There are only four books in this series, all written before 1933. This was still Depression-era and the authors wanted to publish as many books as they could and not overtax their publishers (and the reading public) with too many Ellery Queens, and they also wanted to introduce a new detective hero so as not to glut their Ellery readership. Later on (very soon), when EQ had became popular, they soon admitted authorship. 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 of interesting quality 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.
"Tragedy of Y" Couldn't finish this (but couldn't resist skipping to the end and confirming my guess as to the identity of the murderer). This is basically a poor pastiche of Van Dine's "Greene Murder Case". Very complex but silly plot, and any standard police investigation would have solved it in a short time and not involved further victims. Also, the characters are excessively dysfunctional and depressing -- so who cares?
"Tragedy of Z" It has some really interesting upstate NY backgrounds, and some informative information about the prison system of the time (including a really harrowing execution by electric chair, an important clue, by the way), and good stuff about crooked and hack politicians. It's also interesting that the first-person narrator is a woman (the Britney Spears of GAD detection) -- not something EQ was into as a technique. What is wrong, then, that makes this only a 'second-rank' Ellery Queen? First of all, there is the interminable rigmarole of the 'left-handed/left-footed ' evidence. Like OJ and DNA samples. No wonder the jury didn't buy it! (But why they found that pathetic creature, the framee, guilty, twice, in this book says little for their intelligence or perception.) Second, ex-Inspector Thumm and his daughter (and Drury Lane) stay upstate for months, doing nothing. Thumm has a busy detective agency to run, so how can he do this? Still, a fine mystery, with a really good surprise at the end, best of which is the villain's motivation -- real whack on the head to the reader. Lane's logical elimination of suspects at the climax is nearly classic, if it weren't so Talmudic (by that I mean the sort of logic that drops out all sorts of other arguments that would involve non-axiomatic premises).
"Drury Lane's Last Case" Definitively the last in the series. You can guess what happens to DL, but WHY is an ingenious surprise worthy of Christie. (Am I spoiling it?) The initial setting in a small specialty museum reminds me of Carr's "Arabian Nights Murders" in some ways, with a really dotty opening gambit and a nice lead-up. Middle part of the book bogs down with a lot of inexplicable and contradictory appearances of some major characters -- not hard for the reader to guess the explanation. Also, the author loses sight for long periods of the whole purpose of the initial investigation: What happened to the security guard? (That, really, is Thumm's mission, whether he is being paid or not as PI.) The sub-plot, involving an unknown letter by Shakespeare, makes for a nice 'McGuffin'. It also provides a really crazy motive for the villain (actually, totally unconvincing and, well, nuts). The main clue, however, is absurdly easy to figure out, and in fact is given away on the cover of the book (IPL edition). There is also some very dubious medical evidence that is made a great deal of -- if I'm not giving away too much, wouldn't identical twins share the same genetic defect?
Note to fans: IPL reprinted all the Drury Lane mysteries in the mid-1980s so you might still be able to find them without too much trouble.
As a footnote, let me say that in some ways the Barnaby Ross series fits an ideal for detective-story writers: not just a one-off detective (because if the characters are well done, the readers want more with them in it), nor a twenty-plus series (in which case the books become repetitive and boring, forcing the author to introduce developing and on-going soap-operatic elements into the characters' lives to maintain interest). To my mind four or five novels (or the equivalent amount of short story pages) should be the limit, in most cases, for any particular detective character, no matter how good he/she is. Some who come to mind are Hammett's Sam Spade (not enough of him), Christie's Hercule Poirot (far too many), and Carr's Bencolin filling up the middle ground ideally. It also makes it easier for publishers to put out 'complete' omnibus books that include reprints of all the single novels or stories, which I happen to like a lot.
