EDITORIAL
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Q.B.I.: Covers
added since April 2022:
13 better and 65 new covers.
The latter corresponding with
the red numbers in
this
list.
Latest additions made on June 19. 2022:![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Past additions to the site: April 2021 - April 2022: 284 better and 324 new covers April 2020 - April 2021: 132 better and 33 new covers ... |
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June 26. 2022 - April 18. 1999 | |
Throughout the years fans of the Ellery Queen novels and
short stories have had a recurring mystery to ponder: What, exactly, did
Ellery Queen look like? Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee
provided only the skimpiest of clues. In the early novels we knew that
Ellery wore pince nez glasses, and he has always been described as tall and
slender with silver grey eyes. But that was about it. For many fans of the
1975 NBC series Ellery may always be Jim Hutton, but way back, at the very
beginning, there was a time when Ellery Queen -- the
author(s) -- were also imagined as Ellery Queen, the
detective.
Click here to read more... |
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May 6. 2022 | |
A house party turns a millionaire’s hacienda hideaway into a crime scene in
this classic whodunnit from an Edgar Award–winning Grand Master.
The Godfrey family is vacationing among the picturesque rocky cliffs of the
North Atlantic seaboard, expecting peace, quiet, and, perhaps, a bit of golf
or tennis. But one dusky evening in an isolated spot on the grounds of
Spanish Cape, Rosa and her uncle David get into an argument about her
secretive romance with one of their guests, the roguish John Marco, a
handsome cad with a yellow roadster and no visible source of income. That’s
when a towering one-eyed man with a .38 revolver emerges from the twilight.
Read more on the book here... |
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![]() Margaret was relatively open about her lesbian sexuality within the Hollywood community. Although she was romantically linked to several male stars her close companion was actress Mary McCarty. Actresses who had romantic involvements with both men and women were advised to continue to pursue relationships with men due to the old adage "You just haven't met the right man." This was a common angle in therapy back in the 1940s and 50s' (also used with gay male actors). Essentially the theory was that a lesbian could purge herself of same-sex desire by having sex with men (and vice versa for gay males). Needless to say, it did not go well for most. Margaret Lindsay thought it quackery and lived her live accordingly. It's even suggested that, despite her exceptional beauty, Margaret Lindsay could not get parts in big-time movies because she refused "to play the game". If ever an actress' career deserved its own website...this is the one! |
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To read all about Margaret Lindsay click here ... | |
![]() Marion never had children of her own but ended up raising three kids. |
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To read all about Marion Shockley click here ... | |
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April 14. 2022
To read all
about Richard Hart click
here ... |
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March 28. 2022
Every once in a while we
subject this website to a little
maintenance. This was the case
over the past two months. |
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TIP:
Interested readers should know that the
icons/covers of books, used throughout
the website have extra descriptions/information
not included in the text on the same page.
Pointing your cursor at the icon/cover used to
reveal this extra information. To achieve the
same effect
Firefox users can install
an add-on called 'Popup
ALT Attribute'. When installed pointing your cursor at an icon/cover results in showing you the details or additional information. |
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March 6. 2022
"When a circus rodeo actor is shot dead in the midst of his performance, it seems obvious that someone would have seen the perpetrator - or at least recovered the gun. When the investigation fails to turn up any evidence, the net of suspicion widens across the troupe of performers and the circus staff. Unluckily for the murderer, Ellery Queen is among the thousands that witnessed the crime, and he won't be satisfied until he discovers the truth. By the time he uncovers the necessary clues, Queen will expose both the killer and the hiding place of the weapon - the titular American Gun that fired the fatal bullet." Buy it here. Click on the cover to read more on that book... |
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February 20. 2022 Something for the trivia section or perhaps even the pastiche section this next unusual contribution. Frank Stewart contributed the following Ellery Queen problem in the daily bridge section of many a newspaper in 2004: |
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Ellery Queen
surveyed the lifeless body of
West, sprawled under the table
where he's played in a
high-stakes game. He'd been
conked with a pair of fire
tongs.
"What happened on their last
deal, Dad?" Ellery asked. |
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"I think if you put the heat
on East, he'll confess," said
Ellery.
"I did it," howled East. "My
partner wouldn't kill the dummy
so I killed him." |
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I don't play bridge. So let this
be a challenge to our
readers. How well is
this put together? Are there references
in the solution that, at first
glance, are not apparent? ![]() If you want to read more on Ellery Queen pastiches and tributes click here ... |
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January 13. 2022
My attention was caught last
month by a post from the hand of
Matthew J. Elliott, by his own
admission, an award-winning
screenwriter, author, voice-over
artist, presenter, editor and
contributor for
RiffTrax from Lancashire,
England. His 2008 miniseries
The New Adventures of Mickey
Spillane's Mike Hammer
starring Stacy Keach was
nominated for an Audie Award.
"I
became a mystery writer because
of Ellery Queen.
Hilary Caine wouldn't exist were
it not for Ellery." The "tongue in cheek" Hilary Caine mysteries are set in "The Golden Age" of 1930s British mysteries. Hilary Caine is a young woman with a unique gift for solving crimes. She is employed by the English tabloid Tittle Tattle Magazine as their private investigator. She solves the crime, they write the story. First published in 2008, there are already 25 Hilary stories to listen to... and they provide the first glimpse of what a new female Ellery Queen might sound like.You can listen to a full story here. If you want to read more on Ellery Queen pastiches and tributes click here ... |
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November 29. 2021 Incendo and BlackBox Multimedia have entered into a series co-development & co-production partnership for a modernized take on classic mystery tales by Ellery Queen. The production companies announced today they have optioned the TV adaption rights to the Ellery Queen collection of novels and short stories. They will co-develop and co-produce a high-end scripted series together. Hooray so far! But the announcement goes on to state that the proposed TV series will feature a reimagined female lead. Richard Dannay and Rand B. Lee, offsprings of Ellery Queen authors Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee have, in any event, approved the project. “When our fathers first sat down to begin the collaboration that would become Ellery Queen, they never would have dreamed that they would then embark on a forty-year journey together, or imagined the remarkable success that Ellery Queen would attain. All of us in the Lee and Dannay families are thrilled to be working with BBMM and Incendo, which have both been so respectful and admiring of the rich Ellery Queen tradition, in crafting a new chapter on the screen for our shared legacy.” The first reactions are mixed, and many might have preferred a more recognizable adaptation. Here is where I am: It really depends on how this will all be done. If the statement by Richard and Rand is true, the project could end up respectful to the original Queen stories. But care needs to be taken -- changing the gender of Ellery, and perhaps other characters, might feel too much like a spoof. In any event I hope that this project learns from the success of the 1975 Jim Hutton NBC series, the only TV adaptation that successfully conveyed a version of Ellery consistent with the original Queen mysteries. As that series demonstrated, a portrayal of Ellery can be witty while still remaining true to the stories in the Queen universe. Additions made by the NBC series, such as radio host Simon Brimmer, played by an unforgettable John Hillerman, worked because they were consistent with the underlying stories. As my friend and 87th Street Irregular member Dale Andrews has said, the rule in portraying an existing character such as Ellery in a new genre should be the same as the guiding principle in medicine: First, do no harm. If this project comes into fruition and brings a new Ellery Queen into the present... success will depend on the stories and the attention to detail. If a modernized approach worked for the popularity of Maurice Leblanc's Lupin why not for EQ? More on the Hutton TV series you can read here ... |
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A challenge to the reader: if you think you
could add additional information (even
corrections) please do so...
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November 7. 2021 In 1931 English professor Mark Van Doren, himself a mystery writer, invited "Ellery Queen" to the Columbia University's School of Journalism (The Writers Club of Columbia) for a lecture on the technique of mystery writing. Dannay and Lee declined the invitation, since they didn't want to reveal their identity. Because the books had been presented as the work of one man, the publisher and the dual authors wanted to keep things on that basis, at least temporarily. Barbara Frost, who at that time was working with his publisher, had the inspiration of using a mask. The mask appealed to Dannay and Lee. Still not too thrilled at the prospect of attending the occasion they flipped a coin and Lee lost. He gave the requested lecture wearing a black mask, a gimmick he continued to use for autographing sessions, … . Now imagine you could go back in time to take pictures of certain events. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a picture of Manny getting out of a cab in front of the Columbia University back in November 1931? ![]() We can’t go back in time, but the feeling when unearthing that very picture is the next best thing. Continue to read here ... |
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October 17. 2021 After years of researching Ellery Queen (begun, in fact, long before this website existed!) I still occasionally stumble upon items that don't fall into one of the many categories provided here. Perhaps we need a new section for matters that sometimes are only indirectly connected to Ellery Queen. While tangential to our primary purpose here, such matters still might be interesting to Ellery Queen fans. Such a story popped up on August 2. 2012 in Florida... ![]() Photo of Verna Jane Janie Browning, center, with two school friends, believed to be taken in the mid-1940s. Gloria Blackburn, 62, purchased a copy of The Devil to Pay, a mystery by Ellery Queen at the Amish Country Store in Largo on July 24. When she opened it, Blackburn found her 85-year-old mother's signature, dated 1941. She sent a photo of the signature to her sister, who lives with her mom. The mom confirmed it was hers and that the book once belonged to her when she was 14. Although she has never traveled to Florida, the book somehow made its way to Florida and into the hands of her daughter -- 71 years later. |
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October 1. 2021 With the help of Dale C. Andrews, the page on the "writer" of the forewords for the first EQ novels has been extensively revised. J.J. McC. Identified only by initials he appears in the early mysteries and then disappears for decades, only to re-appear in one of the last Queen books. And like Ellery the biography of J.J. McC is full of contradictions. And it was J.J. himself who contributed some of the early (and eventually contradictory) biographical “facts” concerning Ellery and the Inspector. Early on we are told that J.J. McC., was a stockbroker and a close friend to the Queens. We are also told that although he had only eventually moved to Italy he had met the Queens several times in totally different circumstances. How long ago it now seems since El asked him to write the foreword (and sometimes an afterword) for his first books. In The Roman Hat Mystery, J.J. McC even penned the "Challenge to the Reader". Despite all of this, J.J. McC. has been largely forgotten by many Queen followers. In several translations his introductions were discarded as those of just another writer who wrote an “upbeat” intro to a detective story. At first his efforts as oracle to the Ellery... Continue to read here ... |
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September 3. 2021
The reviews that Nick Fuller
brings on his blog "The Grandest
Game in the World" come highly
recommended. His reading session
of the Ellery Queen
stories is ongoing and he
sometimes brings a refreshing
view of the stories. His Tintin
avatar caused some confusion but
Nick does live in Canberra, but
went to school in Brussels ...
The links to his reviews will be
added to the detailed book pages
in the QBI
section as they come online. The novelist and poet Thomas Hardy (June 2. 1840 – January 11. 1928) is considered a determinist, mainly because his protagonists are controlled by the nature of things or by superior forces. In other words, the independence of the human will in Hardy's fiction is difficult to affirm, because man's struggle against the "will" only leads to his future failures. (Fazel Asadi Amjad, Esmaeil Najar Daronkolae - Thomas Hardy and Urbanization: The Role of Determinism in Tess of the D’Urbervilles). Focusing specifically on the Wrightsville stories, Nick Fuller made a bold statement "Was Ellery Queen a Thomas Hardy fan?" He goes on to make some clear references in both…. Continue to read here...
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Recommended
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Introduction |
Floor Plan | Q.B.I. |
List of Suspects | Whodunit?
| Q.E.D. | Kill as
directed | New |
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