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PASTICHES
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Maxwell E. Siegel's 'Once Upon a Crime' was written in 1951 but was publicized much later in 2007 (Old-time detection Issue N°6 ) it had all Ellery Queen characters (including JJMcC) reappearing and it had Ellery deciding to have, next to his own name, three "non-existent names" on his plate glass of his office at 545 Fifth Avenue: Frederic Dannay, Manfred B. Lee and Barnaby Ross". Nikki reverted to being called Sheila Brent and Mrs. Ellery Queen appears to be Paula Paris! Lee wrote to Mr.Siegel that despite the story's merits:"... this is the one kind of story we simply may not consider. For the editor to glorify himself in his own publication is unthinkable, not to say poor business."
"And you, El, are also looking fit. Still
writing those convoluted whodunits?
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine also put up a teaser
on this page...where the story was excerpted. (Remark: we mirror the page
for a limited time only). |
Leverage is an American
television drama series on TNT that premiered in
December 2008. Leverage follows a five-person team of
professional thieves, computer experts and con artists,
headed up by former insurance investigator, Nathan Ford,
who use their skills to right corporate and governmental
injustices inflicted on common citizens.
"Nate"
is played by Timothy
Hutton, to us ofcourse the son of the late Jim Hutton.
Leverage is now in it's fourth season and
on July 7.
2011 in the second episode
'The 10 Li'l Grifters Job' a Murder Mystery
Masquerade offered
the opportunity for a tribute to EQ or the character Jim
portrayed him in the 70s. Timothy has been mentioned here and in several other fora as being 'perfect' for the lead for a new Ellery Queen series... so it seems natural for him to dress up in his fathers EQ costume (or close enough) as "Ellery Queen: World's Greatest Detective'. The episode can be seen here ... Sadly other than the appearence of Timothy Hutton dressed up as EQ no other references are made to the work of Dannay/Lee. |
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2013 will also welcome another Dale C. Andrews pastiche in EQMM called Literally Dead and it will involve a return to that New England town who's town square was in fact round...
The Norwegian Apple Mystery, November,
1960 The auteur-editor appeared even less
disguised in two mysteries with a MWA background. Robert Arthur's "The
51st Sealed Room" (EQMM October 1951)
begins at an MWA meeting in New York, with a number of inside-jokes and
comments of special interest to mystery authors and goes on to murder.
There is mention of EQMM then annual contest. Also, someone who has come
up with an idea for locked room story says:"...when Carr and Queen
and the others upstairs read it, they'll wonder why they didn't think of
it themselves." In Chapter 88 of his wonderful 1978 La Vie mode d'emploi (Life, a User's Manual, 1987) the modern French author Georges Perec imagines the career of an art critic named Charles-Albert Beyssandre forced by circumstances to write under various pen-names; among the eight which Perec cites are "Fred Dannay" and "M.B.Lee". (Maxwell Siegel 'The French Author Connection' Old-Time Detection dec 2009) |

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Alice: George, listen. Clementine was
murdered, and I Alice solves the crime, gets the story into
EQMM and...doesn't divorce George... |
Probably
the most famous tribute to EQMM came in 2004
when David Koepp's
psychological thriller "Secret
Window" with Johnny Depp
was released. The film was based on the story
Secret Window, Secret Garden
by Stephen King, and
can be found in the anthology Four past
Midnight. (we also find Timothy Hutton in the
cast.)After having found out his wife was cheating on him, Morton Rainey gets on with his, somewhat depressing, life in a secluded cabin deep in the woods of Upstate New York. One day a stranger comes to his door. This man, John Shooter, claims Rainey has plagiarized his story "Sowing Season" into "Secret Window, secret Garden" which made it into EQMM. Shooter gives Mort three days to proof that his story existed before the Shooter story. No surprise, given the author, that events take a darker turn from here on... In case you're wondering: there was no Morton Rainey story in EQMM, but EQMM did at least highlight this tribute with at least one edition (June 2004). |
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And in the spring of 2013
Joe Goodrich will have the short story 'Dear
Mr.Queen' published in the MWA anthology The
Mystery Box, edited by Brad Meltzer ...
Joe already made 2012 a special year by editing Blood
Relations: the selected letters of Ellery Queen
1947-1950
More and more the name and work of Ellery Queen has become
significant and influential. Which resulted in his name
being lend to characters. For example in Margaret Austin's 'Introducing
Ellery's Mom' (EQMM July 1962)
we find one of the stories in which
characters have been named after Ellery Queen.
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