Ellery Queen Books

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Ellery Queen was a famous author that wrote mysteries, thrillers, and children’s fiction. Ellery Queen captured the attention of the public because the name was a pseudonym.

It belonged to two cousins: Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee. Those were their professional names. Frederic’s real name was ‘Daniel Nathan.’ He was born in 1905 and died in 1982. Manfred’s real name was ‘Emmanuel Benjamin Lepofsky, born in 1905 and died in 1971.

Under the ‘Ellery Queen’ name, they wrote 30 novels and a multitude of short stories. Interestingly enough, their most popular creation was the detective ‘Ellery Queen.’

Ellery was America’s most prominent fictional detective in the 1930s and 40s, making several appearances in movies, tv shows, and radio dramas. Besides writing mystery novels, the authors edited more than two dozen crime fiction and true crime anthologies using their pen name.

Later on, they permitted other authors to write crime thrillers using their pseudonym. But these writers were prohibited from using the character of ‘Ellery Queen’ in their stories.

Eventually, they experimented with ‘Drury Lane,’ a new detective whose stories they wrote and published using a different pen name: Barnaby Ross. Drury Lane was not as popular as Ellery Queen, and they only wrote four novels about the detective.

People would often speculate about Ellery Queen’s approach to the writing process. The common assumption was that Dannay created the plots and clues. He would also outline the characters and their arcs.

Lee would provide the words that brought Dannay’s plots and characters together. No one can say for sure whether or not this was true. Regardless of their writing process, the authors garnered a strong reputation as the most important mystery fiction writers in American publishing, secondly only to Poe.

Ellery Queen, the detective, was introduced to readers in 1928 when the cousins created the character for a novel they entered in a McClure’s Magazine writing contest. Their entry won the competition, but the victory was meaningless because the magazine closed before their story was published.

A year later, they found another publisher. Readers were fascinated by the intricacy of ‘The Roman Hat Mystery,’ a book that dared them to solve the mystery alongside Ellery.

Once interest in the character grew, the cousins gave their pen name a fictitious background. He was supposedly narrating his adventures in the mystery novels that readers encountered.

The detective introduced himself as a snobbish, educated intellectual born to the daughter of a New York aristocrat. He was larger than life, a figure with whom readers could barely relate.

But over time, he became more human, betraying his emotions to the people he came across during his cases.

Ellery Queen Awards

Queen received Edgar Awards (Mystery Writers of America) in 1946, 1950, 1961, and 1969.

Ellery Queen Books Into Movies

Various mystery films were directly or loosely inspired by Ellery Queen’s work, including: ‘The Spanish Cape Mystery,’ ‘The Mandarin Mystery,’ ‘Ellery Queen, Master Detective,’ and, ‘Ellery Queen’s Penthouse Mystery,’

They also made ‘Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime,’ ‘Ellery Queen and the Murder Ring,’ ‘A Close Call for Ellery Queen,’ ‘A Desperate Chance for Ellery Queen,’ ‘Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen,’ and ‘Ten Days’ Wonder,’ to mention but a few.

Best Ellery Queen Books

Ellery Queen, the author, died when Manfred Lee died. Though, Dannay lived for 11 years following Lee’s death. Ellery Queen’s best books include:

The Roman Hat Mystery: A crooked lawyer is dead. Someone used lead alcohol to poison him at the end of the second act of a play at the Roman Theater. The only significant clue is his fine silk top hat, which is missing.

Richard Queen and his son Ellery have been summoned to investigate. The detectives are fixated on the hat because none of the people leaving the theater had two hats.

They don’t know why anyone would take the hat or how it fits into the murder, but they have every intention of finding out.

The Greek Coffin Mystery: George Khalkis was gone. The famous art dealer died of a heart attack. But that isn’t the reason that compelled his lawyer to contact the district attorney. Inspector Queen and his son were called upon to investigate because the older man’s will was missing.

After searching every nook and cranny, Ellery wondered whether anyone had bothered to check the coffin. When they exhumed Khalkis, the detectives were shocked to find two bodies.

When Does The Next Ellery Queen book come out?

Ellery Queen doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is The Adventures of the Puzzle Club and was released on October, 31st 2022. It is the newest book in the Ellery Queen Short Story Collections.

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