Perfect Crime Books released a great new book in June. Unusual Suspects Selected Non-Fiction was written by N.Y. author, acclaimed dramatist and one of the West 87th Street Irregulars Joseph Goodrich. Joe is also the author of Blood Relations: The Selected Letters of Ellery Queen 1947-1950.

Joe's latest book is chock-full of fascinating information and facts about myriad people ranging from Dashiell Hammett to Stephen Sondheim. All are linked, in assorted ways, to the crime genre. Anyone who has met Joe will not be surprised that each story is delivered with an abundance of enthusiasm, which makes this collection of profiles and appreciations very worthwhile. This is particularly so with respect to the offerings on Lucille Fletcher and Ellery Queen.

Ellery Queen turns up in five sections of the book:

A CHALLENGE TO THE READER is about the Jim Hutton's 1975 NBC Ellery Queen TV show;

A KIND OF TRIUMPH is a brief piece about Blood Relations, Joe's collection of letters exchanged between Ellery Queen creators Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay. (Both this discussion and the previous one concerning the Hutton series originally appeared on our website);

ADVENTURES IN RADIOLAND discussest the EQ radio show, and contains a lengthy letter from Manfred B. Lee to EQ's radio agent in which Lee describes the difficulties the show encountered in terms of scheduling and response and related issue (This discussion first appeared in Curtis Evans' tribute book published by Doug Greene of Crippen and Landru);

CONFESSIONS OF A LITERARY SAFECRACKER a piece about adapting Calamity Town for the stage (which first appeared on the EQMM blog);

ON THE ROAD WITH MANFRED B. LEE: setting forth in three parts the articles chronicling Manfred B. Lee's early-1960's lecture notes (the parts first appeared in EQMM).
 
Unusual Suspect is available in paperback and for Kindle at Amazon.