Whodunit?: a serial of aliasses - page 14

ecember 2013 welcomed another Dale C. Andrews
pastiche in EQMM called "Literally Dead" and it involved a return to

that New England town who's town square was in fact round... There we find Ellery investigating the mysterious death of a well known author. Wrightsville, a locked room and a dying message! What more could we ask for!

(To hear Dale Andrews reading his story “Literally Dead,” click on the EQMM podcast icon ....)

In honor of the 75th anniversary (2015-2016) of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine Rand B. Lee posted a very enjoyable pastiche on Facebook "The Polish

Chicken Mystery". In Which Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes, and Ellery Queen Attempt to Solve the Baffling Mystery, "Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?"

Burt Barnard draws our attention to a series called Castle which ran from 2009 to 2016. The main character's name was Richard Castle. Burt points out this was a mystery writer who teamed up with a New York City police detective to solve crimes.
A castle is synonymous with a rook, which, like the queen (relevant for our purposes), is also a chess piece. The central character was also a mystery writer and, like Ellery, he solved crimes with a police officer relative. This time it was a woman police officer, who later became his wife.
I did have a quick look at the Wikipedia page, which states that Richard Castle in the series is looking for a new main character for his new book series: "Nikki Heat." Our Nikki Porter would likely be appreciative!

When Josh Pachter began work on Misadventures (2017), he re-read The Tragedy of Errors and got inspired when he found three cases for something Ellery Queen called "The Puzzle Club".

There were five Puzzle Club stories in all. The three collected in Tragedy of Errors were first published in 1971, “The Three Students” and “The Odd Man” in Playboy and “The Honest Swindler” in The Saturday Evening Post. (The other two were older, first published in 1965 — “The Little Spy” in Cavalier and “The President Regrets” in Diners’ Club Magazine — and reprinted in 1968 in Q.E.D.: Queen’s Experiments in Detection.)

His idea for a brief puzzle story seemed well suited for the Puzzle Club, so he wrote it up, titled it “A Study in Scarlett!” and submitted it to EQMM. Janet Hutchings liked it, got approval by the Dannay and Lee heirs and it appeared in EQMM’s May/June 2019 issue.

Enjoying the experience Josh set out to write four more Puzzle Club pastiches, and then after they’d all been published in EQMM, collected the original five and his new five in a single volume: The Puzzle Club, by Ellery Queen and Josh Pachter. Janet liked the idea in principle, and Richard Dannay, who represents the heirs, was enthusiastic.

Above right : In October 2022 Crippen and Landru published these stories in combination with Ellery Queen's original Puzzle Club stories. Click on the cover to read more in the Q.B.I section ...

Since the first Puzzle Club story’s title is a Sherlock Holmes pun (on A Study in Scarlet), he

thought it might be fun to use Holmesian puns for the subsequent stories in the series — and, since the first one puns on a Holmes title that involves a color, I thought it might be extra fun to continue in that vein.

His second Puzzle Club story, in the January/February 2020 issue of EQMM, is called “The Adventure of the Red Circles” (punning on “The Adventure of the Red Circle”), and the third, “The Adventure of the Black-and-Blue Carbuncle” (from “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”)appeared in November/December 2020 issue .

Unsure what to call the fourth one, several other Sherlockian color titles came to mind (“The Five Orange Pips,” “The Adventure of the Yellow Face,” and “The Adventure of Black Peter.”) Josh finally settled on "The Five Orange Pipes" (EQMM Jan/Feb 2021). For the fifth, he is going to use one more Sherlock Holmes pun, but this time without a color. In 1917, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a Holmes story called “His Last Bow,” and Josh plans to call this Puzzle Club story “Their Last Bow.”

September 2019 Dale C. Andrews received a contract from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine for his fourth short story, titled "Four Words," this Ellery Queen pastiche appeared in the September/October 2020 issue. J.J. Mc Cue appears as a main character.

Marco Bigliazzi who points out the BBC series Beyond Paradise (2023), to him is a sort of an updated version of the EQ series from '75 . Marco says that he immediately felt a strong EQ flavour watching the very first episode. He sets out his arguments as follows:

"First of all, it's a whodunit - a classic one, I should say, with a light comedy touch - but it's true that there are other shows of this kind around today (it seems that the whodunit is experiencing a small renaissance on TV and streaming).

But the true ingredient that struck me and made me jump in my armchair while watching the show (and my wife as well) is Kris Marshall, who plays DI Humphrey Goodman: this very tall man, his poses, gestures, gazes, his whole acting, brightly reminded me of Jim Hutton as Ellery.

I could also add, for the Queen-verse sake, that the small imaginary town of Shipton Abbot (set in real Looe, South Cornwall) where the stories take place could resemble Wrightsville, but this would be going too far.

I don't know if the creators or writers of the show did this on purpose, but I'm quite sure that this flavor exists - and can be smelt.

No inspector, no challenge to the watcher, but anyway, Kris Marshall alone is more than enough to cause this sort of déjà vu effect - a pleasant one, indeed."

Marco goes on:; "Beyond Paradise is actually a spin-off of Death in Paradise, a similar whodunit series set in a fictional Caribbean island running for nearly 12 years now. DI Humphrey Goodman - the Elleryan protagonist of Beyond Paradise played by Kris Marshall - appears in seasons 3-6 (2014-17), 30 episodes which are mostly about "impossible" crimes or bizarre ones.
In my opinion, even if in Beyond Paradise the Queen flavour is stronger, I find it's already there."

llery Queen is probably the only author who became the
leading character in a mystery pastiche. James Holding, who wrote the juveniles wrote a series of pastiches, estimable mysteries in their own right. In these series King Danforth and Martin Leroy creators of the detective "Leroy King" solve crimes on their own during a round-the-world-tour. The titles of these stories evocated the early Queen-work.

"The Norwegian Apple Mystery", November, 1960
"The African Fish Mystery", April 1961
"The Italian Tile Mystery", September, 1961
"The Hong Kong Jewel Mystery", November, 1963.
"The Zanzibar Shirt Mystery", December, 1963.
"The Tahitian Powder Box Mystery", October, 1964.
"The Japanese Card Mystery", October, 1965.
"The New Zealand Bird Mystery", January, 1967
"The Philippine Key Mystery", February, 1968.
"The Borneo Snapshot Mystery", January, 1972.

Martin and King find out stories which sound too great to be true and they start to come up with their own explanations. Great fun if you're familiar with Author, Author!
In 2018 Crippen & Landru provided a collection which included all ten stories in the series along with a brief biography of Holding and the most comprehensive bibliography of Holding’s short story works.

Above right: In 2018 Crippen & Landru provided a collection which included all ten stories in the series along with a brief biography of Holding and the most comprehensive bibliography of Holding’s short story works.

The author-editor appeared even less disguised in two mysteries with a MWA background:

In the first 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. One of the authors he pays homage to is EQ. There is mention of EQMM's 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."

The appearance of Dannay as editor is more substantial in the next example. Brett Halliday is another mystery writer anxious to give the impression that MWA gatherings lead to murder. His 1954 novel She woke to Darkness begins at the annual MWA murder award dinner. Narrator Halliday gets into serious trouble after picking up a girl there and is forced to call upon Mike Shayne for help. During the dinner, Frederic Dannay asks Halliday to write another story for the EQMM contest. Manfred Lee is also mentioned; he was forced to stay home because of illness in the family. This actually also resembles the plot from a Columbo-episode "Murder by the Book" .

Cover for the English translation of La Vie mode d'emploi (Life, a User's Manual, 1987) by the modern French author Georges Perec. In Chapter 87 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) In several of his other works Perec alludes, directly or indirectly, to Ellery Queen (Rémi Schulz)

The first half of Tetsuya Ayukawa's "The Autograph Card of Queen" (1986) is non-fiction. It's Ayukawa's account of meeting Dannay in 1977 in Japan. The second half is fiction. It involves a stolen autograph-card (with Dannay's autograph on it). (Masatoshi Saito)

In 2002 Taku Ashibe wrote Tragedy of Q aka The Adventure of The Two Man with Black Masks (Q no Higeki - Mata wa Futari no Kurofukumen no Boken , published in Mystery League, Tor Books). Professor Cotswinkel's dead body is found in his research room in the Detroit Public Library. The last person who spoke with the professor claims he said he had just met Ellery Queen. But which one? There are two "Queens" in town since both Lee and Dannay posing as Ellery Queen and Barnaby Ross are present to speak. In true style Ellery Queen and Barnaby Ross, solve the crime live in front of their captivated public! (Ho-Ling Wong)

In Masatoshi Saito aka Steven Queen 's "Drury" (2012) one of the Queens cousins gets involved in a car accident and is found by Annie, who also happens to be Barnaby Ross's greatest fan (and she hates Ellery Queen). Having found the name card of Barnaby Ross among her patient's possessions (thus finding out that he is Ross), she tells "Ross" that she is not happy with the conclusion of Drury Lane's Last Case and forces him to write a continuation that suits her taste. A really funny story, because it plays perfectly with the confusion that arose from having the two cousins playing both Ellery Queen and Barnaby Ross. The moment Annie begins to think that her patient Ross is actually Queen is both terrifying and hilarious at the same time! The continued stories of Drury Lane are also good for a great laugh. "Drury" is also an effective Misery (Stephen King) parody and does contain heavy spoilers for Drury Lane's Last Case.(Ho-Ling Wong)

Above: (L to R) NYPD’s Inspector Queen gives Zenigata a lift in Lupin III part 6 episode 3

Lupin III (Japanese: ルパン三世, Hepburn: Rupan Sansei), also written as Lupin the Third, Lupin the 3rd, or Lupin the IIIrd, is a Japanese manga series. It follows the endeavors of master thief Arsène Lupin III, the grandson of Arsène Lupin, the gentleman thief of Maurice Leblanc's series of novels.
In Part 6 Episode 3 titled, “Adventure Along the (Bogus) Transcontinental Railroad,” (Nov. 2021) brought in Inspector Queen from the Ellery Queen series. He even has 'nephews' along in the form of aspiring detective lads named after the real-world cousins who originally created the character.

Lupin and his gang head towards Lord Marquess’ estate to steal a historically significant ticket. The Inspector chaperons his nephews, Manfred and Frederic. The two are cousins but have the same interests of being detectives and being attracted to young women. Manfred and Frederic are roaming around the streets of England when they stumble upon a beautiful woman who enters the Marquess estate. They’re pretty disappointed but soon discover a parade for the President of South Ahud Republic, welcoming him to the railway enthusiasts’ party. This parade is their ticket to get inside the estate and reunite with the gorgeous lady. She is revealed to be Fujiko, and Lupin is disguised as the President and meets Morton, disguised as Marquess. Lupin hurries to save Fujiko and finds her head tied to the railway tracks. The train is shortly going to arrive, slicking off Fujiko’s head. Queen and his nephews find her in time and suggest cutting her hair off since there was no time to waste. Fujiko is saved but has to give up the stolen ticket. Zenigata and Queen arrest Morton, and the nephews are seen with kiss marks on their cheeks...

Above: (L to R) Frederic Dannay and Manfred Lee meet their uncle Inspector Queen.

The English/Japanese voice actors for Inspector Queen, Manfred Lee and Frederic Dannay are Bob Carter/Yutaka Nakano, Matt Shipman/Shuhei Sakaguchi and Tommy Arciniega/Satoshi Nakao) respectively.

llery Queen, editor of his mystery magazine wasn't spared. He plays a pivotal role in several short stories concerning stories submitted to the magazine. The earliest example might be found in Baynard Kendrick's article on true-crime articles "The Case of the Stuttering Sextant" (EQMM March 1947) which was introduced by Clayton Rawson in the style of a Dannay the editor, it also included extremely detailed footnotes questioning Kendrick's style of writing.

There is Rick Rubin's "The Man who hated Editors" (EQMM May 1960) The story about an unsuccessful writer who devises an unusual scheme to get even with the editors who have been turning his work down. One of those being "Emory Quinn Mystery Magazine"

Marge Jackson had a different idea along this line in "Dear Mr.Queen, editor" (EQMM April 1963) She tells of a story submitted by a mother of 4 children which discloses an actual murder as well as a possible future murder. EQ as very concerned editor tries to head off the second crime.

"The Clementine Caper" (EQMM, November 1956) by Larry Van Benthuysen also involves the matter of publication in EQMM. A suburban housewife, Alice, reads a newspaper item about a discovered corpse, and this becomes the basis for her speculation regarding murder, as well as the following conversation with her husband, George:

Alice: George, listen. Clementine was murdered, and I can prove it. George: Do you want me to call Ellery Queen or do you think you can handle the caper yourself? Alice: You think you're so funny... Maybe I will write this up and send it to EQMM and become rich and famous and divorce you.

Alice solves the crime, gets the story into EQMM and...doesn't divorce George...

James Holding did fit a foreign edition of EQMM into "The Inquisitive Butcher of Nice" (EQMM, July 1963) wherein one of the characters says: "The police will be angry if we touch anything...they will no doubt look for finger prints, clues, signs of a struggle. Thus is always done in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine which I read each month."

It was Allen Lang who found the ultimate use for EQMM. His "The Trail of the Catfish" (EQMM January 1962) is about a detective Max Holloway whose job is tracking down those who steal library books. One one occasion he literally uses EQMM as a weapon.

Probably the most famous tribute to EQMM came in 2004 (right) when David Koepp's psychological thriller Secret Window with Johnny Depp was released. The film was based on the novella "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).

Arthur Vidro had an EQ pastiche published for EQMM, somewhat unorthodox as it initially only appeared online (Oct 2011) and not in a print publication. In this story we have a perfect collection of EQMM marred. Thomas Velie & Johnson appear in the story but the sleuthing in the story is done by journalist Mark Wayne Howard (Velie also calls him 'maestro'). Which was inevitable since Ellery Queen only appears as the cooperation between Dannay/Lee. Since March 2018 it's also available in print in the anthology The Misadventures of Ellery Queen.

In the spring of 2013 Joe Goodrichhad 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. Dear Mr.Queen is a story about a 14-year-old boy in a small Minnesota town who writes mystery stories and sends them to EQMM. He gets an idea for a new story based on events in the neighborhood---events that culminate in an actual murder, and Art and Life begin to mirror each other in unexpected ways.

EQMM celebrated the magazine's 75th anniversary in 2016. The August 2016 issue holds Joseph Goodrich's story called "The Ten-Cent Murder" and features Fred Dannay as a sleuth. It is set in the early 1950s when Dashiell Hammett was teaching mystery writing at The Jefferson School of Social Science in Manhattan. Dannay was an occasional guest in Hammett's classroom. In the story there's been a murder at the school and Dannay is asked to solve it...It involves a dying clue, which is right up his alley.

On 8/31/16 EQMM's blog, Something is Going to Happen featured Arthur Vidro’s delightful, “The Mistake on the Cover of EQMM #1” In celebration of the magazine’s 75th anniversary, the story included a “Challenge to the Reader,” which EQMM editor Janet Hutchings then turned into a contest. Although several names are used only EQMM as such is a real reference. The story itself had many Easter Eggs, some of which are easy enough but some might surprise you. If you couldn't find them all the blog provided us not only the solution to the story but also with "Easter in the Autumn" by Josh Pachter. Josh waists no time pointing us to the basket full of Easter Eggs.

"The Ellery Queen Job" by Peter Lovesey, featured in the January/February 2025 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, is a delightful homage to the legendary fictional sleuth Ellery Queen and his tradition of intricate, cerebral mysteries. Set in the sizzling summer of 1984 in New York City, the story follows two experienced criminals, Duke and Chuck, as they plan a heist during a time when the city’s wealthy residents are away in the Hamptons.

Duke, a sharp British strategist, and Chuck, a Bronx-native lock-picking virtuoso, discover a prime target: a luxurious Manhattan apartment filled with rare valuables, including an Ellery Queen first edition. What seems like an ordinary burglary takes an intriguing turn when the crime is complicated by unexpected twists that would challenge even a professional sleuth. Adding to the story’s connection to Ellery Queen, Chuck once worked as a janitor in the offices of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. This detail adds a playful layer of irony and serves as a clever wink to fans of both the magazine and the character.

The story is laced with allusions to Ellery Queen's literary heritage, from the presence of the Queen memorabilia to the unfolding of a locked-room-style conundrum, a hallmark of Ellery Queen mysteries. Lovesey seamlessly combines a tribute to the Golden Age of detective fiction with a modern, humorous crime caper, delivering a tale that will delight both fans of classic mysteries and contemporary readers.

More and more the name and work of Ellery Queen has become significant and influential. Which resulted in his name being lend to characters.

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.

As was the case with Josh Pachter's "E.Q.Griffin Earns his Name" (EQMM Dec 1968) and "E.Q. Griffen's Second Case" (EQMM May 1970). A third story about the Griffen family, "Sam Buried Caesar," (EQMM Aug 1971) focused on Ellery's brother Nero Wolfe Griffen.
In celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of his first publication, the November/December 2018 issue of EQMM included “50,” a new E.Q. Griffen story in which Ellery, now fifty years older, looks back at a typically Queenian dying-message murder he failed to solve a half-century earlier.

Above: Josh posing with the (enlarged) cover of November/December 2018 issue of EQMM containing his story "50" (Photo courtesy Josh Pachter).

Richard M.Gordon wrote a clever mystery parody of Thomas Gray' poem called "Ellery in a Country Churchyard" (EQMM, September 1964).

William Brittain wrote "The Man who Read Ellery Queen" (EQMM Dec 1965) about Arthur Mindy, an alert 80 year old who is admitted to an old age home with the one treasured possession - his complete collection of the Queen canon. He solves a crime at the home a la EQ by use of pure logic and is rewarded by the compliment of being told: "Thank you, Mr. Queen".

"Death of Mallory Queen" by Lawrence Block (1984, Like a Lamb to the Slaughter; also 1999, First Cases 3) is a story about Chip Harrison and his employer Leo Haig. The set-up is that mystery magazine publisher Mavis Mallory visits Haig and hires him to solve her upcoming murder. Haig assembles all of the suspects (one of which is called Lotte Benzler), along with two cops, in his home office and reveals what the reader can only guess at. Leo models himself on Nero Wolfe and the the victim's nickname, "The Mallory Queen," is a nod to an icon of the industry.

References
(1) "The Misadventures of Ellery Queen" by Marvin S. Lachman,
     The Queen Canon Bibliophile Vol.1 Nr.4 Aug 1969
(2) "From..... tqcb" by Nils Hardin in Xenophile #14, June 1975
(3) "The Misadventures from Ellery Queen" Jon L.Breen
      EQMM Sep/Oct 2005
(4) "Maintaining EQuilibrium" at SleuthSayers blog, posted on
      October 12, 2018

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