deduction'; they are in the ratiocinative vein, set in Manhattan, and follow the pattern of the Philo Vance novels, even to the extent of modelling the character of Ellery Queen on that personage. A framework, à la Van Dine, is provided by an editor called 'J.J.McC'. EQ's involvement in murder cases is based on his father's position as an Inspector of the New York Police. The fact that EQ orders them around like boot-camp trainees, that they have no sense of investigation beyond the rubber-hose treatment, adds an antique charm to the books, but not verisimilitude. Most characteristic is the painstaking presentation of clues, and often a 'Challenge to the Reader' towards the end ("You have all the facts now to come up with the only logical solution"); he abandoned the latter after about 10 books, perhaps because 'logic' does not really exclude alternatives in real life. Ellery's logical summing-ups are meticulous and usually flawless (often beyond belief, however).

Ellery evolved with the times and became less foppish, more introspective, over the years. Several late 1930s early-1940s books were set in Hollywood, when EQ moved away from the NYC family environment; later on, he became involved with doings in a small-time American country town in New England called Wrightsville. In the end, he was back to New York. Several attempts were made to 'juice up' the stories to appeal to contemporary tastes, and because of movie tie-ins and radio (later TV) presentations. Most of the mysteries are cleverly and carefully plotted, with only an occasional blooper, loose end, or giveaway; the writing, however, was hardly more than pedestrian and often descended into bathos when trying to present an emotional atmosphere. In the 1950s the author commissioned several different writers, including Theodore Sturgeon and Avram Davidson, even Jack Vance, to ghost write spin-off series and even some of the EQ mysteries. Since some of these were science-fiction/fantasy authors, there is usually a weird fantasy element in the story.

Best Examples: Very hard to call, since EQ's career spanned so many years, with at least one book a year. Recommended here are The Greek Coffin Mystery, The Egyptian Cross Mystery, Cat of Many Tails, and the short-story collections Adventures and New Adventures of Ellery Queen.

I acknowledge here my gratitude to the best web site on this subject Ellery Queen: A Website on Deduction, where I got enough bibliographical information to puff up the list beyond what's in my library. (My rating system is zero to three stars, but with no stars not meaning the book is not worth reading.)

The Books of Ellery Queen

There were also a bunch of books published in the 1950s under the byline Ellery Queen (most were ghost-written) but not starring Ellery himself. Perhaps these are meant to represent Ellery's productions as a detective-story writer himself? In any case, I haven't read them and don't intend to. There were also ghost-written series (with Lee behind it) involving the one-eyed NYC cop Tim Corrigan and troubleshooter Mike McCall. And an Ellery Queen Jr. series written for older children, starring Djuna. Whether any of these are any good, I can't say. Visit the EQ Web Site. PS: They say he was born in 1905, so I guess we will see no more EQ mysteries apart from pastiches.

Additional EQ Detective: Drury Lane (under the author name Barnaby Ross). There are only four books in this series, all written before 1933. The titles are Tragedy of X, Tragedy of Y, Tragedy of Z, and Drury Lane's Last Case. The detective is a top-notch retired Shakespearean actor, who had to quit the stage because of deafness, and has used his riches to build a huge feudal estate, complete with Elizabethan village, on the Hudson River near Tarreytown -- populated with superannuated and destitute old actors and stage people, with names like Dromio, Quacey ('Caliban'), and 'Falstaff'. For some reason, he is also an amateur detective of the classic Golden Age type, a real dilettante. Interesting concept, and well done for its period. Expect very logical detection (and far-out clues) with absolutely no realism in spite of the trappings. The first book is excellent, the last very entertaining, the two in the middle interesting but not really first rate. If one wants to sample the EQ style without facing a whole bookshelf, try these books. As with all early EQ books, the official police are a combination of Keystone Kop and Gestapo, but that was standard in this type of book.

For more on Drury Lane, click here.

EQ as an Anthologist and Editor: Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is the oldest detective story magazine of this sort still published (after the demise of "Black Mask" and the like). It was started in 1941 under the editorship of Frederic Dannay and has survived most of its rivals. It remains the best outlet for detective short stories in the world. Dannay (for the most part without much collaboration from his partner Lee) was also one of the best historians of the genre, having produced seminal collections such as 101 Years' Entertainment (also 1941) and several others, including specialty collections based on a theme. This is being mentioned because it is an important source of stories and information for all detective-story aficionados.

This new web page will be in the works for quite a long time, so for a summary of EQ please visit the Series Detective area.


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Page created September 2004