“Katal!” The black bird repeated the two syllables again and again. “Katal! Katal!” As Gulliver Queen seeks out the meaning of the strange word, he is drawn into the world of international diplomacy--and dangerous espionage! As he follows the trail of clues, Gully acquires two friends from India who aid him in the search for a missing embassy guard. Treachery and intrigue meet the young sleuths at every turn, and flying bullets lead to flying spies as Gully and his friends uncover a fantastic plot that threatens the very future of the United Nations!

Nine mysteries have Djuna as main character and can be called the Djuna-series. In the 60s a pause in the series occurred when James Holding was contracted to continue the series as  Ellery Queen, Jr. The first two of his EQ jr. book featured Gulliver Queen, described as the nephew of famous detective, in the leading role and were issued by Golden Press with their distinctive blue-diamond spine. But as it turns out, both of these mysteries were not in fact Holding's work. The son of Joseph Lawrence Greene (1914-1990) stated that his father, who also wrote the Dig Allen series (1959-1962) for Golden Press, was, in fact, the author of one of the Golden Press books (1961-1962).  We did find a copyright entry for The Mystery of the Merry Magician by Joseph Greene and one for The Mystery of the Vanishing Victim by Paul Newman.  (More on the authorship can be read here...)

Gully is assisted by two friends from India - Balbir Singh and Prema Jind.

Both French and German translations have no original titles indicated but after obtaining copies we were able to concluded the true "origins" of the two "Gully" translations.

Painted cover by Robert Magnusen.