Ellery Queen: F org o tten M aster D etective
by
Cathy A kers-Jordan
P resented to the A m erican C ulture Faculty
at the U niversity of M ichigan-Flint
in p artial fulfillm ent of the requirem ents for the
M aster of Liberal Studies
in
A m erican C ulture
A ugust 11, 1998
First Reader
Second R eader
In tro d u c tio n
For the sake of sim plicity and easier reading, all titles in this w ork
(books, short stories, films, etc.) are italicized and long quotations are single­
spaced. C itations for short stories alw ays refer to the collection in w hich the
story appeared.
It is nearly im possible to discuss the techniques of a m ystery w riter's
style w ith o u t giving aw ay as least some of the endings. I have avoided
discussing the solutions w henever possible, b u t readers unfam iliar w ith all of
the novels m ay find a few spoilers here.
A com plete list of the Ellery Q ueen books in included in C hapter 11
and in the bibliography.
A ck n o w led g m en ts
I am deeply indebted to Francis M. N evins, Jr., Rand B. Lee, Johan Blixt
and G regg P arm entier for their su p p o rt and inform ation.
Ellery Queen: F o rg o tten M aster D etective
Section I: The Stage is Set
1. P aving the W ay to the G olden A g e ......................................................................... 1
2. The G olden Age M ystery........................................................................................... 13
Section II: The M en Behind the Mask
3. W ho W as T hat M asked M an ?................................................................................ 20
Section III: Literary Themes and Techniques
4. Q u ee n 's W o rld ............................................................................................................ 30
5. Reality vs. F ictio n ....................................................................................................... 42
6. F ather an d S o n ............................................................................................................ 64
7. Ellery Q ueen: W orking A u th o r.............................................................................. 76
8. T he Q u een M e th o d .................................................................................................. 104
9. T he Inconsistent Q u e e n ..........................................................................................125
10. L iterary M o tifs........................................................................................................... 144
Section IV: Recent D evelopm ents
11. W ho Really W rote Ellery Q u e e n ? ....................................................................... 156
12. The F orgotten M aster...............................................................................................166
13. Lest We F o rg et........................................................................................................... 169
B iblio g rap h y ......................................................................................................................172
Paving the W ay to the G olden Age
T rad itio n al detective stories, those w ritten in the "G olden A ge" of the
1920s and 1930s, follow a basic form ula set forth by W. H. A uden: "a m u rd er
occurs; m any are suspected; all b u t one suspect, w ho is the m u rd erer, are
elim inated; the m u rd e re r is arrested or dies" (Symons 3). T hree w riters w ere
in stru m en tal in the evolution of this form ula: E dgar A llan Poe, Sir A rth u r
C onan Doyle, an d S. S. Van Dine. Poe created the genre by w riting the first
detective stories; D oyle m ade the genre p o p u lar by creating Sherlock Holmes;
an d V an D ine redefined the genre by w riting guidelines for authors. Each of
these m en m ad e such significant contributions th at w ith o u t them m o d ern
detective stories probably w ould not exist.
In 1841 E dgar A llan Poe published The Murders in the Rue Morgue,
w hich becam e the prototypical detective story. By 1845 he had com pleted tw o
m ore stories, The Mystery of Marie Roget and The Purloined Letter, featuring
the sam e detective, M onsieur C. A uguste D upin. D u p in w as an eccentric,
brilliant am ateu r detective w ho solved m ysteries using "ratiocination" or
deductive reasoning. H is tales w ere chronicled by an adm iring nam eless
friend, of average intelligence, w ho w atched as D u p in solved cases that left
the police baffled.
In M urder for Pleasure H ow ard H aycraft cataloged the motifs Poe
created in these three stories:
1. The transcendent and eccentric detective.
2. The ad m irin g and slightly stupid foil.
3. The w ell-intentioned b lu n d erin g and unim aginativeness of the
official g uardians of the law.
1
4. T he locked-room convention.
5. T he p o in tin g finger of unjust suspicion.
6. The solution by surprise.
7. D ed u ctio n by p u ttin g one's self in an o th er's position.
8. C oncealm ent by m eans of the ultra-obvious.
9. The staged ruse to force the culprit's hand.
10. T he expansive an d condescending explanation w h en the chase is
done (H aycraft 166).
T hese three short stories contain all the elem ents th at com prise w hat is
now called the trad itio n al or classic1 detective story. Some scholars, notably
D orothy L. Sayers, arg u ed that tw o m ore Poe tales should be included: T h o u
A rt M an and The Gold Bug. The form er contained the now -fam iliar elem ent
of the trail of false clues laid by the real m u rd erer and the solution by w ay of
the least likely suspect (82). In the latter the m ain character solved a cipher
w hich lead h im to a b u ried treasure; the narrator, a friend of the m ain
character, w as u n aw are of this until it w as revealed at the end of the tale.
H o w ard H aycraft disagreed w ith Sayers, calling Thou A rt M an "one of
Poe's saddest debacles" from a literary point of view (164). H e found the
elem ents acceptable, b u t the story poorly w ritten in the first-person point of
view. H e disliked The Gold Bug because it w ithheld evidence from the
reader until after the solution h ad been given; the reader d id not have a
chance to solve the puzzle along w ith the detective.
U nfortunately for Poe events in his life took a tu rn for the w orse
shortly after these stories w ere published. After the d eath of his beloved
y o ung w ife in 1847, Poe fell into despair. A lthough he continued to w rite, he
d ran k heavily an d attem pted suicide. W hen Poe d ied in 1849, he d id not
2
realize th at he h ad fath ered a w hole new genre of fiction: the detective story.
A fter Poe's death, a few w riters attem pted to w rite m ystery-type stories,
b u t on the w hole they w ere m ore sensational th an deductive. As a genre, the
detective story laid nearly d o rm an t for over forty years, un til Sir A rth u r
Co nan D oyle p u b lish ed A Study in Scarlet, the first Sherlock H olm es story.
D uring the gap betw een Poe and Doyle, tw o types of p o p u lar m agazines
influenced the shape of the new ly-form ing detective fiction genre: dim e
novels an d p u lp m agazines.
D im e novels w ere small, inexpensive booklets p u b lish ed from 1860
until approxim ately 1915. O riginally featuring frontier an d w ild w est stories
w ith em phasis on adventure, their focus g rad u ally shifted to stories about
m ystery, crim e an d detection. They focused on the ad v en tu res of the
persistent detective-character, w hose techniques in clu d ed things like
eav esd ro p p in g , follow ing suspects, using disguises an d shooting it out w ith
the bad guys. The sim ilarity betw een the sheriff w ho m u st tam e the outlaw s
on the frontier and the detective w ho single-handedly outsm arts and defeats
crim inals is obvious. The target audience w as children an d adolescents.
P ulp m agazines (or pulps), p u b lish ed from 1896 until the 1950s and
nam ed for the inexpensive w ood-pulp p ap er on w hich they w ere p rinted,
also featured m ystery stories. Like D oyle's works, pulps em phasized
deductive reasoning, w ith the focus g rad u ally m oving to action-m elodram a.
U nlike dim e novels, the target audience w as ad u lt readers. The actionm elodram a them es of p u lp s led to the developm ent of the hard-boiled
3
detective style: an action-oriented, un sen tim en tal app ro ach w hich featured a
to u g h detective w ith a heart of gold, w ho struggled against crim e an d
corruption, y et alw ays triu m p h ed in the end.
P ulps also led to developm ent of comics books w ith m ystery them es,
like Detective Comics (DC). A fter the in troduction of S uperm an in A c tio n
C om ics in 1938, m ore comics began to feature stories about heroic
crim efighters such as B atm an and The Shadow . This, of course, w as the
beginning of the su p erh ero comic book. The target audience, again, w as
children an d adolescents.
The m ain influence of dim e novels, p u lp s an d comic books w as that,
because they w ere inexpensive an d easily affordable by even people w ith the
least incom e, they b ro u g h t the detective story to readers of all incom es and all
levels of society. The dim e novel, and subsequently the p u lp m agazine,
"... re fleeted certain national sp irit in show ing how A m erican characteristics
such as self-reliance and com m on sense w ere all that w as necessary for
survival..." w hich also rem inded the read er that "...the w o rld of the dim e
novel detective w as not an o rd ered w orld, but one filled w ith constant danger
an d violence" (D eA ndrea 94).
By the tim e Sir A rth u r C onan Doyle p u b lish ed A Study in Scarlet in
1887, the public w as eager for m ore detective stories. Doyle picked u p w here
Poe had left off. U sing Poe's motifs, Doyle created a series of stories about the
ad ventures of Sherlock H olm es as told by his associate, Dr. John W atson. Part
of the key to D oyle's success lay in his format. In the 1800s serial stories w ere
4
a p o p u la r feature in m onthly m agazines and daily new spapers. The fact that
readers h ad to keep buy in g the new spapers or m agazines to follow the story
k ept circulation up. U nfortunately, if readers m issed an installm ent they
w ere unlikely to purchase the periodical again. W ith this in m in d , Doyle
chose to w rite a non-consecutive series of stories in the style of Poe's D upin
stories.
Fans ad m ired H olm es' keen senses of observation an d deduction, and
D oyle w as su rp rised at Sherlock H olm es' su d d e n im m ense p o p u larity .2 Like
D upin, w ho could deduce his frien d 's thoughts based on external stim uli,
H olm es often knew his client's problem or occupation before he w as told.
W hile th at seem ed am azing to W atson, w ho alw ays observed H olm es'
m e th o d s w ith o u t successfully ad opting them him self, H olm es alw ays
explained how he h ad reached the conclusion by observing trivial details
m ost people w o u ld overlook.
W hile D u p in an d H olm es h ad m uch in com m on, H olm es on the
w hole w as a m ore realistic an d interesting character w ith flaw s and
prejudices. D espite his brilliance, or p erh ap s because of it, H olm es
experim ented w ith cocaine w hen b o red (not too u n u su al in late V ictorian
England, b u t d an g ero u s nevertheless), he also played the violin well, w as a
m aster of disguise, conducted chemical experim ents in the flat he shared w ith
W atson an d h ad eccentric habits such as discharging a revolver in the same
flat spelling out "VR" (for Victoria Regina) in the wall. W hile kind to
w om en in need, he h ad no love for the opposite sex and no room for
5
rom ance in his life. This m ay be the origin of the later dictum against love
affairs in detective stories. U nlike D upin, H olm es som etim es m ade m istakes
or w as tem porarily baffled. The presence of W atson "w ith his stu rd y
com m on sense an d sincerity" also lent a great deal to the stories (M urch 179).
H e w as a real p erson w ith w hom the read er could identify, unlike D u p in 's
nam eless frien d w ith no d istin g u ish in g characteristics.
Sherlock H olm es is still so w ell k now n he sym bolizes the w hole
detective fiction genre; even people w ho have never read a m ystery recognize
his fam ous profile w ith the pipe and deerstalker cap.3 If Poe created the
detective story, D oyle m ade it popular; because of this, H olm es is the ancestor
of alm ost every fictional detective in the early 20th century. Some w riters,
how ever, w ere d au n ted by the shadow of the great detective. In ...A n d
Always a Detective R. F. Stew art discussed the im pact H olm es had on some
early 20th cen tu ry w riters:
The m ethod ad o p ted to deal w ith H olm es w as im pertinent,
th o u g h at the sam e tim e flattering; it w as also, on the face of it,
very astute. There is scarcely a detective novel w ritten in the
G olden Age w hich does not refer to H olm es in some w ay or
other; it m ay be to him by nam e or to him by im plication as the
G reat D etective or the story-book detective, b u t select at ran d o m
ten such novels and reference—I m ean this literally—w ill be in
nine of them ; at least. For exam ple, all tw elve of D orothy Sayers'
detective novels contain such a reference.4 The solution th en
w as to take H olm es, a fiction, into the w orld of the story and use
him to confirm the reality of th at w orld; he is assim ilated into
the tricks of the trade used by Doyle him self—a tribute to his
standing, even th o u g h the reference is usually disparaging (307).
N ot all m ystery w riters w ere intim idated by Sherlock H olm es,
how ever. In his 1970 essay Who Shall Ever Forget (published in The M ystery
6
Writer's A rt edited by Francis N evins) Frederick D annay, co-creator of Ellery
Q ueen, fondly recalled discovering D oyle's w orks as a boy and the profound
im pact Sherlock H olm es h ad on his life. D escribing how his au n t brought
The Adventures o f Sherlock Holm e s from the library to the tw elve-year-old
D annay to cheer h im w hile he w as suffering from an ear infection, he said: "I
opened the book w ith no know ledge that I stood—rather, I sat—on the brink
of m y fate. I h ad no inkling, no prem onition th at in another m inute my life's
w o rk w o u ld be born" (38). D annay and his cousin M anfred E. Lee, w riting as
Ellery Q ueen, becam e very influential m ystery w riters an d editors, of course,
and H olm es clearly influenced their technique and w riting style.
M any people share D annay's love of the great detective, for H olm es is
as p o p u la r today as he w as one h u n d red years ago, if not m ore so; books,
m ovies, television show s and fan organizations about H olm es abound.
D oyle's contribution to the detective story genre is im m ense, w ith H olm es'
po p u larity in spiring countless other w riters to continue w ritin g detective
stories.
In the early 1920s W illard H u n tin g to n W right, a professional art critic,
suffered from a stress-related illness brought on by his work. Forbidden by his
doctors to do any "serious" reading w hich m ight upset him or m ake his
condition w orse, W right collected and analyzed over 2,000 books on crime
an d detective fiction. In 1926 he w rote the first novel of his influential
detective series featu rin g Philo Vance, The Benson Murder Case, u n d er the
p se u d o n y m of S. S. V an Dine. In 1928, he published Twenty Rules for
7
W riting Detective Stories based on his analysis of the m any detective books
he had read. These rules defined the "gam e" of w ritin g a detective novel,
w hich h ad d ev elo p ed considerably since Poe's The Murders in the Rue
M orgue.
T w enty Rules for W riting D etective Stories
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The re a d e r m ust have equal o p p o rtu n ity w ith the detective
for solving the m ystery. A ll clues m ust be plainly stated an d
described.
N o w illful tricks or deceptions m ay be placed on the read er
o th er th a n those played legitim ately by the crim inal on the
detective him self.
T here m u st be no love interest. The business at h an d is to
b rin g a crim inal to the b ar of justice, not to b rin g a lovelorn
couple to the hym eneal alter.
The detective him self, or one of the official investigators,
should never tu rn out to be the culprit. This is bald trickery,
on a p ar w ith offering some one [sic] a bright penny for a fivedollar gold piece. It's false pretenses.
The culprit m ust be determ ined by logical deductions—not by
accident of coincidence or unm otivated confession. To solve
a crim inal problem in this latter fashion is like sen d in g the
read er on a deliberate w ild-goose chase, an d th en telling him ,
after he has failed, that you had the object of his search up
y o u r sleeve all the time. Such an au th o r is no b etter th an a
practical joker.
The detective novel m ust have a detective in it; an d a
detective is not a detective unless he detects. H is function is
to gather clues that w ill eventually lead to the p erson w ho
d id the dirty w ork in the first chapter; and if the detective
does not reach his conclusions th ro u g h an analysis of those
clues, he has no m ore solved his problem th a n a schoolboy
w h o gets his answ er out the back of the arithm etic.
T here sim ply m ust be a corpse in a detective novel, an d the
d ea d er the corpse the better. N o lesser crime than m u rd e r
w ill suffice. Three h u n d red pages is far too m uch po th er [sic]
for a crim e other th an m urder. A fter all, the read e r's trouble
an d expenditure of energy m ust be rew arded.
The problem of the crime m ust be solved by strictly
n atu ralistic m eans. Such m ethods for learning the tru th as
slate-w riting, ouija-boards, m ind-reading, spiritualistic
seances, crystal gazing, and the like, are taboo. A read er has a
8
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
chance w h en m atching his w its w ith a rationalistic detective,
b u t if he m ust com pete w ith the w orld of spirits and go
chasing ab o u t the fo u rth dim ension of m etaphysics, he is
defeated ab initio.
T here m u st be b u t one detective—th at is, b u t one protagonist
of d e d u c tio n — one deus ex machina. To bring the m in d s of
three or four, or som etim es a gang of detectives to bear on a
problem , is not only to disperse the interest an d break the
direct th read of logic, b u t to take an u nfair advantage of the
reader. If there is m ore th an one detective the read er d o esn 't
know w ho his codeductor is. It's like m aking the read er ru n
a race w ith a relay team.
The culprit m u st tu rn out to be a person w ho has p layed a
m ore or less pro m in en t p art in the story—th at is, a p erso n
w ith w hom the read er is fam iliar an d in w hom he takes an
interest.
A servant m u st not be chosen by the author as the culprit.
This is begging a noble question. It is a too easy solution. The
cu lp rit m u st be a decidedly w orth-w hile p erson—one that
w o u ld n 't ord in arily come u n d er suspicion.
T here m ust be b u t one culprit, no m atter how m any m u rd ers
are com m itted. The culprit m ay, of course, have a m inor
h elp er or co-plotter; b u t the entire onus m ust rest on one p air
of shoulders: the entire indignation of the read er m u st be
perm itted to concentrate on a single black nature.
Secret societies, cam orras, m afias, et al., have no place in a
detective story. A fascinating and truly beautiful m u rd e r is
irrem ediably spoiled by any such w holesale culpability. To be
sure, the m u rd erer in a detective novel should be given a
sporting chance; b u t it is going too far to grant him a secret
society to fall back on. N o high-class, self-respecting
m u rd erer w ould w ant such odds.
The m ethod of m u rd er and the m eans of detecting it, m u st be
rational an d scientific. T hat is to say, pseudo-science and
p urely im aginative an d speculative devices are not to be
tolerated in the roman policier. Once an au th o r soars into
the realm of fantasy, in the Jules Verne m anner, he is outside
the b o u n d s of detective fiction, cavorting in the u n ch arted
reaches of adventure.
The tru th of the problem m ust be at all tim es ap p aren t—
p ro v id ed the read er is shrew d enough to see it. By this I
m ean th at if the reader, after learning the explanation for the
crim e, should reread the book, he w ould see th at the solution
had, in a sense, been staring him in the face—th at all the
clues really pointed to the culprit—and that, if he h ad been as
clever as the detective, he could have solved the m ystery
9
him self w ith o u t going on to the final chapter. T hat the
clever read er does often this solve the problem goes w ith o u t
saying.
16. A detective novel sh o u ld contain no long descriptive
passages, no literary dallying w ith side-issues, no subtly
w o rk ed -o u t character analyses, no "atm ospheric"
preoccupations. Such m atters have no vital place in a record
of crim e and deduction. They hold u p the action, an d
intro d u ce issues irrelevant to the m ain purpose, w h ich is to
state a problem , analyze it, and bring it to a successful
conclusion. To be sure, there m u st be a sufficient
descriptiveness an d character delineation to give the novel
v e ris im ilitu d e .
17. A professional crim inal m u st never be sh o u ld erd w ith the
guilt of crim e in a detective story. Crim es by house-breakers
and b an d its are the province of police d ep artm en ts—not of
auth o rs an d brilliant am ateur detectives. A really fascinating
crim e is one com m itted by a pillar of a church, or a spinster
n oted for her charities.
18. A crim e in a detective story m ust never tu rn out to be an
accident or suicide. To end an odyssey of sleuthing w ith such
an anti-clim ax is to ho od w in k the tru stin g an d k in d -h earted
reader.
19. The m otives for all crim es in detective stories should be
personal. International plottings and w ar politics belong in a
different category of fiction—in secret-service tales, for
instance. But a m u rd er story m ust be g e m u e tlic h , so to speak.
It m ust reflect the read er's everyday desires an d em otions.
20. A nd (to give my C redo an even score of items) I h erew ith list
a few of the devices w hich no self-respecting detective-story
w riter w ill now avail him self of. They have been em ployed
too often, an d are fam iliar to all true lovers of literary crime.
To use them is a confession of the au th o r's in ep titu d e and
lack of originality, (a) D eterm ining the id en tity of the culprit
by com paring the butt of a cigarette left at the scene of the
crim e w ith the b ran d sm oked by the suspect, (b) The bogus
spiritualistic seance to frighten the culprit into giving him self
aw ay, (c) Forged fingerprints, (d) The dum m y-figure alibi.
(e) The dog that does not bark and thereby reveals the fact
that the in tru d e r is fam iliar, (f) The final p in n in g of the
crim e on a tw in, or a relative w ho looks exactly like the
suspected, b u t innocent, person, (g) The hypoderm ic syringe
and the knockout drops, (h) The com m ission of the m u rd e r
in a locked room after the police have actually broken in.
(i) The w ord-association test for guild, (j) The cipher, or code
letter, w hich is eventually u n raveled by the sleuth.
10
A careful read in g of Van D ine's rules indicated that he w as avoiding
som e of P oe's m otifs (descriptive passages, the locked room , tricking the
cu lp rit into rev ealin g him self by ap p aren tly su p ern atu ral m eans, an d the
cipher u n ra v e le d by the sleuth) as w ell as some of D oyle's (the cigarette ash
clue, the dum m y -fig u re alibi, and the dog that does not bark). H e agreed on
the g en eral avoidance of rom ance for the protagonist b u t defined other areas
m ore precisely: the crim e m ust be m u rd er, the m u rd erer personally
m otivated, an d the au th o r m ust provide the read er w ith all the evidence, i.e.,
"play fair w ith the reader."
A lth o u g h V an D ine's rules w ere pub lish ed in the American Magazine
in Septem ber 1928 an d therefore available to authors and readers alike, they
w ere never view ed as rigid guidelines. In fact, som e fo u n d them too
co n fin in g (H aycraft 189). W hile they reflected the general tren d of detective
novels of the G olden Age, m any clever authors broke these rules an d still
played fair w ith the reader. (Most notably, John Dickson Carr defied the rule
against description and atm osphere; his books often m erged h o rro r w ith
m ystery an d his descriptions d rip p ed atm osphere, but this d id not detract
from the m ystery.) Instead of confining the genre, Van D ine defined the rules
as they w ere reflected in the m ajority of the detective novels w ritten in the
1920s and 1930s.
Less th an a h u n d red years after Poe's first detective story, the detective
novel w as a clearly defined literary genre entering its heyday, its "G olden
Age," w hich w o u ld forever define the m ystery novel. T he G olden Age saw
11
the d evelop m en t of the story an d character types w hich w o u ld becom e the
stan d ard s for the genre.
N otes
1
T ra d itio n al m ysteries are also referred to as "cozies," a reference to their
setting, w hich w as typically an isolated country house.
2
H olm es is one of those rare literary figures w ho takes on a life of his own.
For y ears people called at No. 221B Baker Street, seeking advice from the
fam ous consulting detective, not realizing th at the address, like H olm es,
w as fictional.
3
A lthoug h D oyle never described H olm es as w earing a deerstalker cap, he
w as often d ep icted this w ay in book illustrations and m ovies, hence the
p o p u la r b u t inaccurate profile.
4
So do all of the Ellery Q ueen novels w ritten in the G olden Age.
12
The G olden Age M ystery
The decade betw een W orld W ar I an d II w as the "G olden Age" of the
detective novel. In that decade of change, people longed for o rd er in their
lives an d to escape from the m isery of the G reat D epression. The detective
novel offered the perfect escape: it took place in an o rd ered w o rld w here
every o n e u n d ersto o d the guidelines, m u rd er w as com m itted w ith o u t any
actual violence, good alw ays triu m p h ed in the end an d the crim inal was
b ro u g h t to justice. It w as a com bination escape novel an d m orality play.
T hree basic types of detectives, each representing a m ystery sub-genre, w ere
established in the G olden A ge and rem ain prom inent today: the professional
detective, the am ateu r detective, and the p riv ate eye. The professional
detective w as som eone w hose job w as crim inal investigation, such as a police
officer or a P inkerton detective. The am ateur detective w as an investigator
w ith no official reason to solve crimes. A m ateurs som etim es served as police
consultants if they h ad special skills, such as a background in m ilitary
intelligence. The p riv ate investigator, or private eye, w as an investigator,
usually a form er police officer, w ho w orked for a professional detective
agency.
Professional D etectives
A lth o u g h the am ateu r detective w as the m ost p o p u lar character type
d u rin g the G olden Age, there w ere a few notable exceptions. Real private
investig ato rs w ere rare, so m ost of the professional detective characters of the
G olden Age w ere police detectives. A gatha C hristie's H ercule Poirot w as a
13
retired police detective; M ary Roberts R einhart's Miss P inkerton w as an
u n d e rc o v e r detective— a nurse w ho w orked for the police; C arter D ickson's
Col. M arch w as head of Scotland Y ard's fictious D ep artm en t of Q ueer
C o m p lain ts.
The appeal of the professional detective lay in his believability. As a
m em ber of the police force he, unlike the am ateur detective, s h o u ld be
in v o lv ed in investigating the m urder.
Since he w as a police officer, the
read er could expect him to use observation an d deductive reasoning to solve
the case, b u t this w as not alw ays true. H ercule Poirot, for exam ple, w as an
exception. A lth o u g h a train ed police officer, he relied on observation and his
in tu itio n (w hich he referred to as his "little grey cells"). W hile this m ade for
in terestin g reading, the books w ere not fair to the reader; there w as no way
the read er could have the sam e clues as a detective w ho relied on instinct
instead of fact.
M odern detective fiction still features police detective stories, b u t they
are now referred to as police procedurals, since the plot revolves around
police proced u res and the technology used in crim e-solving. V ariations on
the police them e include legal procedurals (such as the w orks of John
G risham an d Scott T urow ), and m edical or psychological p rocedurals (such as
the w orks of Patricia C ornw ell an d Jonathan K ellerm an).
A m ateur D etectives
The m ystery featuring an am ateur detective is now referred to as the
traditional m ystery, or cozy. This approach, m ade popular by m ystery w riters
14
of the G olden Age, becam e the stan d ard by w hich later detective stories w ere
judged. The setting w as traditionally an isolated country house w ith a
lim ited n u m b er of characters. Som eone w as m u rd ered an d it w as u p to the
detective, u su ally an am ateur, to investigate the crime, elim inate suspects
one by one, an d confront the killer. A lthough the closed setting m ay seem
artificial to m o d ern readers, the isolation p ro v id ed the au th o r w ith a
m anageable n u m b er of suspects (and clues) w hich allow ed the read er the
chance to solve the m ystery before the detective character.
To insure th at the au th o r w as fair w ith the read er (i.e., p ro v id ed the
read e r w ith the sam e clues as the detective), the trad itio n al m ystery often
in c lu d ed a m ap of the crim e scene and a list of the characters (w ith brief
descriptions) for easy reference.
W ithin this seem ingly lim ited fram e there w as endless room for
variation, as read ers of G olden A ge m ysteries soon discovered. The m ost
variable aspect w as the detective himself. The character could be m ale or
fem ale, a professional or am ateu r detective and could rely on in tu itio n or
dedu ctio n to solve the crim e (to nam e just a few of the m any variables). The
logical, m ale am ateu r detective w as by far the m ost com m on choice, b u t even
w ith in th at ap p ro ach there w as m uch variation from au th o r to author.
T he appeal of the cozy w as that the reader could identify w ith the
detective and attem p t to solve the m ystery. The read er could also relax and
enjoy the puzzle, know ing the violence took place "off stage." M any (if not
m ost) G olden A ge m ysteries fell into this category, including the w orks of
15
D orothy L. Sayers, A gatha Christie, S. S. Van Dine, G. K. C hesterton, M argery
A llingham and, of course, Ellery Q ueen.
A lth o u g h the m ystery genre has expanded a h u n d red fo ld since the
G olden A ge an d d iv id ed into dozens of sub-genres featuring am ateur
detectives of m any types, m ost authors can not resist sen d in g th eir m ain
character into a "cozy" setting at least occasionally. This includes authors and
characters w ho usually operate in a less restricted environm ent, such as
L aw rence Block's b u rg lar Bernie R hodabarr, E dna B uchanan's crim e reporter
Britt M ontero and N ev ad a B arr's p ark ranger A nna Pigeon. Cozy short story
collections are also popular. M ystery au th o r Polly W hitney contributed a
h u m o ro u s d efin itio n of cozies to the Mystery FAQ (Frequently A sked
Q uestions) on the ClueLass Home Page, edited by Kate Derie:
Cozies I have K now n
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
A cozy m ust include at least one cat.
The m u rd e r is usually a dom estic crime. Exam ple: bashing
in y o u r rich uncle's skull is a m uch cozier activity than
taking out 7-11 clerks w ith y o u r Uzi.
The sleu th is alm ost alw ays an am ateur. It's m uch cozier
for a pink -h aired elderly lady to point her knitting needle at
the m u rd e re r th an to have the villain collared by the cops
an d read his M iranda rights.
Tea is served in cozies (double entendre intended).
G raphic violence is eschew ed in cozies. Example: the
m u rd e r is discovered, the ghastly deed having been done
offstage. Some ill-m annered person MIGHT m ention
blood, b u t if so, characters overhearing the rem ark m ust
either tu rn w hite as sheets or sh u d d er deliciously. N obody
in cozies has ever seen blood before.
The m u rd er w eapon in cozies is usually a b lu n t
instrum ent, i.e., a candlestick, a lapis lazuli paperw eight, a
fireplace poker, or Larry King.
Poison is allow able as the agent of death in cozies b u t only if
d ea th is instantaneous. P rolonged suffering (m uch less
16
8.
9.
10.
n au sea an d vom iting) is not perm itted. The b an on
vom iting, I think, is in deference to the cat.
The language of cozies does not p erm it the use of four-letter
w ords. You can leave a cozy open on y o u r kitchen table
w ith o u t fear that y o u r ten-year old w ill ad o p t linguistic
behaviors th at w ill em barrass you before y o u r b rid g e club.
Cozies usually take place in country houses or sm all tow ns.
A ccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, people are far m ore
likely to hate each other if confined in a sm all area together.
T he sam e is tru e of rats. This phenom enon is called "the
behavioral sink," or "St. M ary M eade Syndrom e" [a
reference to A gatha C hristie's Miss M arple books].
You can read a cozy in front of y o u r m other. H ow ever, you
can read anything in front of a cat (Derie 3).
The fact th at authors an d fans can joke about the cozy indicates how
w ell-know n they are. Even readers w ho do not norm ally read m ysteries
recognize the elem ents of the trad itio n al m ystery.
T he H ard-B oiled D etective
The h ard-boiled detective story featured a m ale private eye in a large
city, usually Los A ngeles or N ew York, struggling against organized crime or
corrupt police officials w hile trying to solve a problem for a beautiful female
client. A long the w ay the tough PI w as beaten by bad cops and sexually
tem p ted by im m oral w om en. In the end, he triu m p h ed by overcom ing
tem ptation, solving the problem and outsm arting the police. These stories,
usually w ritten in the first person, w ere the exact opposite of the traditional
m ystery. Some critics th o u g h t them m ore realistic than the cozy, others
th o u g h t they w ere sim ply a m ixture of m ystery and m ale w ish-fulfillm ent.
The clear-cut right-versus-w rong atm osphere of the hard-boiled
detective story ad a p ted w ell to film noir. W orks of its m ost fam ous authors,
R aym ond C h an d ler and D ashiell H am m ett, found their w ay to the large
17
screen. T he stories w ere appealing because the hard-boiled detective w as a
tou g h guy w ith a shady p ast and heart of gold. M en identified w ith him;
w om en loved his virtue. This type of m ystery has e n d u red w ell and rem ains
p o p u lar. Some au th o rs like W alter M osley, w ho w rites about Easy Rawlins,
set their stories in the past; Easy lives and w orks in the black ghetto of 1950s
Los A ngeles. Likew ise M ickey Spillane's Mike H am m er is set in N ew York
City in the 1950s. O ther authors, like Linda Barnes, w ho created Bostonian
cab-driving PI C arlotta Carlyle, prefer to w ork w ith a m odern setting.
O ne of the m ost o u tstan d in g changes in this particu lar sub-genre is the
adv en t of the fem ale private eye. Begun in the early 1980s by M arcia M uller
w ith h er S haron M cCone series,1 the genre becam e incredibly p o p u lar thanks
m ainly to Sara Paretsky and Sue Grafton. Paretsky's V. I. ("Vic") W arshaw ski
and G rafto n 's Kinsey M illhone have done m uch to prom ote the p o pularity of
the m o d ern m ystery, fem ale characters and female authors. D u rin g the
G olden A ge of the 1930s, only 168 m ystery titles by fem ale authors w ere
published. The n um ber grew steadily each decade until it exploded in the
1980s w ith 793 new m ystery titles published by female authors (H eising 261).
The m ystery story is m ore p o p u lar than ever. The am ateur detective is
still the m ost com m on type of m ystery, due m ainly to the developm ent of so
m any specific sub-genres. In Detecting Women 2, W iletta H eising has
com piled a read e r's guide and checklist for m ysteries w ritten by wom en. In
the chapter w hich lists m ysteries by type, she includes forty-nine different
types. W hatever a read e r's interest, he or she can find a m ystery involving
18
th at topic. A sm all sam pling of H eising's list includes m ysteries w hich focus
on cats, gou rm et cooking, com puters, ecclesiastical characters, gay an d lesbian
characters, an d the occult. The expansion of sub-genres is not lim ited to
fem ale characters or authors. H eising uses the sam e categories in her new
book Detecting M en, a read er's guide and checklist for m ysteries w ritten by
m en.
W hatever the type, m o d e rn m ysteries ow e their existence to the three
basic types d ev elo p ed in the G olden Age: the professional detective story, the
trad itio n al m ystery an d the private eye or hard-boiled detective story. D espite
its ever-expanding n u m b er of sub-genres, the m o d ern m ystery still offers
read ers a safe en vironm ent w here they can observe and solve a crime,
know ing th at the crim inal w ill be b ro u g h t to justice in the end. The sense of
com pletion an d m orality, the fo u n d atio n of the G olden A ge m ystery, rem ains
so u n d .
N o tes
1
A ctually, M uller's first Sharon M cCone book, Edwin of the Iron Shoes,
w as published in 1977. The second book, Ask the Cards a Question, was
p ublish ed in 1982, the sam e year Sara Paretsky an d Sue G rafton, inspired
by M uller, each p u b lish ed her first novel.
19
The M en B ehind the M asks
In 1928 tw o cousins, Frederick D annay and M anfred B. Lee, created
Ellery Q ueen for a contest sponsored by M cClure's m agazine an d Stokes
pu b lish in g house. The prize for creating the best new detective novel was
$7500. The cousins w on the contest, but M cClure's w en t b an k ru p t shortly
afterw ards, so they never collected their prize. Stokes p u b lish ed The Roman
Hat M ystery the follow ing year, how ever, beginning a new era in m ystery
w riting.
D annay an d Lee claim that in their youthful naivete, they chose the
nam e Ellery Q ueen for its sound and h ad no idea of its hom osexual
connotations. "Ellery" came from a boyhood friend of D annay's, and
"Q ueen" just so u n d ed right. Since readers often rem em bered the nam e of
the detective b u t not the author, D annay and Lee w anted a nam e that w as
short an d m em orable. C hoosing to use the m ain character's nam e for a
p seu d o n y m w as a sim ple, yet brilliant, m ove on their part. G iven the fact
that the character w as a m ystery w riter, and apparently the author of the
books in w hich he ap p eared , readers had no trouble rem em bering Ellery
Q ueen. P resum ably, this contributed to Q ueen's instant popularity.
U nlike other literary detectives w ho gained p o p u larity over tim e,
Ellery Q ueen w as an instant hit. C om pared to his contem poraries, such as S.
S. V an D ine an d A gatha Christie, Q ueen's stories w ere complex, difficult to
solve, and yet utterly fair to the reader. All the clues w ere there, if the reader
w as clever en o u g h to find them . This, coupled w ith the appealing idea that
20
the a u th o r w as Ellery him self, m ade the books fascinating to readers w ho
w ere u sed to the stilted lectures of V an D ine and endless poisonings by
C hristie.
A fter the first few Q ueen books w ere published, readers w anted to m eet
Ellery an d w o n d ered w hy he h ad not appeared in public. N ot realizing Ellery
w as the resu lt of collaboration, some readers assum ed Ellery Q ueen w as a
p se u d o n y m for S. S. V an Dine, au th o r of the Philo Vance m ysteries. In Royal
Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective, Francis M. N evins described
V an D in e's books:
...they are n o t very highly reg ard ed today. The m any technical
gaffes in plotting, the w ooden characterizations and leaden
prose, V ance's in fu riating m annerism s and his encyclopedic
footnoted disquisitions on intellectual triv ia w hich in te rru p t the
already snail-paced story every few pages—all these flaw s m ake
it alm ost an act of penance to read Van D ine today, even w hen
one realizes the significance of his books as studies in the
possibility an d varieties of em otional solipsism . The m any
w eaknesses of the Philo Vance novels m ake it too easy for us to
forget th at V an D ine alm ost singlehandedly created the skeletal
stru ctu re of th at m ost noble specim en of m ystery fiction, the
form al d eductive puzzle, w hich d u rin g the T hirties w o u ld be
fleshed out an d perfected by the giants of the G olden Age, such
as Carr, Christie, G ardner, Blake, Innes—and Ellery Q ueen (16).
W hile there w ere superficial sim ilarities betw een Philo Vance and
Ellery Q ueen (both are tall, slender, athletic, gentlem en w ho sm oke, talk like
encyclopedias an d w rite books), D annay an d Lee's novels w ere m uch better
o rganized an d infinitely m ore readable. W here Van D ine stretched out a
problem of d ed u ctio n into a novel, D annay and Lee w rote a m ystery novel
th at includ ed a problem of deduction. Van D ine's characters w ere two-
21
dim ensional; their reactions w ere stereotypical and predictable. D annay and
Lee's characters, although based on the types created by Poe, w ere m ore
realistic. U nlike D upin, H olm es or Vance, Ellery m ade m istakes an d w as
em barrassed by them , an d his father, w ho w as a police officer, occasionally
lost all patience w ith his brilliant son.
T heir w ritin g styles differed as well. V an D ine's books w ere w ritten in
the first-perso n by an anonym ous narrator. Even th o u g h he w rote as though
he w ere a w itness to the events in the story, none of the other characters
ad d ressed him or acknow ledged his presence. H e w as a sort of ghostly Dr.
W atson. D annay and Lee's books w ere w ritten in the th ird person. W hile
this m ay so u n d arrogant, it w as tru ly objective; one forgot the au th o r w as
supposedly talk in g about him self and instead focused on the plot and
characters.
By 1932, Ellery Q ueen h ad attained such em inence that he w as invited
to give a lecture on m ystery w riting to the C olum bia U niversity School of
Journalism . N ot w an tin g to give aw ay the au th o r's secret identity, D annay
an d Lee flipped a coin to determ ine w ho w ould give the lecture. Lee lost and
ap p eared as Ellery Q ueen, giving the lecture in a m ask to m aintain his
anonym ity; the audience w as charm ed.
In 1932 and 1933, D annay and Lee w rote four books about another
detective, D rury Lane, using the pseu d o n y m Barnaby Ross. Possessing m any
characteristics of the Q ueen books, the Ross books w ere also an instant hit.
Readers beg an to w o n d er w ho w as sm arter, Ellery Q ueen or Barnaby Ross?
22
The idea th at the tw o m ight be one an d the sam e ap p aren tly d id not occur to
anyone. A lecture b u reau arran g ed a tw o-year cross-country series of
''debates" b etw een Ellery Q ueen and Barnaby Ross, w ith Lee as Q ueen and
D annay as Ross. Both w ore m asks. The debates w ere perform ances carefully
staged to look spontaneous. The tw o detectives w o u ld challenge one another
w ith im aginary m u rd e r cases, defying each other to solve them on the spot.
Q ueen w as alw ays the w inner. Since the authors ap p eared m asked,
speculation as to th eir true identities continued. D espite this, the lecture
tours w ere so convincing that "Q ueen" and "Ross" w ere often asked to solve
local m ysteries w h erev er they w ent.
D annay: 'A lm ost everyw here we w ent as Ellery Q ueen
and Barnaby Ross w e w ere asked to w ork on some local m y stery /
Lee: 'B ut w e rem em bered V an D ine's experience w h en he
u n d erto o k to solve a m u rd er m ystery out in Jersey /
D annay: 'H e w orked long and h ard at it and w as getting
n o w h e re ../
Lee: '...w h e n along came a flatfoot w ho d id n 't know the
difference betw een analytical deduction and p o stu lar acn e...'
D annay: '...a n d solved it in tw o hours' (N evins S o u n d 1415)/
The cousins politely and w isely declined such requests to play real-life
detectives.
Finally, in 1936, D annay and Lee, tired by their busy w riting schedule
and the effort of m aintaining the facade, announced they w ere the real
w riters of b o th Q ueen and Ross. Even after their true identities w ere know n,
D annay an d Lee h ad fun in the novels referring to Ellery Q ueen as the
a u th o r—b u t this tim e the audience w as in on the joke. D annay and Lee's
23
collaboration continued u n til Lee's d eath in 1971. D espite constant p ro dding,
they w o u ld never confide w ho did the w riting and w ho d id the plotting. In
1969 they told the New York Times:
'W e w ill nev er reveal how w e w o rk / exulted Mr. D annay 'a t
least un til w e hang u p o u r gloves.' Mr. Lee said, 'It's w orse th an
m arriage. W e've tried every conceivable form of collaboration.
In the beg in n in g w e 'd plot and w rite together. But Fred and I
never agreed on anything. H e's a very clever, d riv in g k in d of
in d iv id u al and a perfectionist. I'm a perfectionist, too, b u t I tend
to be m ore of an extrovert' (Shenker L36).
A fter D an n ay 's d eath in 1982, their fam ilies ad m itted th at D annay
conceived an d outlined the plots in detail, and Lee d id the actual w riting (De
A ndrea 292). This w as u n d o u b ted ly w hy Lee w as able to devote so m uch time
to develop in g an d editing Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine (EQMM), w hich
he started in 1941. H e also collected the w o rld 's largest library of m ystery
short stories, w hich w as later d o nated to the U niversity of Texas
(S teinbrunner an d P enzler 325).
W hile little has been p u blished about their w ork as authors, even less
has been w ritten ab o u t D annay and Lee them selves. Both m en valued their
privacy an d fam ily lives and seldom gave personal interview s; little has been
p ublished b ey o n d the basic personal inform ation included in C ontem porary
A u th o r s . Both w ere b o rn in Brooklyn in 1905. Interestingly, both m en
sim plified th eir Jew ish nam es as y o u n g adults; Lee changed from M anford
Lepofsky to M anfred Lee, D annay from D anial N athan to Frederick (after
C hopin) D annay. As ad u lts the tw o called each other M anny an d D anny.
24
Francis N evis, m ystery w riter, scholar an d Ellery Q ueen fan, w as so
often asked to describe his im pression of D annay and Lee that he included a
description of th em in his book Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and
Detective:
Y d say th at Fred D annay projects som ething of the p o p u lar
im age of a professor— very precisely spoken, a lover of books
an d the finer things, a trifle absent-m inded over practical
m atters b u t gifted w ith one of the m ost razor-sharp intellects I've
seen in action in my life. M anny Lee w as sturdier, m ore sharpto n g u ed an d robust, th o u g h his health h ad been poor for several
years before his death. H e seem ed to relate m ore to n atu re than
to the things of the m ind. I can't conceive of M anny Lee w riting
poetry, nor of Fred D annay digging his fingers into freshly
tu rn e d earth (12).
D espite th eir difference an d disagreem ents, the tw o m en m ade a
form idable team . P rio r to th eir successful collaboration as Ellery Q ueen, Lee
w as a publicity w riter for a film agency, and D annay w orked for an
advertising agency. In the early 1930s, in ad d itio n to w riting Ellery Q ueen
novels, D annay and Lee w orked as uncredited screenw riters for Columbia,
P aram ount an d MGM. They spent the next forty years devoting their talents
to Ellery Q ueen novels, short stories, a radio show, Ellery Queen's Mystery
M agazine, an d yearly anthologies of short stories by new m ystery authors.
Republic m ade tw o Ellery Q ueen films, The Spanish Cape Mystery
(1935) starring D onald Cook and The Mandarin M ystery (1937) starring the
b rash E ddie Q uillan. Both films w ere loosely based on Q ueen novels.
C olum bia Pictures began a series of Ellery Q ueen films in 1940 in w hich Ellery
w as p o rtray ed by Ralph Bellamy and later by W illiam Gargan. The series
25
in clu d ed Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1940), Ellery Queen's Penthouse
M ystery (1941), Ellery Queen and the Perfect Crime (1941), Ellery Queen and
the Murder Ring (1941), A Close Call for Ellery Queen (1942), A Desperate
Chance for Ellery Queen (1942) and Enemy Agents Meet Ellery Queen (1942).
N one of these film s w as based on Q ueen novels and, in fact, D annay and Lee
h ad n o th in g to do w ith the films. (W hether they received royalties or not is
unclear.) D annay an d Lee w ere u n h ap p y w ith how Ellery w as portrayed by
H ollyw ood. D annay later ad m itted th at if he ran across one of these movies
w hile w atching television in bed he ducked u n d er the covers (N evins Royal
B lo o d lin e 69).
Ellery Q ueen faired better in a radio series, w ritten by D annay and Lee,
w hich ran from 1939 to 1948; a later series ran in the 1950s. Ellery w as
p ortray ed , at one tim e or another, by H u g h M arlow e2, Larry Dobkin, Carleton
Y oung, an d Sidney Sm ith3. Scripts w ere w ritten by D annay and Lee, or Lee
w o rk ed w ith other authors such as A nthony Boucher (De A n d rea 294). The
rad io series g rad u ally m oved to television w here it "ap p eared on three
netw orks (and in syndication) in a tw enty-six year span" ending in 1975
(ibid.). Ellery w as p o rtray ed on television by H ugh M arlow e (who had
previously played Ellery on the radio), George N ader, Lee Philips, and Jim
H u tto n .
In a d d itio n to radio and television, D annay and Lee published Ellery
Queen's M ystery Magazine and edited a yearly collection of anthologies,
w hich featu red the w orks of new m ystery w riters. D annay continued to edit
26
the m agazine after Lee's d eath and it rem ains in publication today. M any
scholars arg u ed th at this w as "Q ueen's" greatest contribution to the m ystery
genre:
...m any m ystery w riters, am ong th em Jam es Yaffe, L ilian de la
T orre, H arry K em elm an, Stanely Ellin and Robert L. Fish, had
th e ir first stories p u b lish ed in EQMM. Established w riters also
contrib u ted stories, and m any becam e p rizew in n ers in th e
m ag azin e's th irte en an n u a l contests (1946-1957; 1962). Ellery
Q ueen achieved his goal [of su p p o rtin g new authors] so w ell th a t
A n th o n y B oucher could accurately say "EQMM has p u b lish ed
every im p o rta n t crim e w riter w ho ever w rote a short story."
D annay also purposely sought out and p u blished stories by
no n m y stery w riters th at are n o netheless about crim e or
detection (S tein b ru n n er and Penzler 326).
D annay an d Lee w ere also founding m em bers of M ystery W riters of
A m erica (MWA) in 1954. Its p urpose w as
...to prom ote an d protect the interest and to increase the earnings
of m ystery story w riters; to m aintain an d im prove the esteem
an d recognition of m ystery w riting to the p ublishing in d u stry
an d am ong the read in g public; to dissem inate helpful an d
re w a rd in g inform ation am ong the m em bership, and to foster
the benefits of stim ulating association w ith others having this
com m on interest and uncom m on talent (ibid. 301).
G iven D annay and Lee's early concern w ith m aking a living from their
w riting, these goals are understandable. M W A 's high stan d ard s have helped
to im prove the stan d in g of the m ystery genre over the years. Each year MWA
presents a series of prestigious aw ards, including:
T h e G r a n d M a ste r A w a rd is recogn ition for not on ly
im portant contrib utions to the m ystery genre over tim e, but also
for sign ifican t ou tp u t of con sisten tly h ig h quality as w e ll.4
T h e E lle r y Q ueen A w a rd is give for w riting team s and
also to o u tstan d in g people in the m ystery-publishing industry.
A n E d gar [nam ed after E dgar A llan Poe] is for the best
w o rk in various categories5 of the m ystery field involving
27
w ritin g .
A R aven [nam ed after Poe's fam ous poem] is for the best
w ork in a field of the m ystery n o t in v olving w riting.
A S c r o l l is recognition for being a nom inee. (Stine 3)
As first cousins, D annay an d Lee shared a fam ily tendency tow ards
h eart disease and, unfortunately for their fans, both died fairly young; Lee in
1971 at age 66, D annay in 1982 at age 77. D espite the relatively early deaths,
D annay an d L ee's w o rk as Ellery Q ueen h ad a trem endous and long-lasting
im pact on the m ystery genre. From establishing a m ore literary novel style,
to their w o rk in radio, television, Ellery Queen's M ystery Magazine and
M ystery W riters of A m erican, few authors have h ad such a w ide-reaching
im pact on a literary genre.
N o tes
1 The cousins knew each other so w ell they frequently finished each other's
sentences, rath er like an old m arried couple.
2
W hile p lay in g Ellery on the radio show M arlow e identified w ith the
character to such an extent that he "apparently lost the distinction betw een
the character an d him self" and opened charge accounts in various
d ep artm en t stores in the nam e of Ellery Queen. D annay an d Lee w ere
convinced M arlow e h ad no intention to d efrau d the stores (indeed, he
p aid the bills), b u t w o n d ered w hose initials w ere his m onogram s, H ugh
M arlow e's or Ellery Q ueen's? (N evins S o u n d 43-44).
3
Like M arlow e before him , Sm ith also h ad trouble d istin g u ish in g betw een
him self and the character. Sm ith jealously g uarded "Ellery's" identity by
never allow ing him self to be p h o tographed except from behind. D annay
and Lee d id not realize the extent of Sm ith's identification w ith the role
u n til they discovered Sm ith had arran g ed a series of interview s and
lectures in persona. This w as p u t to a stop w hen D annay an d Lee
confronted Sm ith about use of their character (N evins S o u n d 60-61).
4
Ellery Q ueen received the G rand M aster A w ard in 1961 (Stine 5).
28
5
C ategories include Best: N ovel, First N ovel by an A m erican A uthor,
P aperback O riginal, Short Story, Fact Crime, C ritical/B iographical W ork,
Young A d u lt M ystery, Juvenile M ystery, Episode in a T elevision Series,
T elevision F eature or M iniseries, M otion Picture, Foreign Film, Play,
Radio D ram a O u tstan d in g M ystery Criticism, and Special E dgars (Stine ix).
29
Q u een 's W orld
D annay an d Lee w ere careful to set up the Ellery Q ueen series so it
ap p eared to be w ritten by a fam ous detective-turned-author.
Each book w as
introduced by "J. J. McC," a friend w ho encouraged Ellery to publish his cases;
references w ere m ade to Ellery's career as a detective an d the Inspector's
retirem en t an d su b seq u en t career as a true-crim e w riter; the authors even
indicated th a t the nam es Ellery an d Richard Q ueen w ere pseudonym s, used
to protect the privacy of the real detectives. The settings, such as the Q ueens'
brow nstone, w ere described in loving detail w hich alw ays p ro v id ed a few
hints about the characters' past.
Secondary characters w ere not as w ell-developed as the series setting,
b u t p ro v id ed the necessary su p p o rt for the m ain characters. Of the few
su p p o rtin g characters, Sergeant T hom as Velie, the Inspector's assistant,
ap p eared m ost often. Velie p ro v id ed a physically strong, protective presence,
w hich balanced the Inspector's m ethodical approach to crim e-solving and
E llery's im aginative approach to the same. Doc Prouty, the M edical
Exam iner, p ro v id ed the m edical inform ation Ellery and the Inspector needed
to solve their cases. A lthough he w as not as im portant as Velie in term s of
case-to-case su p p o rt, P ro u ty 's continued presence helped pro v id e a sense of
co n tin u ity .
Series Background
W hen the Ellery Q ueen series began w ith The Roman Hat M ystery in
1929, the in tro d u ctio n w as allegedly w ritten by "J. J. McC," a friend of Ellery's
30
w ho acted as his literary agent. This literary device w as an attem p t to m ake it
seem as th o u g h the series w as really w ritten by a fam ous detective-turnedauthor. T he in tro d u ctio n also established the id ea that "Ellery Q ueen" and
"R ichard Q ueen" w ere p seu d o n y m s used to protect the privacy of the real
in d iv id u a ls:
C onsequently 'R ichard Q ueen' and 'E llery Q ueen' are not the
tru e nam es of those gentlem en. Ellery him self m ade the
selections; an d I m ight ad d at once that his choices w ere
contrived to baffle the read er w ho m ight endeavor to ferret the
tru th from som e ap p a re n t clue of an an ag ram (Roman Hat xiv).
McC also indicated that the fam ily had retired to an Italian villa to
enjoy their privacy an d that Ellery h ad recently m arried an d started a family:
"Mrs. Ellery Q ueen—Ellery w as now the h u sband of a glorious creature and
the startled father of an infant w ho resem bled his g ran d fath er to an
extraordinary deg ree—w as as gracious as the nam e she bore" (Roman Hat
xiii). "G racious as the nam e she bore" is a vague reference. It w as most likely
a reference to Mrs. Q u een 's p seudonym ous surnam e, b u t it could also have
refered to the last nam e of Paula Paris, the H ollyw ood gossip colum nist w ith
w h o m Ellery fell in love in The Four of Hearts.
D espite the Q ueen fam ily's attem pt to live a norm al life, McC p u sh ed
Ellery to p u b lish his m anuscripts, w hich w ere supposedly based on actual
cases:
The Roman Hat M ystery is based on actual records in the police
archives of N ew York City. Ellery and his father, as usual,
w ork ed h an d -in -h an d on the case. D uring this p erio d in his
career Ellery w as a detective story-w riter of no m ean reputation.
A d h erin g to the ap horism that tru th is often stranger th an
fiction, it w as his custom to m ake notes of interesting
31
investigations for possible use in his m u rd er tales... The
m an u scrip t w as utterly forgotten until I rescued it (Roman Hat
xiv).
A lth o u g h such an ap p ro ach m ay seem unbelievable to the m o d ern
reader, w ho m ight assum e this w as m erely a literary device, in 1929 this w as a
new , appealin g idea. Judging by book sales and Ellery Q ueen's im m ediate
po p u larity , read ers w ere intrigued by the idea of a detective-author. O ver the
course of M cC's introductions and a few descriptions d ro p p ed in the early part
of the series, b etw een 1929-1935, the reader learned that Ellery an d his father
lived in an ap a rtm en t on the top floor of a three-fam ily V ictorian b ro w n sto n e
h o u s e w ith d o rm er w in d o w s on W est 87th street. The ap artm ent w as large
enough to accom m odate a foyer, living room, tw o bedroom s, and a study.
The ap artm en t reflected the bachelor lifestyle of its ow ners: "The Q ueens'
ap artm en t on W est 87th Street w as a m an's dom icile from the piperack over
the h e a rth to the shining sabers on the w all...M o re th an one ind iv id u al,
exalted in his ow n little niche, had w illingly clim bed the u n inviting staircases
to find san ctu ary in this haven" (Roman Hat 86). The read er can not help but
m ake a com parison to Sherlock H olm es' apartm ent at 221B Baker Street. The
sim ilarity becom es m ore obvious in the description of the Q ueen's foyer:
T he foyer w as Ellery's inspiration, if the tru th w ere told. It w as
so sm all an d so n arro w that its w alls appeared u n n atu rally
tow ering. W ith a h um orous severity one w all h ad been
com pletely covered by a tapestry depicting the chase—a m ost
a p p ro p riate app u rten an ce to this m edieval cham ber. Both
Q ueens d etested it heartily, preserving it only because it had
b een p resented to them w ith regal gratitude by the D uke of —,
the im p u lsiv e g entlem an w hose son Richard Q ueen h ad saved
from a noisom e scandal, the details of w hich have never been
m ade public. Beneath the tapestry stood a heavy m ission table,
32
d isp lay in g a parchm ent lam p and a p air of bronze bookends
b o u n d in g a three-volum e set of the A rabian N ig h ts'
E n te rta in m e n t..T w o m ission chairs and a sm all ru g com pleted
the foyer (86).
Like H olm es, the Q ueens h ad such a good rep u tatio n th at they had
royalty am ong th eir clientele. The living room of the brow nstone, w hich
so u n d e d p articu larly inviting, also h inted about the Inspector's past:
T he living room w as lined on three sides w ith a b ristlin g and
leather-reeking series of bookcases, rising tier u p o n tier to the
h ig h ceiling. O n the fo u rth w all w as a hu g e n atu ral fireplace,
w ith a solid oak beam as a m antel and gleam ing ironw ork
spacing the grate. A bove the fireplace w ere the fam ous crossed
sabers, a gift from the old fencing m aster of N u rem b erg w ith
w ho m R ichard h ad lived in his younger days d u rin g his studies
in G erm any. Lam ps w inked an d gleam ed all over the great
sp raw lin g room ; easychairs, arm chairs, low divans, footstools,
bright-colored leather cushions w ere everyw here. In a w ord, it
w as the m ost com fortable room tw o intellectual gentlem en of
lux u rio u s tastes could devise for their living quarters (86).
In the early p art of the series the Q ueen dom icile w as overseen by
D juna, th e ir "m an-of-w ork, general factotum , erran d boy, valet and mascot"
(86 ):
D juna h ad been picked u p by Richard Q ueen d u rin g the period
of Ellery's studies at college, w h en the old m an w as very m uch
alone. This cheerful y o u n g m an, nineteen years old, an o rp h an
for as long as he could rem em ber, ecstatically u n aw are of the
necessity for a su rn am e—slim an d small, nervous an d joyous,
bubbling over w ith spirit an d yet as quiet as a m ouse w hen the
occasion d e m a n d e d —this [sic] D juna, then w o rsh ip p ed old
R ichard in m u ch the sam e fashion as the ancient A laskans
bow ed d o w n to their totem poles. Between him an d Ellery, too,
there w as a shy kin-ship w hich rarely found expression except in
the boy's passionate service (87-88).
The Q ueens' attitu d e tow ards the orphaned D juna reflected their
com passion to w ard s those in need. D juna filled the role of houseboy,
33
a d o p ted son an d y o u n g er brother, hero-w orshipper, and, w h en needed,
com edy relief. H is nationality w as never specified an d he m ight have
rem in d ed read ers of C harlie C han's offspring as p o rtray ed in the m ovies,
w hich started in 1926. D annay adm itted the character w as nam ed after
novelist D ju n a B arnes (N evins Royal Bloodline 18), b u t D juna's character
w as never very w ell developed and he disap p eared altogether after T h e
Spanish Cape M ystery (1935), D annay and Lee's last G olden Age-style novel.
A fter the Q ueens' retirem ent in Italy, the brow nstone w as allegedly
p reserv ed by th eir friends as a m u seu m dedicated to their crim e-solving
careers. Its artifacts included a portrait of Ellery and the Inspector by T hiraud,
the Inspector's snuff box, Ellery's crime library, "...an d , of course, the m any as
yet u n p u b lish ed docum ents containing records of cases solved by the Q ueen's
and now stored aw ay from p ry in g eyes in the C ity's police archives" {R o m a n
Hat xv).
Ellery, a H arv ard graduate, w as a gentlem an of leisure; his father w as a
h ard -w o rk in g police inspector "...w ho drew a sum of $5,900 p er ann u m from
the City treasury for his services as g u ard ian of the peace..." {American Gun
139). Ellery w rote only casually, as he had inherited an in d ep en d en t income:
H e occupied him self chiefly in a stu d en t's p u rsu it of culture and
know ledge, an d since he h ad an in d ep en d en t incom e from a
m atern al uncle w hich rem oved him from the class of social
parasite, he lived w h at he characteristically term ed the "ideal
intellectual life" {French Powder vi).
Ellery w as not the only w riter in the Q ueen fam ily, how ever; on tw o
occasions the authors use fictional quotes from books by Richard Queen:
34
Rambles in the Past (Siamese Twin 113) and American Crime and Methods o f
D etection (Roman Hat 203).
A fter the end of the G olden A ge (circa 1939), no fu rth er references w ere
m ad e to D juna, the Q u een 's retirem en t and the subsequent p reserv atio n of
the brow nstone, or the Inspector's career as a true-crim e author. J. J. McC also
disap p eared , b u t a Judge J. J. McCue w as m entioned m uch later in Face to Face
(1967), w h en tw o of the su p p o rtin g characters looked for a judge to m arry
them on sh o rt notice; such a reference w ould have been recognized and
enjoyed by long-tim e readers. W hile the fram ing device w orked w ell at the
beginning of the series, D annay and Lee d id not develop it as the series
progressed. This m ost likely reflected the changing genre as it m oved aw ay
from the closed env iro n m en t of the G olden A ge m ystery to the m ore realistic
settings of the m o d ern m ystery, w hich required no d etailed explanations of
w hy the m ain character w as a m ystery w riter.
S upporting Characters
Secondary characters lent a sense of realism and continuity to a series.
D annay and Lee used few su p p o rtin g characters in the Ellery Q ueen series:
Sergeant T hom as Velie, the Inspector's assistant; Doc Prouty, the M edical
Exam iner; H en ry Sam pson, the D istrict A ttorney; Mrs. Farbrikant, the
Q ueen's housekeeper; an d Jessie Sherw ood, w ho becam e Mrs. Richard Q ueen.
Of these secondary characters, only Sergeant Velie w as a w ell-developed
character; he w as also the only supporting character w ho w as included in
alm ost every book of the series. It could be argued that since Ellery w as the
35
m ain character, th at Inspector Q ueen w as a su p p o rtin g character, but, since
Inspector Q ueen ap p eared or w as m entioned in every book an d w as usually
involved in the solution, he m u st be considered a m ajor character. H e was
W atson to E llery's H olm es; he p ro v id ed balance for E llery's im agination,
encouraged Ellery w h en he w as frustrated, and, like Ellery, his personality
developed over the course of the series.
S ergeant T hom as Velie, Inspector Q ueen's rig h t-h an d m an, w as the
only su p p o rtin g character w ith a developed personality. A lthough Velie
changed very little over the course of the series, he w as the su p p o rtin g
character w ho ap p eared m ost frequently. Velie w as a tall, strong m an of few
w ords. H e respected the Inspector an d adm ired Ellery; in fact, it w as Velie
w ho first called Ellery "M aestro," recognizing him as a m aster detective.
Velie personified the strong, silent, serious type. H e w as "...sardonic,
cold, un to u ch ed by the near-hysteria about him " (Roman Hat 24). H e was a
m an of few w o rd s; it w as u n u su al w h en he u ttered m ore th an five sentences
in a row in The French Powder M ystery:
'M orning, Inspector! M orning, Mr. [Ellery] Queen! G lad y o u 'v e
come, sir. Y ou'll find things a rotten m ess.' H e stepped aside
and w ave a large h an d at the room and its assorted occupants.
'P retty, eh, sir? M ore like a w ake than the scene of a crime!' It
w as a long speech for Velie (33).
Velie's physical description, "... a giant of a m an [Velie] in street clothes.
H e h ad trem endous shoulders, light eyes, a rock-ribbed face", called to m ind
an im age of actor John W ayne (Dutch Shoe 43). Velie w as not only big and
strong, b u t a sm art and capable police officer. H e was so efficient he
36
som etim es stru ck the other characters as uncanny: "Sergeant Velie, w ho had
the uncanny faculty of seem ing to be in two places at the sam e tim e,
m aterialized at the Inspector's side" (American Gun 57). V elie's efficiency
w as occasionally a liability, as in this exam ple from the short story The Case
Against Carroll:
T he b ro ad m an said, 'M rs. H unt? Sergeant Velie. This is
Inspector Q u e e n / H e d id not bother to introduce the tall young
m an. 'W e'v e got bad new s for you.'
'M y h u sb an d — '
'A n officer fo u n d him aro u n d six-thirty this m orning
over on East 58th, near the Q ueensboro Bridge, in a p ark ed
T h u n d erb ird . H e w as spread across the w heel w ith a slug in his
b rain .'
She got to h er feet, clutching the p en d an t [a ruby-andem erald-crusted locket that had belonged to a Bourbon queen].
T hen h er eyes tu rn ed over an d she pitched forw ard.
'E ver the delicate touch, Velie,' the tall y o u n g m an
rem ark ed from the doorw ay. 'C o u ld n 't y o u have hit her over
the h ead ?' (Queen 's Full 94).
T he au th o rs w ere careful to keep Velie from tu rn in g into the strongb u t-stu p id stereotypical cop, but they occasionally slipped and Velie m ade
u n h elp fu l w ise-cracks:
'She's been d ead at least four days, m aybe five,' Inspector
Q ueen said. 'W h at do y o u m ake of it, Velie?'
'N earer four,' the big sergeant said. 'L ast Sunday some
time, Inspector.' H e glanced w ith longing at the tightly closed
w ind o w s.
'B etter not, Velie.'
The tw o m en rose. They h ad touched nothing by the
body, and that w ith profound care.
Ellery stood w atching them m orosely.
'F in d anything, son?'
'N o. The rain the other night w iped out any tire tracks or
footprints th at m ight have been left. Some spoiling food in the
refrigerator, an d her car is nicely in the garage behind the house.
N o sign of robbery.' Ellery ad d ed suddenly, 'D oesn't som ething
about her strike you as queer?'
37
'Y eah / Sergeant Velie said. 'T hat poesy in her h an d ought
to be a lily /
'S pare us, Velie! W hat, Ellery?' (ibid. 116).
D espite his strong, silent dem eanor, Velie h ad a seldom -seen soft side.
H e w as m a rried an d in Cat o f M any Tails, w h en the killer seem ed to be
stalking youngsters, Velie feared for the safety of his wife an d daughter. Even
his faith in the Inspector and the M aestro w as not enough to p rev en t Velie
from sendin g his fam ily aw ay from N ew York City, the prow ling gro u n d of a
serial killer.
V elie's stren g th w as a com forting presence in the series and the
authors m ad e this clear by com paring him to a large, protective dog. " W ith
Sergeant Velie trailing his trim little figure like a w olfhound after a terrier,
the Inspector m arched d o w n and out of sight" (Door Between 102). As a
"w atch dog," it w as V elie's d u ty to protect the Inspector:
As of old, Doc P routy [the m edical examiner] and Inspector
Q ueen set about snarling at each other over Robert P ott's
spraw ling corpse, like tw o fierce old dogs over a bone. As alw ays
Sergeant Velie, the G reat Dane, chuckled and grow led betw een
th em (Old Woman 54).
Velie's stabilizing presence rem ained w ith the Inspector and Ellery
from the beginning, The Roman Hat Mystery, to the end, The Last Woman in
His Life.
Doc P routy, the M edical Exam iner, w as also a continuing character in
the series. A lth o u g h he d id not ap p ear as consistently as Velie, Prouty w as an
unforgettable character: "A tall lanky m an had come striding across the
carpet, a black bag in his hand. He w as sm oking a vicious-looking cigar w ith
38
no a p p a re n t concern for local fire rules, and app eared to be in a h u rry "
CRoman H at 39). The over-w orked M edical Exam iner w as alw ays harried,
often late to arrive at a crim e scene, and frequently a bit disheveled.
T he au th o rs described Prouty as resem bling "the p o p u lar conception of
M ephistopheles" (135), b u t could not seem to decide if he should have thick
w hite hair, as he d id in The Dutch Shoe Mystery, or w as bald, as he w as in
The Chinese Orange M ystery, just three years later. The authors m ay be
forgiven for this inconsistency; they spent those three years w ritin g the D rury
Lane series, w hich w as pub lish ed u n d er their Barnaby Ross pseudonym .
Surely, little details, such as Doc P routy's hair, w ere easily overlooked.
T hick-haired or bald, Prouty p ro v id ed the m edical inform ation needed
by Ellery an d the Inspector. The M.E. m ade few appearance d u rin g the m iddle
of the series, b u t by the end of the series, the authors m ade it clear that Prouty
only d id field w o rk in very u n u su al cases, and instead relied on younger,
m ore able-bodied assistants. Like Ellery and the Inspector, Prouty w as prone
to the trials of aging.
The other su p p o rtin g characters appeared far less frequently than
Sergeant Velie an d Doc Prouty. D istrict A ttorney H enry Sam pson appeared in
only tw o of the early books, and Ellery had "a playfully bantering relationship;
a long association" w ith him (Roman Hat 71-72). A pparently the "sturdy,
pow erfully b u ilt m an, still youthful" w as not interesting en ough for the
authors to d evelop fu rth er (Dutch Shoe 79).
39
A fter D juna d isap p eared, Mrs. Fabrikant m ade a brief appearance as the
Q u een 's h o u sek eep er in The King is Dead. A lth o u g h seldom m entioned, she
w as w ith the Q ueens long enough for Ellery to affectionately refer to her as
"Fabby." In Inspector Queen's Own Case Jessie Sherw ood, the inspector's
in ten d ed bride, w as not im pressed w ith Mrs. F abrikant's w ork; Fabby had not
cleaned no r aired out the ap artm en t once a w eek as prom ised w hile the
Q ueens w ere on vacation. The Q ueens m ust have overlooked h er lack of
diligence, for she w as m entioned in the last book, The Last Woman in His
Life, w hile Jessie Sherw ood Q ueen w as not.
A fter m ore th an thirty years as a w idow er, Inspector Q ueen proposed to
Jessie Sherw ood at the end of Inspector Queen's Own Case (1956) b u t they
w ere not m arried u n til the beginning of House o f Brass (1968). Sadly, the
in tervening books d id not m ention Jessie or the Inspector's retirem ent. It w as
as if these tw o books form ed a separate chronology w hich w as not
acknow ledged by the rest of the series. Jessie, a retired nurse, seem ed a good
m atch for the Inspector, and she and Ellery liked each other on sight. W hen
they m et, Jessie an d Ellery "...sco u ted the opposition for a m om ent, decided
there w as none, an d fell into each other's arm s" (House of Brass 9). W hen
the Inspector an d Jessie m arried, Ellery p rep ared to m ove out of the
brow nston e to give the new couple m ore privacy, b u t Jessie preferred he stay
so they could be a real family:
[Inspector:] 'So w hat are we to do about Ellery?' So it
cam e out.
'O h, p o o h / Jessie said. 'I m ade u p my m ind long ago.
Ellery w ill live w ith us, and th at's that.'
40
'M aybe he w ill/ the Inspector m um bled, 'a n d then again
m aybe h e'll have som ething to say about it. H e usually does'
(10).
Ellery ap p aren tly liked having a m other-figure in his life, for he w as
very w o rried later in the story w hen he w as unable to reach Richard and
Jessie for several days. W hen Ellery learned Jessie's possible inheritance w as
contingent u p o n the outcom e of a case, he agreed to help and agreed that she
sh o u ld com e along:
[Jessie:] 'T h en w e'll all go. Together, like a fam ily should. Oh,
dear! I forgot I've inherited a w riter for a son. As a fam ily
should. It's those d a rn TV com m ercials.'
'Jessie,' Ellery said solemnly, 'I love you. Go get y o u r face
on' (150).
D espite the a p p a re n t happiness of the Q ueen fam ily w hich revolved
aro u n d Jessie's appearances in Inspector Queen's Own Case and House of
Brass, the au th o rs d id not develop her character, or her presence, further. She
w as not m en tio n ed in the novels in betw een these two, nor w as she
m entioned again after House o f Brass. D annay and Lee never explained w hy
they decided to d ro p Jessie from the series, or w hy these tw o novels seem ed to
exist in a different chronology w hich ignored the Inspector's retirem ent and
m arriage.
D espite the sm all n u m b er of supporting characters, the series h ad a
sense of reality an d continuity. The authors w ere consistent in their
references to E llery's career as a detective and the idea that h e w as the author.
The idea th at the books w ere a collection of cases of a detective-turned-author
lent the air of realism to the series.
41
Reality vs. Fiction
O ne of the defining characteristics of Frederick D annay and M anfred B.
Lee's w ritin g style w as the sense of reality conveyed by the stories. Even
d u rin g the G olden A ge w h en the focus of the m ystery genre w as on the
p u zzle instead of description, plot, an d character developm ent, D annay and
Lee gave read ers a sense that the stories w ere w ritten by an author-detective.
Several m eth o d s w ere u sed to convey this m ood. First w as the definition of
the m ain character as a detective w ho w rote about his cases. This im plied the
cases w ere taken from real-life. Since real crimes are m ore straightforw ard
th an fictional ones, the authors also h ad to explain the rarity of u n usually
com plex m u rd ers. If the read er accepted the idea that u n u su al m u rd ers of the
type in w hich Ellery specialized w ere rare, then the authors also h ad to
address the issue of Ellery w riting about, an d profiting from, such cases.
(Such notorious cases w o u ld surely be recognized by those involved.)
Sim ilarly, the au th o rs created a sense of reality by p ro v id in g solutions,
w ith in the context of the story, for problem s w hich w ere often ignored by
other m ystery w riters: how plausible w as it that the am ateur detective just
h ap p en ed to stum ble over a d ead body everyw here he w ent? W hy d id crime
seem to follow this p erso n around? H ow could the am ateur detective rem ain
calm and w itty w hile people w ere d ro p p in g d ead all aro u n d him?
D annay an d Lee likew ise addressed the issue of having a character who
w as both a detective and an author. They did not ignore the idea that the
w riter w as a character in a story; instead they used this idea to enhance the
42
reality of the story by adm itting, in context, that this w as not a fictional story,
b u t a real crim inal investigation. O ther m ethods of creating the sense of
reality w ere the pragm atic problem s Ellery encountered d u rin g his
investigations, references to other m ystery authors, and acknow ledgm ent of
the friction b etw een the police an d am ateur detectives.
In The Roman Hat M ystery it w as established that Ellery Q ueen w as an
au th o r w hose father w as a police inspector. Because Ellery w rote m ysteries,
his father consulted him on u n u su al cases. H is fam iliarity w ith detective
fiction an d police proced u res gave him a unique perspective, com bining the
logic of the detective and the im agination of the w riter.
As a w riter, Ellery
u sed these u n u su al cases as inspiration for his novels. J. J. McC, w ho
in tro d u ced the G olden A ge novels, referred to Ellery's career as a detective in
alm ost every introduction. The introduction to The Adventures o f Ellery
Q u ee n is typical: "Ellery know s nothing of w hat I am doing— h e's off
som ew here in M innesota tracking d o w n a m u rd erer w ho persists in
rem oving the left forefinger of his victim s—and I daresay he w ill com plain at
my lack of resourcefulness [in this introduction]" (xii).
D espite his rep u tatio n as a successful detective, Ellery seem ed to be
m ore interested in the potential story rather th an the solution of the "real"
crim es he solved, especially early in his career. In The Roman Hat Mystery
before the case w as solved he told the Inspector:
'... My next book is as good as written, D ad.'
43
'Stealing another idea from real life, you rasc al/ m u ttered
the old m an. 'If y o u 're borrow ing the Field case for y o u r plot, I'd
be extrem ely interested to read y o u r last few chapters!'
'P o o r D ad!' chuckled Ellery. 'D on't take life so seriously.
If y o u fail, y o u fail. M onte Field [the victim] w asn 't w o rth a full
of legum es anyw ay.'
'T h at's not the point,' said the old m an. 'I hate to adm it
defeat...' (200).
P erh ap s it w as this lack of com passion w hich p ro m p ted Inspector
Q ueen to constantly rem in d Ellery th at m ost m u rd er cases are straightforw ard
crim es of passion; very few cases w ere cold-blooded and u n u su al enough to
w arra n t E llery's assistance. The Inspector rem inded Ellery of this in T h e
Dutch Shoe M ystery: "For every h u n d red open-and-shut cases th ere's one
th at req u ires a m in d train ed at a dozen universities. Including the university
of crim e..." (49). W hen Ellery w an ted to investigate an u n u su al m u rd er
outside of N ew York City (the Inspector's district) in The Egyptian Cross
M ystery, the Inspector reiterated his point that m ost m u rd ers w ere
straig h tfo rw ard crim es of passion w hich a police officer could solve w ithout
the assistance of a know -it-all m ystery writer:
'The m oral is: M u rd er is m u rd er, and ninety-nine an d ninetenths p er cent of the m u rd ers com m itted anyw here on the face
of the globe, you young idiot, are as easy as pie to explain.
N othing fancy, you u n d erstan d .' The Inspector beam ed. 'I d o n 't
know w h at in tim e y o u expected to accom plish d o w n in that
G od-forsaken country, b u t any flatfoot p o u n d in g a beat could
have told you the answ er' (42).
In a flashback to Ellery's first case, The Greek Coffin M ystery, Inspector
Q ueen's rem in d er seem ed harsh, as though he resented Ellery's interference
(even th o u g h Ellery w as involved because of the Inspector):
44
h e r e 's one case/ chuckled the Inspector, 'in w hich y o u r h ig h ­
falu tin [sic] m ethods of d ed u ctio n aren 't w o rth a tin k er's dam .
Just good old-fashioned straight thinking—no fancy stuff m y
son...The trouble w ith y o u is...you think every case is a m ental
w restling-m atch. You w o n 't give y o u r old m an credit for a little
com m on-sense. Heck, th a t's all a detective needs, anyw ay—
com m on-sense. Y ou're beyond y o u r depth, boy' (168).
P erhaps the Inspector w as rem onstrating the read er along w ith Ellery.
It m u st be kept in m in d that p rio r to 1936, the au th o rs' identities h ad not been
revealed; Ellery Q ueen ap p eared to be a real person, an author, an d the m ain
character of the books. P erhaps because of the public perception that the m ain
character was a real person, the authors felt the need to rem ind the reader
th at w hile the Ellery Q ueen books w ere m ore realistic th an m ost detective
fiction of the tim e, the o dds of such m urders actually taking place w ere
m inim al. A fter the au th o rs' adm ission that they w ere using the nam e of
their m ain character as a pseudonym , the readers could appreciate the subtlety
of such references; it w as as tho u g h the authors w ere sharing a private joke
w ith the reader. Far from h u rtin g Ellery Q ueen's reputation, the au th o rs'
adm ission of their identities ad d ed to the popularity, as readers enjoyed being
"in on the joke."
As an am ateu r detective, Ellery never accepted paym ent for w orking
on cases; instead he m ade m oney by selling his books. In The Egyptian Cross
M ystery, w h en the Inspector com plained about how m uch m oney Ellery
spent flying an d d riv in g all over the country in p u rsu it of the m u rd erer,
Ellery rem in d ed his father that he h ad a w ay to reim burse the expenditures:
45
'M y d ear In sp ecto r/ draw led Ellery, 'I'll w rite a book about it, call
it as a m em ento of m y som etim es im pulsive eru d itio n T h e
Egyptian Cross Mystery, and let the public pay for it!'
Si finis bonus est [If the end is good],
T otum b o n u m erit [It w ill all be good].
- G esta R om anorum [The D eeds of the Romans] (256).
Such an a ttitu d e m ay have struck readers as som ew hat callous, if they
truly believed Ellery w as a real person. In A Fine and Private Place, Ellery was
finally directly accused of profiting from the death of others. N ino
Im portuna, w hose b ro th er has been m u rd ered , told Ellery:
'...So this is how the m u rd er of a brother looks. O m icidio
a sangue freddo.'
' W hy do you say 'in cold b lo o d / Mr. Im portuna?' Ellery
asked.
The adversary eyes tu rn ed Ellery's way. They took his
m easure. 'W ho are you? Y ou're not a policem an.'
'M y son, E llery / the Inspector said, quickly. 'H e has a
professional interest in hom icide, Mr. Im portuna, th o u g h his
profession isn 't policew ork. H e w rites about it.'
'O h? My b ro th er Julio becomes y o u r raw m aterial, Mr.
Q u ee n ?'
'N o t for p ro fit/ Ellery said. 'W e have the feeling this is a
difficult case, Mr. Im portuna. I'm helping out but y o u h av en 't
answ ered m y question' (Fine and Private 64).
It is interesting to note that not only d id N ino fail to recognize the
fam ous detective, b u t the fam ous detective offered no explanation of his
denial. U ntil A Fine and Private Place, the last book of the series, the
question h ad not been ad dressed. By this tim e in Q ueen's career, it w as a
m ute p o in t at best; readers w ere w ell aw are that the m ain character w as
fictional. (Earlier read ers m ay have assum ed th at Ellery changed the nam es
of the people involved or that arrangem ents h ad been m ade w ith the fam ilies
of the victim s to avoid law suits.1)
46
O ver tim e, D annay an d Lee's books reflected the reality of the changing
face of police investigation. As technology increased, E llery's logical and
im aginative in sig h t w as no longer n eeded. In The Player on the Other Side
(1963) he to ld the Inspector th at he no longer felt useful:
'[I felt that,] Well, th at I existed because a certain k in d of
crim inal existed. T hat I d id w h at I d id because he d id w hat h e
did. H e w as—' Ellery probed finely—'h e w as the player on the
other side.'
'O th er side.' The Inspector w et his lips as he w atched
E llery's h an d s at the bar.
'Yes. Well, th at's it. I h av en 't been able to w rite any m ore
because the player on the other side d o esn 't exist any more...
The tim es have o u td a ted him —sw ept him aw ay, an d me w ith
him . I m ean the old me. See w hat I m ean?'
'C om e o n / the Inspector said.
'R ight aw ay, D ad. Because, you see, you constituted
auth o rities have come u p w ith just too m uch w iza rd ry — a speck
of d u st, and y o u know the m u rd erer's height, w eight, prep
school an d breed in g habits. Police science today specializes in
m ak in g th e u n u su a l u su a l—in stan t com m unications, electronic
bugs, consulting head-doctors, non-crim inal fin g erp rin t files...
W hy, even the TV w riters, for all the hoke an d hooey they
shovel out, deal in dosim eters and poly g rap h s an d other
m iracles of the lab, an d som etim es they even use 'em rig h t out...
So w h at chance does little-old-the-likes-of-m e have, w ith m y
old-fashioned w onder? T h ere's no w o n d erm en t left in the real
w orld any longer' (Player 51).
Because of this, Ellery decided that he w ould no longer w rite about
real-life cases. "I'm taking no m ore cases— m ine, yours, anybody's. I'm
th ro u g h in v estig atin g crimes. W hat I w rite from now on is going to come
out of here"— he ta p p e d his tem ple— "entirely. Som ething new , som ething
different. I d o n 't know w h at yet, b u t it will come" (52).
G iving a character w ho is an am ateur detective a plausible reason for
being involved in official police investigations is a problem for m ystery
47
w riters. If the character d id not have police connections, like Ellery Q ueen, it
w as highly unlikely th at som eone just h ap p en ed to be m u rd ered everyw here
they w ent. T his u n fo rtu n ate plot device is referred to by som e read ers as "The
Jessica Fletcher syndrom e," n am ed after the character in the television series
M urder, She Wrote. Jessica, a m ystery w riter, just h ap p en ed to stum ble over
a m u rd e re d body every tim e she tu rn ed around, got involved in the
investigation, and u p stag ed the local police—a habit exasperating to those
w ho w ere u n w illin g to su sp en d th eir disbelief to such an extent. D annay and
Lee acknow ledged this aw k w ard problem early in 1935 by having J. J. McC
ad d ress it in the in tro d u ctio n to The Spanish Cape Mystery'.
...w ho should the trespasser be b u t m y good friend—Ellery
Q ueen!—w ho seem s dogged by a curious destiny.
M uch as he struggles against it, Ellery is constantly being
either preced ed or follow ed by crimes of a violent nature; to such
an extent th a t a m u tu al acquaintance, m ore th an half-seriously,
once rem ark ed to me: 'E very tim e I ask Q ueen out to m y shack
for an evening or a w eekend I hold my breath. H e attracts
m u rd ers the w ay a h o u n d —if h e'll p ard o n the figure—attracts
fleas.'
A nd so he does. A nd so, in fact, he d id on Spanish Cape
(x).
M ore often th an not, Ellery w as in v ite d to w ork on an u n u su al cases;
because of his rep u tatio n he, like Sherlock Holm es, w as consulted by police.
O nly in the stories set in the N ew E ngland tow n of W rightsville d id Ellery
seem to invariably attract crime. In the short story M um is the Word, the
authors m ad e a tongue-in-cheek reference to w hat is now called the "Jessica
Fletcher syndrom e" w hen police Chief A nselm N ew by told Ellery:
48
'D am n it, Ellery, every tim e you come to W rightsville a m ajor
crim e is com m itted.' Ellery sighed. It w as not the first tim e he
had b een so indicted (Q.E.D. 20).
Fortunately for Ellery, his creators preferred a m ore realistic approach
to detective fiction w hich w as reflected th ro u g h o u t the series by com paring
real-life crim e to fiction. Inspector Q ueen often com pared real crim es to the
unlikely crim es in E llery's books. As he com m ented in Inspector Queen's
Own Case:
A m a n w h o 's just taken the life of an infant an d expects the
police any m in u te—no m atter w h at substitute for blood is
flow ing th ro u g h his veins—isn 't going to go in for an ything
fancy. T hat only h appens in my son's books. H um ffrey [the
father an d suspected m urderer] h ad only one th o u g h t in m ind,
to get rid of the pillow case [evidence of the m u rd er by
suffocation] in the quickest and easiest w ay (156).
Just as m u rd erers try to get rid of evidence, innocent people seldom
contam inate evidence by picking u p the m u rd er w eapon, as Ellery rem inded
the read er in the sh o rt story No Place To Live: "Innocent people w ho w alk in
on the corpses an d im m ediately pick up the g u n are com m on in the m ovies
and television," Ellery said, "but in real life th e y 'd rather pick u p a live
rattlesnake. W hy d id y o u pick up the gun, Mrs. G raham ?" (Q.E.D. 72).
The obvious im plication w as th at fictional crim es are far m ore
com plicated th a n those com m itted in real-life. Police look for the m ost
obvious m eans an d suspects because it is the m ost efficient w ay to solve a
crime, and it usually w orks. The reader w as rem inded of this fact by a
conversation b etw een Ellery an d Inspector Q ueen in A Fine and Private Place:
[Ellery: ]'T hen w hat's the problem ? I d o n 't u n d erstan d ,
D ad. Y ou're asking as if y o u 're stum ped, and in the same breath
49
y o u say y o u have a couple of clues that link the victim 's b ro th er
directly to the crim e!'
[Inspector Queen:] 'T h at's correct/
'B u t...F o r heaven's sake, w hat kind of clues are they?'
'T he o p en -an d -sh u t kind. The real old-fashioned variety,
y o u 'd have to call 'em . The k in d ,' Inspector Q ueen said shaking
his m ustache, 'y o u m ystery w riters w o u ld n 't be caught d ead
p u ttin g on one of y o u r stories in this day and age' (54).
U nlike fiction, how ever, not all details are neatly accounted for in real
crimes. O ccasionally, Inspector Q ueen w ished the loose ends in real cases
w ere as neatly tied u p as they are in fiction: "It's just like one of y o u r books,"
Inspector Q u een grum bled. "Y ou'd think once one of the suspects w ould
have an alibi th at could be pro v ed an d elim inate her. O r him , d am n it. But
no..." (Last W oman 102). O ther details, w hich w ould be trite in fiction, are
com m on in real-life crim es. For exam ple, in m ost violent crim es involving
children, the step -p aren t is usually the guilty party. W hile this is true in
actuality, to rely on such a fact in a fictional crime w ould be a cliche on a p ar
w ith "the b u tler d id it": a solution far too sim ple to satisfy the m ystery reader.
E llery's read ers w ere rem in d ed of this in Ten Days Wonder, in w hich the
step-child w as guilty of the crime. As D iedrich Van H orn, the step-father, told
Ellery:
This H o w ard thing, Mr. Q u ee n ...h e's m y son. It d o esn 't m atter
th at I d id n 't actually conceive him. I've read enough detective
fiction to get a lau g h out of the w riters w ho avoid a blood
relationship b etw een a p aren t and child w hen the child, say, is to
be the m u rd e re r in the story; they do it by m aking the child a
foster child. As if that m ade any difference!... (156).
The beauty of having a character w ho w as also a m ystery w riter w as
that such a cliche could also be used the other w ay around: Ellery occasionally
50
rejected trite clues because no m u rd erer w ould leave such an obvious clue.
In A Fine and Private Place Ellery rejected a clue w hich indicated that the
killer w as left-handed:
H is father said, 'H e 's also left-h an d ed /
'L eft-handed? Im possible. N obody stoops to using lefth a n d e d m u rd e re rs an y m o re /
'In m ystery stories' (60).
Such atten tio n to detail reflected the A m erican obsession w ith crime,
m u rd e r in particular. Readers w anted fresh, pu zzlin g m ysteries an d detailed
true-crim e stories. Ellery attem p ted to explain this to a visiting Scottish
policem an in Face to Face:
O ver here w e rew ard hom icide as a m atter of national course.
We dote on o u r m urderers. P h otograph them , interview them ,
beg them for autographs, raise funds for their defense, fight for a
glim pse of them , b u rst into tears w hen th ey 're acquitted. Some
of us even m arry them . I u n d erstan d that T rum an Capote has
been sp en d in g his past few years—years, m ind you— picking
aw ay at a particularly senseless Kansas m assacre, just to get a
book o u t of it. Just? H e'll sell millions! (123).
This d em an d for a sense of realism explained w hy Ellery him self
detested fictional detectives w ho w ere unnaturally calm. As J. J. McC p u t it in
the in tro d u ctio n to The American Gun Mystery'. "I know how incensed he
[Ellery] alw ays becam e at the blithe practice of detective-story w riters w ho
perm itted th eir detectives to sit by being suave and w itty w hile characters fell
dead about them " (232). Ellery's authors dealt w ith this problem by
rem in d in g the reader, hum orously, that Ellery w as not a character in a story.
For exam ple in Halfway House Ellery told a beautiful fem ale suspect:
My d ear child, every one is suspect in an objective analysis; we
can 't afford to be sentim ental because one person is old and
51
decrepit an d another y o u n g and beautiful. Besides, since this
isn 't a detective story, w e know that Mr. Borden is a sem i­
paralytic an d could not possibly have com m itted the crim e (217).
Halfway House, w ritten in 1936, was the first Ellery Q ueen novel
p u b lish ed after the revelation of the au th o rs' identities. This w as the first
tim e the read e r u n d ersto o d the irony: that Ellery Q ueen was a fictional
character in a detective story, not a real person w riting about his cases.
R eaders m u st have enjoyed such references, for the authors continued
m aking th em from th at p o in t on, usually in a h u m o ro u s and entertaining
w ay. T he follow ing dialog, from Double, Double, is a excellent example:
[Rima asks Ellery]: 'D o all detectives' secretaries call the
C hief?'
'A ll w ho have secretaries, I suppose.'
'D o you have one?'
'N o t at the m om ent. But then, Rima, I'm not in a book.'
'Y ou ought to be!' They both laughed, and the day
brig h ten ed (94).
In the later novels the references took on a m ore som ber tone. The
reference to reality came, not w ith lighthearted hum or, b u t w ith a rem inder
of grim reality. In The King is Dead, Ellery and Inspector Q ueen w ere visiting
a sm all island w hen they stum bled up o n a m ilitary enclosure. They w ere
w arn ed aw ay an d w h en they d id not take the hint, they w ere d ragged inside
and beaten by the soldiers:
A cool sm all voice kept saying to Ellery, This is ridiculous, it's
something you're reading in a book, as his fist kept cracking
against flesh and faces stared into his and blue sky and blue sea
and w hite sand an d green palm s w hirled and p ain jolted from
every direction and finally exploded in his m iddle an d he found
him self prone on the sand w ith his nose grinding into some
shale and a crushing w eight on his back (King 82).
52
P erh ap s this w as ju st E llery's unconscious m ind, his in n er voice,
help in g him cope w ith the unexpected violence. If so, the read er m ig h t have
expected no fu rth er references w hich com pared fiction to reality, b u t the
references continued. L ater in the sam e book the narrativ e rem in d ed the
reader: "This is the k in d of in d u strial story that could never have been
invented in fiction. N o one w o u ld believe it..." (162). The acknow ledgm ent
th at tru th w as stran g er th an fiction lent an air of reality to novels in w hich
this technique w as used.
In later books, the authors used the com parison of fiction and reality in
an ironic w ay, changing the tone back to a serious, b u t lighter, m ood as in this
exam ple from The Player on the Other Side:
It w o u ld m ake nice dram atic unity here to report th at the
telep h o n e rang, b rin g in g Inspector Q ueen the inform ation that
w o u ld afford him the one m ore little p u sh he craved.
A ctually, nothing of the sort happened. A n d w hen it did
happ en , th ere w as no fanciness about sym bols an d initials and
such (198).
A nother factor w hich contributed to the sense of reality in the Ellery
Q ueen m ysteries w as the difficulties Ellery and the Inspector encountered
w hile w orking on cases. Investigations seldom w ent sm oothly, and often an
inordinate n u m b er of suspects w ere involved. In The American Gun
M ystery, in w hich a m u rd er took place at a crow ded rodeo show , Ellery's
com plaints su m m arized a few of his cases w ith m ore th an the usual n um ber
of suspects:
'A very deep well, I m ust say,' sighed Ellery. 'W e retu rn to
crim inal in v estig atio n in the best Q ueen m an n er—noth in g less
th an suspects by the carload. You rem em ber that d am n ed Field
53
case? A theatre [sic] full of potential m urderers! [in The Roman
Hat Mystery\ The French m urder? A d ep artm en t store jam m ed
w ith shoppers [The French Powder M ystery]. O ld lady D oom 's
queer dem ise? Just a hospital packed w ith doctors, nurses, and
neurotics [The Dutch Shoe Mystery]. A nd now a sports arena.
O u r next m u rd erer,' he said dream ily, ' w ill u n d o u b ted ly choose
the Yankee S tadium as the scene of the crime, an d then w e'll
have to call out the Jersey reserves to help us sift a crow d of
70,000!' (76).
A n o th er p ro b lem Ellery encountered in his investigations w as
w orking on closed cases in w hich the inform ation and evidence w as old and
outdated. In The Murderer is a Fox, Ellery attem pted to solve a tw elve-year
old m u rd e r and w as frustrated by the am ount of tim e that h ad passed
b etw een the crim e an d his investigation. The only advantage w as that the
m u rd e r took place in W rightsville, a sm all tow n, not in a large m etropolis
like N ew York:
Ellery silently blessed the circum stance that h ad set the crim e in
W rightsville rath er th a n in a large city. A ny m u rd er case in a
to w n of ten th o u san d souls, half-industrial, half-rural, w o u ld be
b o u n d to becom e a cause celebre, details of w hich w ould be
repeated for years by those lucky enough to have been involved,
and so p erp etu ated . If there w as the inevitable d anger of details
becom ing d isto rted and the various stories enlarged th ro u g h
repetition, th ere w as also the contem poraneous testim ony in the
trial records as reference. It w as not w onderful that the colored
delivery boy of fourteen should, as a responsible citizen of
tw enty-six, recall the details of that grape-juice delivery tw elve
years before; it w ould have been w onderful if he h ad not done so
(%).
A n o th er m ethod the authors used to lend an air of reality to the novels
w as quotin g literary sources and referring to w orks of other m ystery w riters.
The quotes w ere often fictional, b u t referred to either Ellery or Inspector
54
Q ueen. For exam ple, in The Roman Hat Mystery, a quote from a book
allegedly w ritten by Inspector Q ueen w as used to introduce a chapter:
The perfect crim inal is a superm an. H e m u st be m eticulous in
his techniques: unseen, unseeable, a Lone Wolf. H e m u st have
neith er friends nor d ependents. H e m ust be careful to a fault,
quick of brain, h an d and foot... But these are nothing. T here
have been such m en ... O n the other h an d , he m u st be a favored
child of Fate—for circum stances over w hich he cannot have the
rem o test control m u st never contrive his dow nfall. This, I
think, is m ore difficult to achieve... But the last is m ost difficult
of all. He m ust never repeat his crime, his weapon or his
m o tiv e ! In all m y tw o-score years as an official of the A m erican
police I have not once encountered the perfect crim inal nor
investig ated the perfect crime.
-From American Crime and Methods o f Detection by Richard
Q ueen (203).
This quote gave the read er the feeling that the Inspector w as a real
person, an experienced detective w ith a distinguished career, w ho had
inspired his son to quote him . Sim ilar quotes about Ellery w ere also used, as
in this ch ap ter opening from The Dutch Shoe M ystery:
T here are only tw o detectives for w hom I have felt, in m y ow n
capacity as hunter-of-m en, any deeply underly in g
sym pathy...transcending racial idiosyncrasies and overlapping
barriers of space and tim e....These two, strangely enough, present
the w eird contrast of unreality, of fantasm [sic] and fact. One has
achieved lum inous fame betw een the boards of books; the other
as kin to a veritable policem an....I refer, of course, to those
im perish ab les— Mr. Sherlock H olm es of Baker Street, London,
and Mr. Ellery Q ueen of W est 87th Street, N ew York City.
— fro m 30 Years on the Trail
— by Dr. Max Pejchar *
* Ed. N ote: V iennese police-consultant (15).
This exam ple w as m ore detailed than the quote from Inspector Q ueen
and includ ed an ed ito r's note explaining w ho the quote w as from. The idea
55
th at a n oted police consultant w o u ld com pare Ellery Q ueen to Sherlock
H olm es w as u sed to enhance Ellery's authority and reputation. It is w orth
noting th at w h en the authors referred to Sherlock H olm es they alw ays d id so
in such a w ay to im ply th at H olm es w as a real person, a sm all hom age to the
m aster detective w ho in sp ired E llery's creation.
'M y G o d / he [Ellery] said. 'This p u rp o rts to be an
ad v e n tu re of Sherlock H olm es in the original m anuscript,
h a n d w ritte n by Dr. W atson!'
'W ou ld y o u say it's authentic?'
E llery's silvery eyes glittered (Study in Terror 11).
U nlike references to H olm es an d W atson, E llery's contem poraries w ere
alw ays referred to by the au th o rs' nam es (not the characters' nam es), an
im plication th a t they p aled in com parison to Sherlock H olm es, w hile Ellery
(w ho w as frequently com pared to Holmes) d id not. This m ight strike the
read er as either arrogance or as a deep affection for a character w ho could
have no equal.
M ost references to Ellery's contem poraries w ere done is a light-hearted
m anner. In The Spanish Cape Mystery, Ellery acknow ledged th at he lacked
the perceptive pow ers of S. S. Van D ine's Philo Vance, to w hom he w as
frequently com pared early in his career: "Uh, yes, that [the p erson w ho snuck
into the room in the dark] w as a female. D id n 't you sm ell the pow der? Sorry
I can 't give y o u the m ak er's nam e and odeur; I've never been V ance-ish in
that direction" (139).
W hile m ost references to E llery's contem poraries w ere respectful, the
au th o rs' dislike of the hard-boiled detective was apparent:
56
[Ellery: ] 'W hat kind of a m an sw ears at a w om an?'
'W ell, s ir / m u rm u red Tiller [the butler] after a discrete
cough, 'in fiction it is the—ah—D ashiell H am m ett type, sir.'
'A h, a h eart of gold beneath a hard-boiled exterior?'
'Yes, sir. B lasphem y, the use of violence...' (Spanish Cape
109).
As a bibliophile, Ellery w as often depicted reading or collecting books.
H is love of books and first editions clearly reflected Frederick D annay's
in terest in collecting m ysteries. In The Finishing Stroke, Ellery, snow bound
in a frien d 's house, searched the library for som ething to read:
It d isp lay ed some new and recent books, am ong them one
entitled How Like a God by som eone nam ed Rex Stout,
publish ed by V anguard. It w as a first novel, Ellery recalled, and
the New York Herald Tribune review of it h ad said som ething
about its p low ing 'straight, deep furrow s th o u g h t the black soil
in w hich G abriel D 'A nnunzio and D. H. Law rence staked out
claim s.' Ellery decided to investigate this literary nova; he took
the Stout book from the shelf and w ent quietly out (118).
D annay an d Lee prom oted not only their fellow authors, b u t their
fellow m ystery-lovers, w riters w ho prom oted and analyzed the m ystery
genre. In the short story The President Regrets Ellery used a real reference
book w ritten by a friend: "The m om ent he hung u p Ellery leaped to his
bookshelves. H e snatched out his volum e of Murder for Pleasure, the
historical w o rk on detective stories by his good friend H o w ard H aycraft, and
found w hat he w as looking for on page 26" (Q.E.D. 149). Like H aycraft,
D annay and Lee w ritin g as Ellery Q ueen w ere one of the strongest proponents
of the m ystery genre, su p p o rtin g its developm ent (via editing and
organizations like the M ystery W riters of America) and recording its history
(by collecting one of the largest and m ost com plete m ystery libraries,
57
com piling suggested read in g lists, etc.). It w as D annay's bibliom ania that w as
reflected in Ellery.
In a d d itio n to prom oting contem porary authors, D annay an d Lee m ade
no secret of th eir d isd ain for the cliches of the m ystery genre. D uring the
G olden A ge, the focus of the m ystery story w as on the problem , rath er than
descriptions of the setting or characters.2 This w as acknow ledged in an
a u th o r's note in The Dutch Shoe M ystery by w hich refused to describe Ellery's
dom icile a second tim e, since it w as described com pletely in the previous
book:
D etective stories sh o u ld concern them selves w ith relevancies.
N o d escrip tio n of the m ore or less w ell-know n Q ueen dom icile
on W est 87th Street is furnished here for the good an d sufficient
reason th at it w as fully described in an adventure post-dating
The Dutch Shoe M ystery in time, but antedating it in appearance
as a novel. I refer to The Roman Hat M ystery (Frederick A.
Stokes C om pany, '29). —A u th o r's N ote (119).
T he au th o rs' contem pt for the cliche of tricking the m u rd erer into
confession by confronting him w ith the body w as ap p aren t in The Chinese
Orange Mystery, Ellery scoffed at the m ere suggestion:
'S a y / snapped the Inspector, 'd o n 't tell me y o u 're going to
pull one of those old psychological gags of confronting the
suspects w ith w h at seem s to be the corpse risen from the dead!
By th u n d er, El, th a t's—'
'N o w th a t/ said Ellery sadly, 'is the unkindest cut of all.
H ave y o u really such a low estim ate of m y m entality? Of course
I h a v e n 't any such notion. This is an experim ent in the nam e of
science, d ear father. N o hocus-pocus about it. The theatre [sic] I
referred to w as an afterthought. U nderstood?' (168).
The au th o rs u sed the sam e plot device in a short story, The A dventure
o f the Mad Tea Party, w hich w as published the same year as The Chinese
58
Orange Mystery. Possibly the authors decided it d id not fit Ellery's logical
ap p ro ach to crim e-solving after criticism from readers. (A ccording to S. S.
V an D ine's rules for w ritin g detective stories, w hich D annay an d Lee obeyed
for the m ost part, relying on trickery instead of logic w as unfair to the reader.)
T he au th o rs expressed th eir opinion that "the b u tler d id it" solution
w as unsatisfactory in The Fourth Side o f the Triangle:
The fact th at 'th e chauffeur done it / as the m an on the street p u t
it, seem ed to take the zing out of the Sheila Gray m u rd er case. It
w as as if the case-hardened m ystery buff, reading a new w o rk of
fiction, w ere to follow the red herring thro u g h 250 pages and
find, on page 251, that the crim inal w as the butler. O ther new s
began to crow n the Grey case into corners of the front pages, and
soon it w as being reported on page 6, and beyond (177).
H av in g learn ed their lesson from The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party
an d The Chinese Orange M ystery, the authors follow -up w ith a second
solution, w h ich w as m uch m ore satisfying to the reader.
The final m ethod Q ueen used to lend an air of reality to his novels was
the relation sh ip b etw een police an d am ateur detectives. Police w ere m ore
w illing to tru st others in their ow n profession th an some m ystery w riter w ho
h ap p e n ed u p o n the scene of the crime. In The Siamese Twin M ystery, Ellery
and Inspector Q ueen w ere trap p ed in the m ountain-top estate of Dr. John
Xavier. The doctor w as m u rd ered and the estate w as cut off from the
authorities by a forest fire raging below. Inspector Q ueen w as able to call the
local police before the phone w ent d ead and, given the unu su al
circum stances, he w as granted the authority to conduct the m u rd er
investigation. As Inspector Q ueen explained to the others in the house:
59
"W hen I in tro d u ced m yself over the w ire he jum ped at the chance an d m ade
m e a special d ep u ty w ith full authority to conduct the investigation and m ake
the arrest. H e'll get u p here w ith the county coroner as soon as it's possible to
break th ro u g h the fire.... A nd so it's u p to us" (71). It is im portant to note that
the Inspector w as allow ed to conduct the investigation because he was a
police officer.
Police d ealin g w ith am ateur detectives w ere u n d erstan d ab ly less
cooperative. In The Devil to Pay, Ellery arrived on the scene of the crime and
w as not recognized by Inspector Gluck, of the local police. Gliick tolerated
E llery's presence at first, b u t as his patience w ore thin, his attitu d e reflected
that of a police officer annoyed by an am ateur detective:
Inspector Gliick had long since regretted his w eakness in
allow ing the bearded young m an [Ellery] to linger on the scene.
The m an w as clearly one of those sm art-aleck, theorizing
am ateu rs w h o m Gliick had alw ays despised. M oreover, he
asked em barrassing questions before subordinates. Also, by
sheer luck he m ig h t stum ble on a solution and thus rob a h a rd ­
w orking professional of the prey, the publicity, and the
dep artm en tal rew ard s of sensational success. All in all, a
n u isan ce.
So the Inspector blew up. 'I'm not going to have any
investigation d isru p ted by a guy w ho w rites detective stories!' he
bellow ed. 'Y our old m an has to take it because he's got to live
w ith you. But y o u 're three thousand miles aw ay from Centre
Street, an d I d o n 't give a hoot in hell w h a t you think about m y
case!'
Ellery stiffened. 'A m I to u n d erstan d that y o u 'd like me
better at a distance?'
'U n d erstan d y o u r left tonsil! Scram!'
'I never th o u g h t I'd live to see the day ,' m u rm u red Ellery,
nettled b u t trying to preserve an Emily Postina savoir faire.
'T h at's H ollyw ood hospitality for you!' (69).
60
Of course, w ith o u t Ellery there w as no story, so Gliick changed his
m ind once he fo u n d out Ellery w as the son of the fam ous Inspector Q ueen of
the N ew York Police D epartm ent. This w as quite a stretch of reality, since the
story w as set in H ollyw ood, on the opposite side of the country, b u t it allow ed
the au th o rs to reflect a sense of the frustration real police m ust feel w h en
confronted by "helpful" suggestions. A lternately, Ellery knew the police m ust
be extrem ely fru strated by the tim e they consented to consult w ith him , as in
the short story Murder in the Library o f Congress: "Ellery responded to
Inspector T errence Fineberg's invitation w ith pleasure. Fineberg, in charge of
the C entral Office, w as one of Inspector Q ueen's ancient beat-buddies, and he
used to slip Ellery candy bars. H e detested am ateur detectives, so the old
m in k m u st have been desperate" (Q.E.D. 88).
References to real-life police w ork turned grim in D annay and Lee's
later books, reflecting the shift in the m ystery genre to m ore descriptive
details of the d ark er side of police w ork. In The Player on the Other Side
Ellery had w riter's block and hoped to find story ideas in the Inspector's
cu rren t cases. Lacking anything u n u su al enough to provide Ellery w ith a
story, the Inspector's frustration reflected the contrast betw een the grim w orld
of real crim e an d the ivory tow er of detective fiction:
'H ello, D ad. A nything hap p en dow n to w n today?' A nd
this w as sim ply another w ay of saying, Because nothing
h ap p en ed u p here to d ay ...as usual.
A nything happen? the Inspector thought. Oh, yes. A 183ticket scofflaw happened. A bakery-truck driver allow ed his
eleven-year-old son to w atch him blow off the m o th er's head
w ith a 12-gauge shotgun; that happened. A nd two good officers
w ere beaten up by w h at looked like the total po p u latio n of the
61
slum block in w hich they w ere picking u p a pusher; th ere's a
h u m a n interest problem for yours. A nd th en there w as the
m ysterious case of the teen-ager, a little girl really, w ho had
alread y found out so m uch about life that she d ran k an
incredible quantity of gasoline an d w as being ru sh ed to the
hospital w h en the am bulance h it a taxicab, killing b o th drivers,
the taxi-fare, the in tern —everyone involved b u t the terrified
kid, w ho w o u ld survive. A n d the thirty-year m an the Inspector
h ad k n o w n since the days w hen the police stables had d irt floors
a n d sm elled of honest horse sw eat instead of carbolic acid—a
C ap tain n o w — h e w as caught today w ith his h an d in the till; and
w h at w o u ld you do w ith that, my son?
'N o th in g / the old m an said to his son.
'R a ts/ Ellery said. 'I w as h o p in g .. /
This w as the interchange, spoken and unspoken, this was
the m o m en t w h en the Inspector's containm ent could contain no
m ore an d the sluice spilled over, not silently.
'W ell, w h at do you k n o w / Inspector Q ueen said in a loud
voice. 'You w ere h o p in g ,' and the sluice-gate opened and out it
po ured , in a snarling rush. 'You w ere hoping I'd bring you a
present, little boy? Some nice chewy chocolate-covered goodie
hot off C entre Street?'
Ellery took his feet do w n and sw ung about to look. A n
unbelievable pugnacity in his father's stance, w eight shifted
forw ard, not quite to the balls of his feet, heels not quite raised...
'H e y / said Ellery, jum ping up.
'So you can get off y o u r backside! W hat d id you do all
day?'
Ellery said. 'I—'
'H o w m any cups of coffee did you d rin k today? H ow
m any packs of lung-busters d id you smoke? Do y o u know this
room stinks? Ever hear of opening a w indow ? It looks like one
of those test cham bers at A ir Pollution Control in here! W hat's
gotten into you, Ellery?' (47-8).
D espite the Inspector's im plications of naivete or isolation on the part
of the author, one of the reasons D annay and Lee's w ork stood out w as the air
of reality reflected in the stories. Real crime is usually d irtier and less
com plicated th an the average m ystery, b u t acknow ledging this fact, w hich was
ignored by m any of D annay and Lee's contem poraries, strengthened the Ellery
Q ueen series.
62
N otes
1
Such th in g s do h ap p en to authors. In 1997 Patricia C ornw ell w as sued by
angry p aren ts w ho claim ed one of her novels w as a thinly disguised
retelling of th eir d a u g h te r's gruesom e m urder.
2
T here w ere notable exceptions: Rex Stout an d fohn D ickson C arr d oted on
descriptions an d D orothy L. Sayers once m ade the m u rd erer a m aid (i.e.,
"the b u tler d id it").
63
Father an d Son
R ichard an d Ellery Q ueen shared an u n u su al relationship w hich w as
both professional an d personal. Professionally, the Inspector d ep en d ed on
E llery's d ed u ctiv e skills to m aintain his ow n reputation. Personally, they
shared a close father-son relationship, realistically com prising p rid e, affection
and exasperation. As Ellery grew professionally, he relied on his father for
em otional su p p o rt. The Inspector realized th at as E llery's rep u tatio n
increased, he d em an d ed greater perfection of him self and, consequently, was
deeply sh ak en by his occasional failures.
The fram ew ork for the Ellery Q ueen series w as that Richard Queen,
police inspector of the N ew York City Police D epartm ent, often relied on the
assistance of his brilliant son, w ho h appened to be a m ystery w riter.
A lth o u g h Ellery w as observant, logical an d im aginative, he w as bored w ith
routine m u rd ers; w hich w as just as w ell, since the Inspector only n eeded his
assistance on really u n u su al cases:
Ellery Q ueen, as m ay be im agined, deplored the m ore
unim aginative aspects of his father's profession. H e w as the
p u re logician, w ith generous d ash of dream er an d artist th ro w n
in—a lethal com bination to those felons w ho w ere so
unfo rtu n ate as to be dissected by the keen instrum ents of his
m ind, alw ays u n d er those questing pince-nez eyeglasses. H is
"life w ork" before his father's retirem ent w as h ard ly visible to
the eye, unless his casual custom of w riting a detective story
w hen the spirit m oved him m ay be term ed a life w ork. .. .It was
n atu ra l for him to evince an intense interest in crime, d u e to his
enviro n m en t, w hich from childhood h ad been satu rated w ith
tales of m u rd er an d law -breaking; b u t the artistic elem ent in his
n atu re m ade him useless for routine police investigation
(French Powder vi).
64
G iven th at Ellery w as raised by his w idow ed father, a police detective,
an d in h e rited an in d e p en d en t incom e from a m aternal uncle, it w as not
su rp risin g th at he developed an interest in crim e an d m ade it his life's work.
D espite their different approaches to crim e-solving, or perh ap s because of
them , Ellery an d the Inspector m ade a good team. Each com plim ented the
other: the Inspector relied u p o n the practicalities of police procedure, w hile
Ellery u sed a com bination of logic and im agination:
In m atters of p u re tenacity, w hen possibilities lay frankly
open on every hand, Richard Q ueen w as a peerless investigator.
H e h ad a crystal-clear m ind for detail; a retentive m em ory for
com plexities of m otive and plot; a cool view point w hen the
obstacle seem ed insuperable. Give him a h u n d red facts, bungled
an d torn, out of p ro p o rtio n and sequence, and he h ad them
assem bled in short order. H e w as like a bloodhound w ho follows
the tru e scent in the clutter of a hopelessly tangled trail.
But the in tu itiv e sense, the gift of im agination, belonged to
Ellery Q ueen, the fiction w riter. The tw o m ight have been tw ins
possessing abnorm ally developed faculties of m ind, im potent by
them selves b u t vigorous w hen ap plied one to the other (R o m a n
H at xiv).
The Inspector m ight have been accused of using his son's talent to his
ow n advantage. Indeed D annay and Lee stated in The Roman Hat Mystery
that "...the old m an, let m e repeat, ow ed a respectable portion of his
rep u tatio n to his son's genius" (ibid.). Instead of being resentful or selfish, as
m ight be expected, the Inspector w as p ro u d of Ellery:
R ichard Q ueen, far from resenting the bond w hich m ade his
success so spectacularly possible—as a less generous n atu re m ight
have d o n e—took pains to m ake it plain to his friends. The
slender, grey [sic] old m an w hose nam e w as anathem a to
contem porary law breakers, used to utter his 'confession/ as he
called it, w ith the naivete explicable only on the score of his p ro u d
fatherhood (ibid.).
65
T he p ro u d father teased his son: "Talk about y o u r logic!" he chortled.
"M y son, I'm alm ost p ro u d of y o u —that is, I w ould be if you w eren 't so
disgustingly conceited..." (Roman H at 161). Ellery often teased his father back:
Tf I w ere as nasty as some people think I a m / m used
Ellery, leaning back, T m ight w ith perfect justice say, T told you
so /
'W e know w h en w e're licked, m y son—d o n 't rub it in /
chortled the Inspector (ibid. 194).
P erhaps the m ost touching exam ple of Inspector Q ueen's p rid e w as the
scrapbook he secretly k ep t of Ellery's cases and the related new spaper
coverage. In Ten Days' Wonder, Ellery delivered a long d enouem ent tying
the m u rd e r of Sally v an H o rn by her husband, an d the subsequent fram ing
an d suicide of her step-son, to the T en C om m andm ents. A fterw ards, the
Inspector ad d e d m any new pages to his scrapbook:
As Inspector Q ueen said: M urder, sex, and G od—
circulation m anagers dream about a case like this.
Som ehow the full rep o rt of Ellery's serm on on the Ten
C om m andm ents got to the ears of the first w ire service to hook
onto the case. T henceforw ard it w as rugged. Ellery Queen's
Greatest Case, Noted Tec's Ten-Strike, Mosaic Murderer Meets
Master, Sleuth Traps Bad Man with Good Book, E. Q. Tops Own
T r iu m p h s —these w ere m erely a few of the original headlines
and su bheadlines w hich m ade the m aster squirm . B lizzards of
clips from n ew spapers all over the U nited States and C anada
w hiten ed the floor of the Q ueen apartm ent as Inspector Q ueen
invested his h ard -earn ed m oney for the greater glory of his son's
scrapbook, w hich w as no idea of his son's but strictly of his son's
father (174).
D espite Ellery's success, and his father's dependence on him, Ellery's
involvem ent in his father's career w as kept quiet, at least in the early novels.
"...I cannot em phasize too strongly the fact that he w as heavily d ep en d ent
upo n his son's w it for success in m any of his professional achievem ents.
66
This is not a m atter of public know ledge" (xv). D annay an d Lee took great
pains to m ake sure the Inspector w as not u p stag ed by his clever son. In T h e
French Powder M ystery, Ellery m ade it clear d u rin g the d en o u em en t that he
w as acting on the Inspector's behalf:
'T h en let m e ex p la in / continued Ellery, tu rn in g back to his
audito rs, 'th a t I am m erely taking the place of Inspector Q ueen,
w ho is unable to take charge because of a m inor th ro at ailm ent
w hich m akes long speaking difficult and painful. Correct, sir?'
H e b o w ed very solem nly in the direction of his father. The
Inspector grew even paler th an before, n o d d ed w ordlessly (227).
O ver tim e, Ellery an d the Inspector developed an easy professional
relationship , w hich overlap p ed their personal relationship. Each u n d erstood
the w ay the other thought, his m oods, and his needs. In The Player on the
Other Side, for exam ple, the Inspector understood far m ore th an the literal
m eaning of E llery's message:
The rad io room called Inspector Q ueen an d told him th at his
son w as hellbent [sic] for the jail, and w ould the Inspector m eet
said son there im m ediately. The Inspector, w ho w as up to his
ears, said no an d hu n g up. The radio room called back. Mr.
Q ueen h ad asked that this m essage be relayed verbatim : 'I need
you.' The Inspector left on the double (202).
D espite their different approaches, Ellery and the Inspector frequently
agreed on issues involved in a case, as in this exam ple from The Last Woman
in His Life:
The Inspector n o d d ed , and Velie m arched the big w idow
[M arcia K em p Faulk, the suspected m urderer] aw ay. The young
doctor w aved and tru d g ed off.
Ellery said, 'She lied th ro u g h her capped teeth.'
'Y our m anly intuition?' his father inquired.
'I'm the son of m y old m an. You d id n 't believe her,
eith er.'
'Y ou said it, I d id n 't. She know s som ething, Ellery' (101).
67
The Q ueens' professional relationship w as an u n u su al one. The
Inspector, as the father, should have been the d om inant partner, but Ellery,
the successful w riter, occasionally rem in d ed his father of his financial success,
how ever subtly:
'M ighty n ic e / the Inspector said, partially m ollified. 'H o w
d id y o u do it? ... These seats m ust have set you back half a w eek's
salary. My salary, anyw ay.'
Ellery said sententiously, 'M oney isn 't everything,' an d
settled back w ith the playbill. There w ere some tilings a m an
d id n 't tell, even to his father (Face 140).
A lth o u g h Ellery and Inspector Q ueen had a great deal of respect for
each other professionally and usually w orked as a team , they w ere not
w ith o u t th eir disagreem ents. In The Door Between Ellery m ade it clear that
he an d his father w ere som etim es com petitors:
You m u st u n d erstan d , Miss M acClure, that th ere's no sentim ent
in ou r fam ily w here business is concerned. My father lives his
life, and I live m ine. O ur m ethods, our techniques, are different.
My father looks for evidence, I look for truth. They d o n 't alw ays
tu rn o u t to lie in the sam e direction (74).
The m ost extrem e com petition betw een father and son cam e w hen
Ellery and a friend, Beau Rum m ell, opened a detective agency in T h e
Dragon's Teeth. Ellery purposefully w ithheld evidence, not just his theories,
from his father:
Mr. Q ueen still said nothing. He w rap p ed the pencil in
his breast-pocket handkerchief and tucked it aw ay. T hen he rose.
'H ere! W hat are y o u doing?' dem anded Beau. 'H an d
over th at pencil.'
'I th in k not,' said Mr. Q ueen, buttoning his coat.
'But it's our only evidence that som eone w as in this
room . W e've got to give it to y o u r old m an, Ellery.'
'W e sh a n 't even tell him about it yet.'
68
'B u t—for the love of Pete, w hy not?'
'T he trail's a little too involved for the reg u lar police
m in d / said Mr. Q ueen egotistically. 'A cute as D ad is. A nd w e're
not d estro y in g evidence—w e're m erely supp ressin g it
tem porarily. By itself it m eans little; w e've got to m ake it m ean
even m ore. A n d h an d in g it over to the police m eans inevitable
publication of its discovery. We can't afford to w arn off our m an
before all the cards are in our h an d s' (127).
Such dishonesty w as com pletely out of character for Ellery. Fortunately
the detective agency w as short-lived and his virtue w as restored. Even u nder
the best of circum stances, the Inspector w as often exasperated w ith Ellery's
habit of not
revealing his theories un til he had evidence to
su p p o rt them:
Ellery sm iled gravely. 'D o n 't m isunderstand me. I say I
know w ho m u rd ered Mrs. French. I should qualify that by
saying th a t certain indications point w ith incredible consistency
at one individual. I have no proof. I d o n 't grasp one-tenth of
the im plications. I am entirely ignorant of the m otive, the
u n d o u b ted ly sordid story b ehind the crime... Consequently, I
shall n o t tell y o u w hom I have in m in d .'
'You w o u ld n 't' 'g ro w led the Inspector, as they w alked on.
'N ow , dad !' Ellery laughed a little. H e tightened his hold
on the sm all package of books from French's library table, w hich
he h ad carried stubbornly from the m om ent they h ad left the
dep artm en t store. 'I have good reason. In the first place, it's
quite conceivable that I'm being m isled by a series of
coincidences. In that case, I should m erely be m aking an ass of
m yself if I accused some one and then h ad to eat crow.... W hen I
have p r o o f—y o u 'll know , dad, the very first one.... There are so
m any unexplained, seem ingly inexplicable things. These books,
for exam ple.... Well!' (French Power 159).
The inspector could hardly be blam ed for his im patience w ith his
clever an d occasionally arrogant son. In The Greek Coffin Mystery, a
flashback to Ellery's first case, the Inspector disapproved of Ellery's lack of
evidence and m ade no secret of his disapproval:
The old m an w as grousing in no uncertain term s. 'By ginger,' he
said, 'if y o u w eren 't m y son I'd boot you out of here. Of all the
69
w ishy-w ashy, unsatisfying, ridiculous argum ents I ever heard
th at perform ance of yours dow nstairs w as—' H e sh u d d ered .
'E llery, m ark m y w ords. T here's going to be trouble. This is the
one tim e w h en my faith in you is, is—well, y o u 'v e let me dow n,
d ra t it! ...they'll [the lawyers] punch holes in y o u r pretty case, my
boy, till it looks like Swiss cheese. Just about as full of holes...
Look here, Ellery Sherlock H olm es Q ueen...' (261).
G iven the Inspector's lack of patience on his first case, Ellery
u n d e rsta n d a b ly d ecid ed to never reveal his theories u ntil he h ad evidence to
su p p o rt them .
T here w as another silence, this tim e distinctly aw kw ard. It had
alw ays been a bone of contention betw een them that Ellery w as
stu b b o rn ly u n com m unicative un til the very d e n o u e m e n t of a
case. N eith er pleas nor w ild horses could drag a single
explanatory w o rd out of him until he w as m entally satisfied that
he h ad b u ild u p a flaw less an d im penetrable argum ent. So there
w as really no point in asking questions (Chinese Orange 161).
The Inspector eventually becam e accustom ed to E llery's m ethods, but it
w as clear he w as h u rt by his son's silence, as in The American Gun M ystery:
"The Inspector, w hose p rid e w as hurt, asked no questions; and although
Ellery could not have been unconscious of his fath er's pique, he offered no
explanation" (145). As Ellery's ability im proved, the Inspector learned to
control his im patience: "The Inspector began to fume, tho u g h t better of it, and
w aited m ore patiently for the result of his son's profound and no doubt
esoteric m editations. Experience had taught him that Ellery rarely acted
m ysterious w ith o u t p u rp o se" (Siamese Twin 108). Eventually, the Inspector
even d evelo p ed a sense of hum or about his son's approach to crime-solving:
[Inspector:] 'W hat are you tw o [Ellery and his secretary
N ikki] u p to?'
'N o th in g good,' said Ellery.
'A n y th in g in m y line?'
70
'H eav en fo rb id /
'Y ou'll get aro u n d to me y e t/ said the Inspector cheerfully.
'You alw ays do' (Scarlet Letters 50).
A lth o u g h he developed patience, the Inspector w as alw ays a father
first. H e never failed to let Ellery know w hen he d isap p ro v ed of his activities.
For exam ple, in Halfway House, not realizing Ellery w as keeping com pany
w ith a fast crow d to gath er inform ation about a case, the Inspector confronted
his son. Surely every read er w o u ld identify w ith the conversation that
ensued:
'W h a t/ said Inspector Q ueen w ith disgust, 'again?' Ellery
d id not stop w histling as he labored over his bow tie in the
m irro r above the bureau. 'Seem s to m e / grum bled the
Inspector, 'th at ever since those friends of y ours got m essed u p
in th eir p riv ate b ran d of hell in T renton, y o u 'v e tu rn ed into a
reg u la r B roadw ay punk. W here are you going?'
'O u t' (143).
Even w h en he knew about the specifics, the Inspector d isapproved of
som e of his so n 's cases. As he told Ellery and his secretary N ikki in T he
Scarlet Letters w h en they tried to help a friend: "I think you tw o ought to
have y o u r h ead s exam ined," exclaim ed Inspector Queen. "M ixing u p in an
ad u ltery case!" (54). As an experienced police detective, the Inspector realized
that dom estic crim es are often the w orst, som ething th at Ellery and N ikki
apparen tly h ad not considered.
D espite th eir differences there w as a genuine affection betw een father
and son. T h o u g h seldom expressed, it w as clear they loved and w orried about
each other. In The Roman Hat M ystery, as Ellery prepared for a vacation
71
abroad, each su d d en ly realized the m ortality of the other and w h at such a loss
w o u ld m ean:
'. . . I can't w ait to bathe m yself in that A rcadian stream !'
'A n d get pneum onia, probably,' said the Inspector anxiously.
'Y ou prom ise m e now , yo ung m an, that you d o n 't do any back-ton atu re stu n ts out there. I d o n ’t w an t a funeral on m y h an d s—I...'
Ellery grew su d d en ly silent. H e looked over at his father.
T he Inspector seem ed strangely old in the flickering light of the
fire. A n expression of pain h u m anized the deeply scu lp tu red lines
of his face. H is hand, b ru sh in g back his thick grey hair, looked
alarm ingly fragile.
Ellery rose, hesitated, coloured, [sic] then bent sw iftly
forw ard and p atted his father on the shoulder (200).
As E llery's rep u tatio n grew , he d em an d ed m ore and m ore of himself.
The Inspector realized th at his son w as too intellectually an d em otionally
involved in his cases: "W ith his sh rew d insight into E llery's nature, he
realized ho w keenly his highly stru n g son had been looking forw ard to his
first vacation in over a year. It w as not in his heart, im patient as he w as for
the constant presence of his son, to deprive him of this long contem plated
p leasu re trip" (Roman Hat 204).
Ellery w as d riv en not only by a desire to see a case com pleted, but by the
fact th a t his fath er's rep u tatio n w ould suffer. H e told the Inspector and
D istrict A ttorney in The Dutch Shoe M ystery:
'L et's not d elu d e ourselves.' Ellery spoke abruptly and both the
Inspector an d Sam pson tu rn ed to regard him w ith ap p reh en ­
sion. 'W e're like frightened children babbling in the dark. D ad,
Sam pson—w e're licked. ... If it w eren 't for my Gaelic pride, and
the fact th at no m atter w hat I did, d ad has to carry on,' continued
Ellery, 'I w o u ld figuratively fall u p o n my sw ord and seek peace
in the w arrio r's heaven...' (156).
72
The d ep th of the Q ueens' p artn ersh ip becam e m ore ap p aren t as Ellery's
success grew . As the fam ous detective d em an d ed greater perfection of
him self, b o th for his ow n sake an d his father's, he failed m ore an d m ore
often. Ellery d rew stren g th from his father's encouragem ent an d m oral
su p p o rt. U nlike his son, the Inspector realized Ellery w as too em otionally
involved in his cases, as in this exam ple from The Last Woman in His Life:
'E l[lery ]/ said his father, squeezing his arm. 'C om e on. I'll
buy y o u a cup of coffee.'
The old boy alw ays comes through, Ellery th o u g h t over
his second cup in the airp o rt restaurant.
'Son, y o u can 't m onkey aro u n d in this business w ith o u t
once in a w hile ru n n in g into the back of y o u r ow n h an d ,' the
Inspector said. 'It d id n 't have to hap p en this w ay. You let
y ou rself get involved w ith the guy. [H arry Burke, a Scottish
policem an w ho fell in love w ith a fem ale m u rd erer, causing
Ellery m uch guilt in the process.] If I allow ed m yself that kind of
foolishness I'd have had to toss m y shield in years ago. H u m an
flesh can 't stand it.'
Ellery raised his h an d as if the other w ere on the Bible.
'So help m e H annah, I'll never m ake that m istake again' (9).
O ccasionally, Ellery grew depressed, despite the Inspector's
encouragem ent. In Cat of M any Tails, after a particularly em otionally
devastating case (Ten Days' Wonder), he w as ready to leave the detective
business and stick to w riting fiction. The Inspector sum m arized Ellery's
feelings an d sym pathetically cajoled him into changing his m ind:
'D o n 't an sw er till I'm finished. You feel that y o u failed in
the V an H o rn case and that because you failed tw o people w ent
to th eir deaths. Lord know s I've tried to help you get it out of
y o u r system . But I guess nobody can talk aw ay another m an's
conscience...I've had to sit by and w atch you craw l into a hole
w hile y o u kept sw earing by the beards of all the P rophets that
y o u 'd never m ix into another case.
'B ut son,' said the old m an, 'this is a special kind of deal.
This one is tough. It's tough not only on its ow n m erits—w hich
73
are to u g h en ough—but because of the atm osphere it's creating.
T his isn 't just a m atter of clearing u p a few m u rd ers, Ellery. It's a
race against— against cityw ide collapse. A nd d o n 't m ake w ith
the eyebrow : I tell you it's coming. It's only a question of time.
Just one m u rd e r in the w rong p lace...N obody d o w n to w n 's out to
rob m e of the glory; not in this one. T h ey're all feeling sorry for
the old duck. Let m e tell you som ething.' The Inspector stared
d o w n at 87th Street, bracing him self against the w in d o w frame.
'I m en tio n ed earlier that I th o u g h t the C om m issioner h ad an
angle in p u ttin g m e at the head of the special Cat squad. The
boss thinks y o u 're a screw ball, b u t he's often asked me w hen
y o u 're going to snap out of the sulks and get back to using the
crazy talents G od gave you. Well, m y opinion, Ellery, it th at he's
p u t m e on the spot deliberately.'
'F o r w h at reason?'
T o force you into the case.'
'Y o u 're not serious!'
H is father looked at him.
'But he w o u ld n 't do a thing like that.' E llery's face w as
dark. 'N o t to you. T hat's the dirtiest kind of slap in the face.'
'To stop these stranglings, son, I'd do a lot worse. A nyw ay,
w haTs the odds? Y ou're no superm an. N obody expects
miracles. It's even a sort of insult to you. In an em ergency
people w ill try anything, even to u g h old eggs like the
C o m m issio n er.'
'T hanks,' m um bled Ellery. 'T hat sets m e up. It really
does' (Cat 30).
Cat of M any Tails w as the epitom e of the Q ueens' personal and
professional relationship: it d em o n strated the Inspector's professional
d ependence on his son's ability, E llery's em otional dependence on his father
and his unrealistic expectations of his ow n perform ance. A lth o u g h each
character w as interesting in an d of him self, w h en either Ellery or the
Inspector w as absent from a story, the read er felt less th an satisfied, as though
som e crucial elem ent w as m issing. Ellery and the Inspector w ere a synthesis;
each w as incom plete w ith o u t the other. The ideal detective, or team ,
74
com prises the Inspector's practical u n d erstan d in g of police procedures and
experience an d E llery's logic an d im agination.
75
Ellery Queen: W orking A u th o r
Ellery Q u een 's w o rk as an au th o r was sim ultaneously enhanced and
fru stra ted by his w ork as detective. The tw o careers overlapped and
com plim ented one another; w hile they im proved E llery's rep u tatio n as a
detective, the w o rkload left h im exhausted. As a detective, E llery's reputation
gradually developed, partially because of his books, an d took a unique tu rn
starting in 1942, w h en he becam e involved in a series of cases in
W rightsville, N ew York.
In The Roman Hat M ystery readers w ere told that Ellery Q ueen w rote
m ysteries; as the series progressed D annay and Lee show ed Ellery at w ork
m ore an d m ore often. As a w riter, Ellery encountered problem s that all
authors are p ro n e to: in terruptions, deadlines, w riter's block, com plaints and
com plim ents from readers, problem s w ith his em ployers (editors and
publishers), and exhaustion. Ellery's status as a m ystery w riter reflected the
contem porary social stan d in g of such authors:
[Dr. Jones, toxicologist:] 'To show you how m inutely I
searched,—I even thought of that favorite standby of o u r friends
the fiction w riters: curare, the South A m erican toxin w hich
m akes the g rad e in four out of five detective stories. But even
that sadly abused m em ber of the toxic fam ily d isappointed me...'
Ellery leaned back and laughed. 'If y o u 're referring in a
m ildly satirical w ay to m y profession, Dr. Jones, let m e inform
y o u I have never u sed curare in any of m y novels.'
The toxicologist's eyes tw inkled. 'So y o u 're one of them ,
too, eh? Q ueen, old m an,' he ad d ed dolorously, tu rn in g to the
Inspector, w ho w as thoughtfully chew ing on a piece of French
pastry, 'allow me to offer my condolences...' (Roman Hat 137).
The Roman Hat M ystery w as published in 1929. It m ust be
rem em bered that at the tim e, the general public d id not consider detective
76
fiction a legitim ate form of literature. It w as m erely a form of entertainm ent,
on p ar w ith p u lp m agazines and comic books. Dr. Jones' attitude reflected
this o p in io n .1
Because he w as a w orking detective as w ell as a w riter, Ellery's w riting
w as frequently in te rru p te d by cases on w hich he w as w orking. For example,
in The Dutch Shoe M ystery, the Inspector noticed that Ellery had retu rn ed to
an ab a n d o n ed novel:
...he [the Inspector] p eered over his son's shoulder an d saw that
Ellery w as w ritin g aw ay at a detective novel—one w hich h ad
b een b eg u n long m onths before b u t w hich h ad been tossed aside
and neglected d u rin g a fitful period en d u rin g for weeks. *
* The m an u scrip t of Murder o f the Marionettes, one of the
detective stories Ellery w rote u n d er his ow n nam e. —J. J. McC
(184).
This striking exam ple not only reflected E llery's d u al career, but
reinforced the idea stressed in the early p art of the series, that "Ellery Q ueen"
w as a p seu d o n y m used by a real author-detective. Interestingly, there was no
m ystery novel (by Ellery Q ueen or any other author) titled Murder o f the
M arionettes.. D annay and Lee u su ally referred to real novels by them selves
or other authors; they only occasionally referred to u n p u b lish ed Ellery Q ueen
novels or cases (rem iniscent of Dr. W atson referring to u n p u b lish ed Sherlock
H olm es cases).
W hen his w ritin g w as in terru p ted , Ellery struggled to keep his m ind
off his w aitin g novel. In the short story A Lump of Sugar Ellery thought
about his novel, even w hile w orking on a new case. "Ellery, w ho had left
page 87 of his latest novel in his typew riter, picked the lint off his thoughts"
77
(Q.B.1. 37). Ellery knew th at if he becam e obsessed w ith a case w hile w riting a
novel, it w o u ld interfere w ith his w riting, as it did in The Last Woman in His
L ife:
'...I w ish I k n e w ,' Ellery groaned. "Then I could get some w ork
d o n e / H is novel-in-being felt like the cliffhanger of the old
m ovie-serial days; it w as tied helplessly to the track w hile his
dead lin e came h u rtlin g d ow n like O ld 77 (112).
W hen possible Ellery tried to avoid com bining his tw o careers,
especially if he w as w orking on a deadline. In A Fine and Private Place, he
offered his opin io n as an arm chair detective in hopes of avoiding active
involvem ent in the case, w hich w o u ld allow him to m eet his deadline: "If it's
am bulatory help you need, dad, I can't lift my duff. T hat d am n dead lin e's so
close the back of m y neck is recom m ending Listerine. But if you can use an
arm chair o p in io n ... W hat's this one about?" (51).
As the status of m ystery w riters slow ly im proved, and th eir literature
came to be reg ard ed as legitim ate, Ellery encountered new problem s. In T he
Chinese Orange M ystery, an acquaintance, D onald Kirk, took advantage of
E llery's status as a w riter by inviting him to dinner, and subsequently
inv o lv in g h im in a m u rd e r investigation. K irk's u lterio r m otive, how ever,
w as to p ersu ad e Ellery to sw itch publishers, to Kirk's financial advantage.
Like D annay and Lee, Ellery spent some tim e as a screenw riter in
H ollyw ood. A lso like his creators, Ellery hoped to advance his career by
w orking in a new field. Screenw riting not only in terru p ted Ellery's career as
novelist, it fru strated him to no end. E llery's frustrations u n d o u b ted ly reflect
D annay an d Lee's experiences. D uring their stint as screenw riters, D annay
78
and Lee never received any screen credit, despite their w ork on num erous
projects (N ev in s Royal Bloodline 71). Ellery's m ain grievance as a
screenw riter w as the stu d io 's lack of organization:
'W ell?' how led Ellery, grow ing red in the face. 'I feel
terrible!' W hy, y o u incom parable tw it, I've been em ployed by
y o u r stu d io for six interm inable w eeks now —and y o u ask me if
I'm h ere on vacation?'
'W h at?' sh o u ted the producer. 'Y ou've been on our lot
for six weeks? Madgel [his secretary]'
'I'v e p h oned y o u r office twice a day, six days a week,
fath ead — th at m akes seventy-tw o tim es, not counting S undays
th at I've tried to talk to you, you m isbegotten apology for an
id io t's stand-in! A nd y o u w ire N ew York for my address!'
'W h y — d o e s n 't—som ebody tell me these things!'
H ere I've park ed m y chassis/ roared Ellery 'in that doge's
palace y o u r m inions gave me to doze in—a m o n th and a half,
do y o u hear?—losing w eight, fretting m y fool head off, dying by
inches not a h u n d re d feet from y o u r office—and y o u look for
m e in N ew York!' E llery's voice grew terrible. 'I'm going m ad.
I a m m ad. Do y o u know w hat, Mr. Butcher? N uts to you.
D ouble n u ts to you!'
A n d he h u rle d the telephone m ajestically from him (Four
o f Hearts 12).
D urin g his brief career as a screenw riter, Ellery w as forced into
u n w a n te d collaborations w ith other w riters. In The Four of Hearts, his
disag reem en t w ith his w ritin g p artn er is rem iniscent of one of D annay and
L ee's notoriously argum entative w ritin g sessions: "But Mr. Vix d id not look
so content on Friday. The very patch over his eye w as quivering w hen he
burst into the Boy W o n d er's [the producer's] office, w here Lew and Ellery
w ere shoutin g at each other in a 'story conference,' w hile Butcher [the
producer] listened in silence" (45). D annay and Lee w ere so loud in their
conferences th at the P aram o u n t m im eograph d epartm ent, next door to their
office, "w hich gave forth a constant clatter from dozens of m achines,
79
co m p lain ed ab o u t the noise the cousins w ere m aking" (N evins Royal
B lo o d lin e 71).
Ellery fo u n d w orking as a screenw riter not only frustrating, b u t
exhausting: "W ork he did , belly to belly w ith a cursing Charley Dyers.
Tw elve h o u rs a day, often longer. If Ellery had come to H ollyw ood w orn out,
he w as soon in a state of am bulatory exhaustion" (Eighth Day 6). It d id not
take Ellery long to retu rn to the less stressful task of w riting novels.
W hen it cam e to actually w ritin g his novels, E llery's habits m ust have
reflected those of D annay and Lee. In the follow ing exam ple from Ten Days'
W o n d e r , Ellery attem pted to retu rn to w riting after solving a particularly
taxing m u rd er. Like m any w riters, he h ad trouble getting started:
So once again Mr. Q ueen enters his study, shuts the door,
an d p rep ares to give his auctorial all.
M ark th at the process involved in p rep arin g to conceive a
book is technically different from that involved in p rep arin g to
bear it. In the latter stage there are typew riters to exam ine and
clean, ribbons to change, pencils to sharpen, clean p ap e r to be
arran g ed at the precise distance from the arm at w hich the least
exertion is called forth, notes or outlines to be p ro p p ed at exactly
acute angle to the m achine, and so forth. The situation at the
outset of the conceptual stage is quite deplorably different. Even
assum ing th at the au th o r's head is fully charged w ith ideas and
giving off im patient sparks, he has utterly no need for
p arap h ern alia or their care or placem ent. He has only a rug and
his m iserable self.
So observe Mr. Q ueen in his study on this fine early
m orn in g in A u g u st of the year follow ing the V an H o rn case.
H e is fired w ith energetic intentions. H e paces his ru g like
a general, m arshaling his m ental forces. H is brow is clear. His
eyes are in ten t b u t calm. H is legs are u n h u rried and untroubled.
H is h an d s are quiet.
N ow observe him tw enty m inutes later.
H is legs pum p. H is eyes are w ild. His brow s w ork fiercely.
H is h an d s are helpless fists. H e leans against a wall, seeking the
cool plaster. H e d arts to a chair, perches on its edge w ith hands
80
clasped, as if im ploringly, betw een his knees. He jum ps up, fills
his pipe, sets it dow n, lights a cigaret [sic], puffs it twice, it goes
out, it rem ains betw een his lips. He nibbles his fingernails. He
ru b s his head. H e explores a dental cavity. H e pinches his nose.
H e p lunges his h an d s into his jacket pockets. H e kicks a chair.
H e glances at the h eadline of the m orning n ew sp ap er on his
desk b u t glances aw ay heroically. H e goes to the w in d o w and
soon becom es interested in the scientific aspects of a fly craw ling
u p the screen. H e fingers the tobacco grains in his right pocket,
rolls a grain in a w ad of lint, places the w ad in a piece of p aper
w hich h ap p en s to be in the sam e pocket. H e folds the p ap er
aro u n d it, takes the p ap er out, glances at it. It says:
V an H o rn
N o rth H ill D rive
W righstville (177).
In this instance, Ellery w as distracted because he realized that
som ething w as not quite right w ith his solution to the Van H orn case. At
o ther tim es, d ifferen t problem s distracted him:
For Ellery Q ueen the p ath of literature this m orning w as
p av ed m erely w ith good intentions. He scowled at his
ty p ew riter for alm ost an h o u r w ithout pecking a w ord. W hen
he finally d id begin to w rite, he found the usual digital
difficulties insuperable. H e had developed a m ysterious habit of
shifting the position of his h ands one key to the left, so that
w h en he th o u g h t he h ad w ritten the sentence: "There w ere
bloody strips on Lecky's right elbow," he found that he actually
re a d —m ore interestingly b u t less com prehensibly— "Rgw ew
qw ew vkiist areu p w a in Kexjt'a eufgr w kviq." This he felt
w ould place an u nfair b u rd e n u p o n his readers; so he rip p ed the
sheet out and essayed a new start. But this tim e he decided that
there w as no special p oint to p u ttin g bloody stripes on Lecky's
right elbow , so there he w as, back at the beginning. Curse all
ty p ew riters an d his clum siness w ith them!
Really ought to have a stenographer, he brooded. Take all
this distracting m echanical w ork off his hands. A stenographer
w ith honey-colored h a ir... no, red hair. Small. Perky. But
sensible. N ot the k in d that chew ed gun; no. A sm all w arm
package of goodies. Of course, purely for stenographic purposes.
N o reason w hy a w riter's stenographer sh o u ld n 't also be
inoffensive to the eye, w as there? In fact, dow nright pleasant to
look at? Like Sheila Brent, for instance. Sheila B rent... (Old
W o m a n 133).
81
E ventually Ellery gave in and hired a secretary, N ikki Porter, w ho
could type, take dictation, and help keep him on schedule w hen w riting.
A lth o u g h E llery's m ost com m on in terru p tio n w as an u rg en t case,
w eather, too, could be distracting, as he discovered in Cat of M any Tails:
"A ugust 25 b ro u g h t one of those sim m ering subtropical nights in w hich
sum m er N ew York specializes. Ellery w as in his study strip p ed to his shorts,
trying to w rite. But his fingers kept sliding off the keys an d finally he turned
off his desk light an d p ad d e d to a w indow " (4). W hen he really needed to
m eet a deadline, it w as not u n u su al for Ellery to relocate in o rd er to w ork
som eplace com fortable w here he w ould not be interru p ted . In Calamity
T o w n he ren ted a house in W rightsville, a sm all to w n in u p state N ew York.
In The Scarlet Letters, it w as clear he also frequented a local hotel w hen
necessary:
The desk clerk looked startled. 'M r. Queen!' he said. 'I
tho u g h t y o u 'd taken y o u r trad e elsewhere. Checking in to m eet
a dead-line?'
'M ine d ied som e tim e ago,' said Ellery. 'N o, Ernie, I'm
looking for in fo rm atio n .'
'O h ,' said the clerk, low ering his voice. 'Y our alter ego,
eh?' Like all em ployees of the A— Hotel, he had long since
absorbed its literary atm osphere (46).
Of all the problem s Ellery h ad as a w riter, the w orst w as w riter's block.
M an fred B. Lee experienced w riter's block for years; he heavily edited the
Ellery Q ueen novels w ritten by ghostw riters, w ho w orked from D annay's
detailed outlines, b u t did little actual w riting. There w as no doubt that
E llery's experiences reflect Lee's:
82
For w ell over once aro u n d the clock Ellery tried to breathe
life into The Butler w ho w as lying in the w ay of the new Q ueen
n ov el's progress.
In the fo u rteen th futile hour Ellery detected the difficulty:
it w as so long since he h ad seen a real live b u tler that it w as like
tryin g to bring a bro n to sau ru s to life.
The situation obviously called for research; an d m aking a
h ag g a rd m ental note to start looking for a specim en—assum ing
the b reed w as not extinct—Ellery collapsed (Q.E.D. 125).
E llery w as not one to quit. Even w hen he w as not m aking progress, he
refused to give in to w riter's block. Perhaps Lee h ad the sam e attitude:
Inspector Q ueen sank onto Ellery's sofa, taking a thirsty
sw allow on the w ay dow n. 'W hy keep beating y o u r brains in?'
he d em an d ed . 'K nock it off, son. Y ou've got less on that page
th a n w h en I left for d o w n to w n this m orning,'
'W hat?' Ellery said, not looking up.
'Call it a day.'
Ellery looked up. 'N ever. Can't. Way behind.'
H e b u rp e d a hollow laugh. 'D ad, I'm trying to w ork.
M ind?' (Fine and Private 49-50).
E llery's persistence usually paid off. In The Player on the Other Side,
Ellery realized p art of his w riter's block w as because of thinking about m ore
th an one case at a time:
'I th o u g h t I had to w ait for som ething to hap p en before I
could w rite. O ccupational blindness. All I had to do w as figure
out w h y I co u ld n 't w rite. A nd I figured it out today! ... My
trouble is th at I have a contem porary m ind. T h at's all, D ad.
T hat's absolutely all th at's been w rong?'
'It is?'
'Certainly! I've alw ays h ad a contem porary m ind. I m ean
I've alw ays w ritten about the case I w as w orking on at the time,
or the one th at w as bothering you d o w ntow n—som ething real,
in the here an d now . But tim es change, m y old one, ... and the
m ore the tim es change, the faster they change. D id y o u know
that? Hah? Ellery's Law? Hell, they change so fast betw een one
book and the next—w hat am I saying?—betw een one day and
the next, y o u d o n 't even see it hap p en in g ' (49-50).
83
It sh o u ld not have su rp rised Ellery that he could not keep u p w ith the
changing tim es: he usually w orked on tw o cases sim ultaneously, one as an
au th o r an d one as a detective.
G iven his dual-career, E llery's vacations often tu rn ed into w orking
vacations. Som etim es they w ere m entioned only in passing, as in Inspector
Queen's O wn Case, w h en the Inspector com m ented that Ellery w as on
vacation in E urope, looking for story ideas. A t other tim es, Ellery h ad no
choice b u t to take his w o rk w ith him w hen invited on vacations:
'I 'd leave w ith you now , H ow ard, b u t it's going to take me
a day or so to get aw ay.'
'Sure. N aturally.' H ow ard w as feeling good; he w as
alm ost bouncing.
'A lso, I'm w riting a n o v el...'
'B ring it w ith you!'
'I'll have to. I'm com m itted by contract to deliver the
m a n u s c rip t by a certain date, and I'm behind schedule now .'
'I suppose I ought to feel like a skunk, Ellery—'
'L earn to have the courage of y o u r em otions,' chuckled
Ellery. 'C an y o u provide a typew riter of decent w orking order?'
'E verything y o u 'll need, and the best quality. W hat's
m ore, y o u can have the guest house. You'll have privacy there,
yet y o u 'll be n ear m e—it's only a few yard s from the m ain
h ouse' (Ten Days 24).
In ad d itio n to w riting novels, Ellery also edited Ellery Queen's Mystery
M a g azin e (EQMM), a reflection of D an n ay 's contribution to the Ellery Q ueen
enterprise. For the character, how ever, the m agazine sim ply ad d ed to his
w orkload. In The Scarlet Letters Ellery sim ultaneously w orked on an
ad u ltery case, a novel an d EQMM:
M eanw hile, he could only keep u p w ith the lovers betw een
largely futile attacks on his w ork. His desk was piled high w ith
u n an sw e re d correspondence, u n read m anuscripts subm itted to
Ellery Queen's M ystery Magazine, and the cryptic notes on his
84
new novel w hich w ere so old that even he could no longer
d ecip h er th em (92).
Such a sham eless p lu g for D annay and Lee's ow n m agazine w as not
only a m arketing ploy, it su p p o rted the sense of realism in the series. They
m en tio n ed the m agazine an d other Ellery Q ueen books w henever
appropriate. For exam ple, Ellery casually flipped th ro u g h a copy of EQMM
w hile follow ing the lovers in The Scarlet Letters (44). Ellery's w ell-know n
w o rkload w o rk ed against him in The King is Dead. W hen Kane Bendigo
w an ted Ellery an d the Inspector to stay on his private island to prevent an
attem pt on his life, Ellery p leaded lack of skill as a b o d y g u ard an d his busy
schedule. Kane, how ever, knew Ellery's schedule very well: "But Bendigo
said patiently, 'A s for you, Mr. Q ueen, y o u 're betw een novels and you are
four issues ahead w ith the editorial w ork on Ellen/ Queen's Mystery
M agazine. A n d the only invitation on y o u r calendar at the present tim e has
been taken out of y o u r h an d s'" (15).
Like his creators, Ellery w as a m em ber of the M ystery W riters of
A m erica (MW A). D annay an d Lee w ere charter m em bers of the MW A,
w hose p u rp o se w as to prom ote m ysteries and their authors (Steinbrenner
and P enzler 301). E llery's m em bership in this organization m arked him as a
successful author, an d in tro d u ced him to other authors, including D irk
Law rence, w ho n eed ed Ellery's help in The Scarlet Letters:
'I rem em ber,' Ellery nodd ed , 'th at D irk w ould open u p to m e in
th at p erio d w hen at MWA gatherings h e'd utter hard ly a w ord to
anyone else. H e w as h u rt at the sm all sales of his books w hile
w h at he felt to be m uch inferior products earned tw o an d three
tim es as m uch. He covered u p by being defiant. W hen I
85
su g g ested a brighter, less gothic approach, som e com prom ise
w ith p o p u la r taste, D irk replied th at that w as the k in d of stuff he
w an ted to w rite, an d if people d id n 't like it they d id n 't have to
buy his books. I th o u g h t at the tim e it w asn 't a very grow n-up
reaction. I w a sn 't su rp rised w hen he stopped w ritin g detective
stories' (19).
T he "com prom ise w ith p o p u lar taste" clearly reflected D annay and
Lee's advice to y o u n g m ystery w riters. They constantly u p d ated Ellery,
keeping h im fresh an d contem porary and, at least d u rin g th eir lifetimes,
m arketable.
As a w riter, Ellery often encountered readers w ho disliked or disagreed
w ith w h a t he w rote. These encounters, w hile charm ing for the reader, m ust
have reflected real read er com plaints that D annay and Lee felt they h ad to
ad d ress in their fiction. In The Siamese Twin Mystery, Ellery m et some
"refreshingly tolerant" doctors:
'I'm fatuously fond of them [m ystery novels]. Trouble is,'
said D r. H olm es unexpectedly, '... their atrocious m edical stuff.
Sheer bilge, you know . Y ou'd think the blighters w o u ld take the
trouble to get accurate m edical inform ation. A nd then w hen
they p u t E nglish characters into their stories—the A m erica ones,
I m ean, do you see—they m ake 'em talk like... like...'
'Y ou're a living paradox, Doctor,' said Ellery w ith a
tw inkle. T th o u g h t no E nglishm an breathes w ho uses the w ord
'blighter."
Even Mrs. Xavier p erm itted herself to sm ile at that.
'Y ou're too cautious, m y boy,' w ent on Dr. Xavier. 'R ead a
story once in w hich the m u rd er was com m itted by injecting the
victim w ith air from an em pty hypoderm ic. C oronary-explosion
sort of thing. Well, the fact is, as you know , death w o n 't occur
from th at cause once in a h u n d re d times. D id n 't bother me
th o u g h .'
'R efreshing to m eet a tolerant m edico,' grinned Ellery,
recalling som e vitriolic letters he h ad had from physicians
because of alleged errors of fact in his ow n novels (45).
86
E llery's encounter w ith Dr. M acClure, d u rin g a sea cruise in The Door
B etw een , w as m ore typical of his experiences w ith critical fans:
[Dr. MacClure:] 'H a d the m ost w retched tim e myself.
Seasick since Southam pton. N ever been able to stom ach the
ocean/
Mr. Q ueen grinned u n d er his greenish m ask. 'You know ,
I'm the sam e w ay. Suffer the tortures of the dam ned. If I look as
b adly as you do, Doctor—'
'H a v e n 't been w ell,' grum bled Dr. M acClure. 'It's not m a t
de mer. My folks packed me off for Europe. C an't say I feel any
better for it.'
Mr. Q ueen chuckled. 'Father in m y case. Practically had
m e shanghaied. Inspector Q ueen of the N ew York police
departm ent. If I d id feel any better, this w estw ard passage has
taken it all out of m e again.'
'Say! Y ou're that detective-story fellow. I rem em ber now.
Sit dow n, Mr. Q ueen, sit dow n. H aven't read any of y o u r
stories— can't stan d the dam n ed things—b u t all m y frie n d s..'
'H av e probably w ritten me letters of com plaint,' sighed
Ellery Q ueen, d ro p p in g into the next chair.
'I m ean ,' said Dr. M acClure hastily, 'I d o n 't like detective
stories. N ot yours especially. Scientific inform ation alw ays gets
garbled. N o offense, you u n d erstan d .'
T h a t's w h at I m eant,' said Mr. Q ueen gloom ily (35).
D espite occasional com plaints from readers, Ellery's rep u tatio n slowly
grew over the course of the series, reflecting the character's popularity. Early
in the series, only the police an d a few city em ployees realized the extent of
E llery's involvem ent in Inspector Q ueen's w ork. In The Dutch Shoe Mystery,
D istrict A ttorney Sam pson declared: "Ellery Queen, y o u old son-of-a-gun! It
[the case] m u s t be hot if y o u 're on it! Find the dastardly d astard yet?" (79).
A lthough city officials und ersto o d Ellery's unique position, D annay and Lee
h ad trouble deciding exactly how to define Ellery's status. In The Greek Coffin
M ystery (1932), Ellery had a special police identification card w hich he used to
gain access to police files. In The Egyptian Cross Mystery (also 1932), he was
87
referred to as a "special investigator." As Ellery's fame grew the police w ere
the first to recognize his skill as a detective; this m ade sense since they m ight
h av e k n o w n Inspector Q ueen, either personally or by reputation. In T he
Finishing Stroke, the local police im m ediately recognized Ellery by nam e and
asked for assistance:
"Oh!" Chief Brickell shook Ellery's han d heartily. "Glad
to m eet you, Mr. Queen! Got any suggestions?" (56). N ot all police w ere so
trusting. In the sam e book, a county police officer felt the need to verify
E llery's credentials:
It w as evident from the first that he [Lieutenant L uria of the
county police] held everyone on the prem ises suspect, even
E llery—u n til th at w orthy p ro d u ced certain credentials. Even
th en L uria w as not satisfied. H e telephoned Inspector Q ueen at
police h ea d q u arters in N ew York for confirm ation (57).
It d id not take the police long to realize the type of investigation at
w hich Ellery excelled. In A Fine and Private Place Inspector Q ueen recalled a
conversatio n w ith his superiors:
I d o n 't k now w hat it m eans, sir... D oesn't that w eirdo—I m ean
th at son of y o u rs have an opinion, Q ueen? This is his w eirdo
kind of case... N o, sir, Ellery d o esn 't... Those grow ling executive
voices an d those concrete executive faces w o u ld constitute the
stuff of m any a fu tu re nightm are (133).
D espite the im p lied criticism of Ellery's un u su al talents, the Inspector
d id not hesitate to take advan tag e of his son's reputation. In House of Brass,
the police in a sm all to w n gave the Inspector and his new wife, Jessie, a hard
tim e w h en they asked for assistance in claim ing Jessie's inheritance. They
w ere treated quite differently w hen they retu rn ed w ith Ellery in tow:
Ellery got out of the M ustang. Chief Fleck had stopped to
glare at him .
88
'D id n 't y o u see th at N o Parking sign, m ister? Let m e have
y o u r d riv e r's license!'
Ellery said, 'Yes, sir,' and produced it.
'Ellery Q ueen... Ellery Queen?' The cigar sagged in the
chief's m outh; he spotted the Inspector an d Jessie in the red car.
'W h at the devil are y o u tw o do in g here? You ju st left!'
R ichard help ed his wife to the sidew alk, grinning. 'You
know how it is w ith bad pennies, Chief. This is m y son. Just
back from E urope, an d I've told him all about the Brass case.
First th in g he said to m e was, 'D ad, let's go u p to Philipskill and
straig h ten Chief Fleck o u t/
'A gain?' Fleck grow led.
'For positively the last tim e,' Ellery sm iled. 'Chief, I have
to talk to you. But first I'd like to see the executor's portfolio
w ith the Brass estate papers in it that I u n d erstan d you
confiscated. Do y o u m ind?'
'A re y o u the Ellery Q ueen w ho...?'
'W ell,' Ellery said, 'I d o n 't know of another.'
'W ell,' Chief Fleck said, taking a grip on his cigar. 'Pleased
to m eet y o u .'
'T h an k y o u .'
'D o n 't see w hy I can 't stretch a point and let you have a
look, Mr. Q ueen. Come on in. Oh, excuse me, Mrs. Q ueen.'
A n d he held the door open for her w ith the gallantry of a
Raleigh. Jessie w ent past him like a lady, not scratching his eyes
out. The Inspector strangled a chuckle. Fleck h ad not forgiven
h i m. H e w as the last one in (151).
Those w ho w ork ed in law enforcem ent realized Ellery's rep u tatio n w as
based on theory, not practice; i.e., despite his skill, he w as an am ateur, not a
professional detective. This p o in t could w ork against Ellery in a court of law:
For an h o u r Ellery an d Pollinger sparred across the rail of the
w itness box. It w as Pollinger's point that Ellery w as a poor
w itness for tw o reasons: that he w as a personal friend of the
defen d an t, an d th at his rep u tatio n w as based on 'theory, not
practice.' W hen Ellery w as finally excused they w ere both
d rip p in g w ith perspiration. N evertheless, it w as conceded by the
press th a t the defense h ad scored an im portant p oint (Halfway
H o u se 125).
89
By The Spanish Cape M ystery (1935), Ellery w as regularly recognized by
the other characters he m et, not just police officers, w ho knew him as a
successful detective. Ellery w as som etim es a bit arrogant about his fame:
'L ook h e re / said G lenn M acgow an from the other end of
the table in a h arsh voice, 'w e 're m aking a m o untain out of a
m olehill. Mr. Q ueen, I u n d erstan d th at y o u 're som ething of a
logician in y o u r attack on crim e p ro b lem s/
'S o m eth in g / sm iled Ellery, 'is the mot juste' (C hinese
Orange 62).
A s tim e passed, Ellery becam e less arrogant, an d found his celebrity
fru stratin g . In the short story The Adventure o f the Bearded Lady, Ellery
resented his friends, particularly J. J. McC, referring cases to him. H e told a
prospective client: "Oh, bother J. J.! He has vicarious delusions of grandeur.
Let m e w a rn you now , Mr. Mason, th at I shall probably be a dism al flop. I
d o n 't go ab o u t p u llin g m u rd erers out of m y hat" (A d v e n tu r e s 94). By 1942,
Ellery felt the need for anonym ity. In Calam ity Town, he fled to
W rightsville, h o p in g to leave his fam e beh in d and get some w o rk done:
'In th at case/ said J. C. [the realtor] brightening: then he
stopped. 'W h at business y o u in? N ot that it m akes any
difference, b u t— '
Ellery hesitated. 'I'm a w rite r/
The real estate m an gaped. 'You w rite stories?'
'T h at's it, Mr. Pettigrew . Books and su ch /
'W ell, w e ll/ beam ed J. C. 'I'm real honored to m eet you,
Mr. Smith. S m ith... N ow , th at's fu n n y / said J. C. 'I'm a reading
m a n myself, b u t I d o n 't seem to recollect an author n am ed —
w h at d id y o u say y o u r first nam e was, Mr. Smith?'
'I d id n 't say, b u t it's Ellery. Ellery Smith.'
'E llery S m ith / said J. C. concentrating.
Mr. Q ueen sm iled. 'I w rite u n d er a pen n am e.'
'Ah! N am e o f...?' But w hen Mr. Pettigrew saw that Mr.
'S m ith ' sim ply kept sm iling, he rubbed his jaw an d said: 'C ourse
y o u 'd give references?' (10-11).
90
In 1939 Sergeant Velie b egan referring to Ellery as "M aestro," or master,
recognizing his status as a m aster detective. A bout the sam e tim e, D annay
and Lee b eg an referring to Ellery in the narrative as "the great m an" or "the
M aster" (the initial capital varied). Both term s w ere used either respectfully
an d sarcastically, d ep en d in g on the situation.
For exam ple, in the short story
The A dventure o f the Medical F inger, it reflected Ellery's grace u n d er
pressure: 'T h e m aster, sorely tried as he was, m anaged a smile" (Calendar
113). In the short story The Adventure o f the Telltale Bottle it w as used m ore
sarcastically: "It w as a b ad day for the m aster" (Calendar 201). Ellery, allegedly
w riting abo u t him self, w as poking fun at his reputation. H is secretary Nikki,
conversely, took E llery's rep u tatio n very seriously, as in the short story T h e
Adventure o f the Needle's Eye:
A n d w h en N ikki came back w ith Inga [the suspect] the
police cap tain asked, 'W here is Mrs. H obbes-W atkins's w ound,
M iss Porter?'
'M rs. H obbes-W atkins,' replied N ikki, 'h a d no w o u n d .'
'N o...?'
'M aybe,' said the Coast G uard officer aw kw ardly, 'm aybe
y o u d id n 't look—u h —'
'A n d m aybe I d id ,' said N ikki w ith a sw eet smile. 'I w ork
for the great Ellery Q u een ... you know ?'
So now the tw o officers tu rn ed to look at the great Ellery
Q ueen, b u t w ith no appreciation of his greatness at all.
A nd the Coast G uard officer said, 'W ell,' and the police
captain from the m ain lan d d id not say even that b u t tu rn ed on
his heel.
He tu rn ed im m ediately back. For Ellery w as grow ling, 'If
th at's the case, it's obvious w ho killed Ericcson' (Calendar 155).
In The Player on the Other Side, D annay and Lee had fun turning the
tables on Ellery; the fam ily involved in the case preferred Inspector Q ueen
over his fam ous son:
91
'M y nam e is Q u e e n /
'Ellery Q u e e n / She w as not visibly im pressed. 'I know
y o u r fa th e r/ A nd she began to speak of the Inspector in the
w arm est w ay, as if he w ere an old dear friend.
Ellery h ad to chuckle. H e w as alw ays ru n n in g into perfect
strangers, passersby, w ho breathed 'EUery Queen? W hy, I've
read y o u ...' or 'Q ueen! Who solved the Yiffniff Case?' H e had
even felt it not too unbecom ing on occasion, in his books, to
refer to th at looking-glass version of him self as 'th e great m an.'
So far none of it h a d effect in York Square. It w as the paternal
Q ueen w ho h ad apparently opened doors and hearts.
'Y ou m ake m y feet too sm all for his fo o tstep s/ he said
sw eepingly. 'A n d m y chapeau too big for m y suddenly
sh ru n k e n h e a d .'
'O h, I know you, too,' A nn D rew said quickly; and how,
in th a t ocherous light, could he know that she blushed? (91).
D espite rare occasions like this one, Ellery's rep u tatio n grew. W ith
each successful case, his notoriety increased. This w as D annay and Lee's w ay
of in co rp o ratin g the character's real-life popularity w ith readers into the
series. In Ten Days' Wonder, Ellery coped w ith a w hirlw ind of dem ands for
his assistance after successfully com pleting the case:
The year th at follow ed the Van H orn tour de force w as
easily the busiest an d m ost brilliantly successful of E llery's career.
Cases besieged him , w inging in from all directions; som e crossed
oceans. H e m ad e tw o trips to Europe that year, and one to South
A m erica, an d one to Shanghai. Inspector Q ueen com plained
th a t he m ight just as w ell have bro u g h t Ellery u p to be an
advance m an for the circus, he saw his son so seldom . A nd
Sergeant Velie actually w ent ten feet past Ellery on the sidew alk
skirting police h ead q u arters before a vestigial m em ory m ade
h im tu rn aro u n d .
N or w as there d earth of crime business on the m aster's
native heath. The m oors of N ew York City resounded w ith his
ex p lo its...th e full list is on the Q ueen agenda and w ill in time, no
doubt, find p ublication on one form or another.
It w as Ellery him self w ho called the halt. N ever heavily
fleshed, he h ad lost so m uch w eight since Septem ber of the
preced in g y ear that even he had become alarm ed.
92
It's this blasted ru n n in g a ro u n d / said Inspector Q ueen
over an d early breakfast one m orning in A ugust. 'E llery, yo u 'v e
got to p u t the brakes o n /
'I'v e already done so' (176).
Ellery soon fo u n d th at his rep u tatio n could be m ore of a liability than
an asset. H is h ard w ork at his dual-career as a detective and a w riter left him
exhausted.
In The Last Woman in His Life, Ellery and the Inspector w ent on
vacation so Ellery could recuperate from a series of difficult cases: 'T h a t night
he slept the n ig h t th ro u g h w ith o u t the benefit of sleeping pill or a dream that
he could recall on aw akening—his first unbroken sleep in w eeks; he had been
living on nightm ares" (18). Ellery also learned that as his rep u tatio n led to
greater d em an d for his services, the results w ere not alw ays positive. In Cat
o f M any Tails, after p u rsu in g a serial killer in vain, the police looked for
som eone to take the blam e for their lack of success. W ho better th an the great
m an him self?
'D o n 't y o u m ean, [Com m issioner] B arney,' m u rm u red the
M ayor, 'th at y o u w ant m e to appoint a fall guy w h o 'll absorb the
heat and take all the raps, w hile you and the D epartm ent get off
the spot an d back to everyday operations?'
'W ell, it's a fact,' said the Com m issioner, looking critically
at his cigar, 'th a t the m en, from the brass dow n, have been
thin k in g m ore of headlines th an resu lts—'
'S uppose this fellow ,' asked the M ayor, 'beats you to the
Cat?'
T he C om m issioner laughed.
R ather abruptly, the M ayor said, 'Barney, w hom d id you
h av e in m in d ?'
'A real glam our boy, jack. N ative N ew Yorker, no
political ax to grind, nationally know n as a crime investigator,
yet h e's a civilian. H e can't refuse, because I softened him up by
first d ro p p in g the w hole hot potato in his old m an 's lap.'
The M ayor slow ly brought his sw ivel chair back to the
vertical.
The C om m issioner n o d d ed .
93
T he M ayor reached for his private line. "Barney/ he said,
"this tim e I th in k y o u 'v e outfoxed yourself. Oh, Birdy [his
secretary]. Get me Ellery Q ueen' (41).
E llery eventually d id solve the case, and gained even greater fame,
w hich w as d em o n strated in the follow ing book, The Origin o f Evil:
Also, there h ad been the p ress an d agents. Ellery h ad th o u g h t to
slip into to w n by d ro p p in g off at the Lockheed field in B urbank
ra th e r th a n the In tern atio n al A irport. But he touched S outhern
C alifornia soil to a bazooka fire of questions and lenses, an d the
next d ay his picture w as on the front page of all the p ap ers... It
h ad been that w ay for Ellery ever since the publicity explosion
over the Cat case. The n ew sp ap er boys w ere convinced that,
havin g saved M anhattan from a fate equivalent to death, Ellery
w as in Los A ngeles on a m ission at least equally large and torrid.
W hen he plaintively explained that he h ad come to w rite a book
they all lau g h ed , an d their p rin ted explanations ascribed his visit
to ev erything form a top-secret appointm ent by the M ayor as
Special Investigator to Clean Up G reater L.A. to the tu rn in g of
his peculiar talents u p o n the perennial problem of the Black
D ahlia (8).
By th en Ellery w as recognized internationally. Ironically, the m ore his
fam e grew , the m ore it w as used against him. The m ore people read his
books an d becam e fam iliar w ith his m ethods, the m ore Ellery w as
m a n ip u la ted by m u rd erers w ho could lead him to the w rong conclusion.
Such cases d ev astated E llery's self-confidence, leaving him torn betw een the
desire to help others w ith his u n u su al talents, and a fear of failing again.
D espite the difficulties w ith devious m urderers, E llery's reputation
rem ained sound. M any of the short stories featured E llery's interactions w ith
his neighbors an d it w as clear that despite his problem s, they still held him in
high regard . In the short story Object Lesson a local teacher invited Ellery to
visit her classroom for a talk on crim e because Ellery "w ho lived on West
94
87th Street an d w as a hero to the y o u th of the neighborhood" (Q.E.D. 49). The
teacher intro d u ced him by saying: "Class, this is Ellery Queen. I d o n 't have to
tell you w ho Mr. Q ueen is, and how honored we are to have him visit us"
(55). A noth er neighbor sum m ed u p Ellery's local rep u ta tio n in the short
story Miracles Do Happen w h en she told him: "Mr. Q ueen? I'm Claire
W itter, Mrs. H en ry W itter. I live in the n eighborhood—left the children
w ith a n eig h b o r—ran all the w ay. They say you help people in trouble—"
(Q.E.D. 77). H elp in g people in trouble w ould become Ellery's m ost wellk n o w n trait, especially in W rightsville w here it seem ed he w as know n by
alm ost everyone in th at sm all tow n.
Like his neighbors, Ellery's fans trusted him. In m any cases he
encountered read ers w ho trusted him because they felt they knew him
th ro u g h his books. In the short story Payoff, a convict's wife w anted Ellery to
convince h er h u sb an d to give u p crim e w hen he got out of prison. The
Inspector told him: "It's a long shot, Ellery, b u t m aybe he'll listen to you. Mrs.
Price says he's alw ays been a fan of yours" (Q.E.D. 131).
Ellery often encountered suspects and victim s w ho ow ned his books.
S om etim es the au th o rs w ere clearly paying hom age to those w ho w rote
classic m ysteries, an d D an n ay 's collect of the same:
A n d that w as all except for the bookcases, w hich ran aro u n d
three w alls to a height of some eight feet. The shelves w ere
m obbed w ith books—lying dow n, leaning sidew ays, p ro tru d in g
(chiefly detective stories, Ellery noted w ith some interest—he
spotted Poe, G aboriau, A nna K atharine Green, W ilkie Collins,
D oyle, Freem an, Christie, Sayers, Van D ine am ong m any others,
including a n u m b er of his ow n early books); scrapbooks of all
sizes and colors, tricks, puzzles, w hatnots... (Face 28).
95
Ellery w as not alw ays pleased w hen he discovered a collection of his
books. In the short story The Adventures of the Three R's, he realized the
victim o w n ed all of his books b u t one (the m ost recent):
[Nikki:] T ilery!'
N ikki w as stan d in g tiptoe before C h ip p 's bookshelves.
U n d er Q stood a fam iliar phalanx.
'A com plete set of y o u r books!'
'R eally?' But Ellery d id not seem as pleased as an author
m a k in g such a flattering discovery should. Rather, he eyed one
of the volum es as if it w ere a traitor. A nd indeed there w as a
sinister air about it, for it w as the only book on all the shelves—
he now n oted for the first tim e—w hich d id not exercise the
general discipline. It stood on the shelf u p sid e d ow n (Calendar
165).
T he inverted book tu rn ed out to be a library book w hich pro v id ed the
necessary clue Ellery n eeded to solve the case. N or w ere discoveries of his
books alw ays flattering. In the short story M um is the Word, Ellery's
discovery of a set of his books led to some unexpected criticism.
[Christopher:] '...I'd gone to the library to lick m y w ounds,
and Ellen cam e in for a book to read in bed, she said. She w asn 't
there m ore th an tw o or three m inutes. She took one of yours, if
I'm not m istak en .'
'M aybe th at's w hy she fell asleep so soon,' said Jo w ith a
little snap-crackle-pop in her voice.
'E ven th at,' said Ellery w ith a bow , 'is not im possible.'
(Q.E.D. 42).
Ellery's h u m ility reflected his changing attitude: a charm ing m ixture of
confidence an d hum ility, a self-assurance balanced by a fear of failure.
W h at's W rong in W rightsville?
E llery's ad v en tu res in W rightsville, a sm all tow n in upstate N ew York,
led to a new d evelopm ent in his detective career. Ironically, w henever the
96
great m an v isited the sm all to w n a crim e invariably took place in w hich his
assistance w as req u ired , an d he ap p eared to fail each time. The cases w ere
h an d led in such a w ay that the public never knew the w hole story. The
a p p a re n t failure d id not b other Ellery; by then he w as self-confident enough
not to care, b u t the appearance of failure led to later com plications, cases in
w hich the killer m an ip u lated the fam ous detective (such as Cat of Many
Tails). T hose cases slow ly ero d ed Ellery's self-confidence.
Ellery first visited W rightsville in an attem pt to escape his fame and
the distractions of N ew York City in o rd er to finish a novel. H e w anted some
place to w o rk quietly and found the sm all tow n appealing. Ellery w as
captivated by the nostalgia of sm all-tow n America:
T here w ere the sam e field, the sam e hill, the sam e sky.
Ellery caught him self breathing.
T hat w as the sw eet thing about W rightsville, he thought,
setting his suitcase d o w n on the platform and looking aro u n d
for H o w ard . It struck even the passer-by as home. It w as easy to
u n d ersta n d w h y H o w ard in Paris ten years before h ad seem ed
provincial. W hether like L inda Fox you liked W rightsville, or
like Lola W right you loathed it, if you h ad been born here and
raised here y o u took W rightsville w ith you to the fo u rth corner
and the seventh sea (Ten Days 28).
Like m ost sm all tow ns, W rightsville's peaceful atm osphere w as
deceptive. E llery's first experience w ith the local grapevine came w hen he
tried to keep his identity secret, so he could w ork quietly. T hat attem pt
prom ptly backfired:
H is good hu m o r w as not dispelled even w hen J. C. Pettigrew [the
local realtor] h u rried back from tow n w ith his luggage and
flou rish ed the last edition of the W rightsville Record. Frank
Lloyd, p u b lish er and editor, had kept his w ord to H erm ione
W right only technically. He had said nothing about Mr. Sm ith
97
[Ellery] in the body of the new s item except that he w as 'M r.
Ellery S m ith of N ew Y o rk / But the headline on the story ran:—
famed author to live in W rightsville! (Calamity Town 18).
Ellery w as soon caught in the social w h irlw in d of W rightsville and his
id e n tity w as quickly discovered:
H erm io n e low ered her voice. 'Y ou're in W rightsville
incognito, of course?'
'Such an im pressive w ord, Mrs. W rig h t../
'T h en except for a few of o u r closest friends I'll m ake sure
n o b o d y know s w ho you are,' beam ed H erm y. W hat kind of
W ork [sic] are y o u p lan n in g Mr. Smith?'
'A n o v e l/ said Ellery faintly. 'A novel of a particular sort,
laid out in a typical sm all city, Mrs. W right.'
'T h en y o u 're here to get the Colour [sic]! H ow aptl You
chose o u r ow n d ear W rightsville! You m ust m eet m y d au g h ter
Patricia im m ed iately , Mr. Smith. She's the cleverest child. I'm
sure Pat w o u ld be a great help to y o u in getting to know
W rig h tsv ille...' (16).
E llery's talents as a detective w ere soon needed and the pressing case
o v ersh a d o w e d his novel. The case w as resolved satisfactorily, b u t it appeared
to the public th at Ellery had failed. D espite his ap p aren t failures, Ellery's
re p u ta tio n in W rightsville w as as sound as it w as in the rest of the w orld. He
h ad fans there w h o loved his W rightsville books, like Johnny in The Last
Woman in His Life, "H e's follow ed y o u r adventures, Ellery, the w ay Marcus
A ntonius follow ed C aesar's. Johnny's especially keen on y o u r W rightsville
yarns. Keeps checking them for m istakes" (13).
Each tim e he retu rn ed the tow nspeople rem in d ed Ellery how m uch
they respected him . Those seeking Ellery's help usually sum m ed u p his
rep u tatio n nicely, like L inda in The Murderer is a Fox: "H e came to
W rightsville once before and tried to help the W rights w hen they w ere in
98
trouble [Calamity Town]. H e's alw ays helping people, I u n d erstan d . Maybe
he can help us" (46). Likewise, Joanne in the short story M u m is the Word,
h ad noth in g b u t praise for Ellery: "Rodge and Joan Fow ler w ere talking about
y o u only a few w eeks ago," Joanne m urm ured. "To listen to them , Mr.
Q ueen, y o u 're a cross b etw een a bulldog and a b lo o d h o u n d w hen it comes
to—things like this. You rem em ber, Chris, how they raved" (Q.E.D. 22). In
Double, Double, Ellery m et a you n g w om an w hose father had told her about
the great m an:
[Ellery:] 'W hat d id he say about me, Rima?'
'O h, that y o u w ere the kind of m an w ho had a
com pulsion to look for the truth. H e told m e that if I w as ever
in trouble after he w as gone, I w as to come to y o u ' (16).
Sim ilarly, H o w ard in Ten Days' Wonder told Ellery "You're somebody,
Ellery. T h ey 'v e never forgotten y o u in this tow n" (130). Ellery never forgot
w h at h a p p e n ed to him in W rightsville either. H e began to w o n d er about the
sim ilarity of his W rightsville cases in Ten Days' Wonder.
Ellery refilled his pipe. W hat really bothered him w as
that he w as W rightsville-bound on a case for the th ird tim e. It
w as a d isheartening coincidence. Ellery disliked coincidences.
They m ad e h im uneasy. A nd the longer he tho u g h t about it, the
u neasier he got.
If I w ere superstitious, he thought, I'd say it w as Fate.
Strange enough, in each of the previous W rightsville
in v estig atio n s, circum stances h ad n u d g ed him into the sam e
unsatisfying speculations. He w ondered, as he had w o ndered
before, if there m ight not be a p attern in all this, a p attern too
large to be discerned by the h um an eye. Certainly it w as odd
that, w hile he h ad brought the H aight [Calamity Town] and Fox
[The Murderer is a Fox] cases to successful solutions, the nature
of each had com pelled him to suppress the truth, so that the
w o rld outside reg ard ed his W rightsville ventures as am ong his
m ore conspicuous failures.
A n d now this Van H o rn business...
99
D am n W rightsville an d all its works! (26)
Because of the secrecy involved in the W rightsville cases, Ellery
becam e cau tio u s about getting involved in any m ore. In the short story M u m
is the Word, he hesitated to accept the police c h ie fs invitation to help w ith a
case:
[Chief N ew by:] 'I suppose there's nothing I can do but
invite y o u along. A re you available?'
Mr. Q, rising slow ly, w as available, if w ith reluctance. His
W rightsville triu m p h s invariable left an aftertaste of ashes
(Q.E.D. 12).
As tim e passed, Ellery grew m ore and m ore uncom fortable w ith the
deceptive fro n t he p resen ted to W rightsville. In The Last Woman in His Life,
E llery's d isco m fo rt w as reflected w hen he was rem em bered by a w om an
w h o m he w as visiting in the hospital:
'M iss Tierney. I d o n 't suppose y o u rem em ber m e.'
'D o n 't I just!' she cried, sitting up. 'Y ou're the great Ellery
Q ueen, G o d 's gift to W rightsville.'
'You d o n 't have to be nasty about it,' Ellery said, slipping
into a w ro u g h t-iro n chair.
'O h, b u t I m ean it.'
'Y ou do? W ho calls me that?'
'Lots of people around here.' H er cool blue eyes
shim m ered in the sun. 'O f course, I've h eard some say the gift
com es from the devil, b u t y o u 'll find sour-pusses everyw here.'
'T h at's probably because of the rise in the crime rate since I
began com ing h ere' (27-8).
D espite his discom fort w ith the situation in W rightsville, Ellery
continued h elp in g others w hen he could. D annay and Lee sum m ed u p the
situ atio n in the short story M um is the Word: "Ellery d id not display his
pride. H is W rightsville triu m p h s too often felt like defeats. Perhaps it was
100
because he loved the old tow n, and it had been his lot to clean u p her filth"
(Q.E.D. 48).
E llery's rep u tatio n w orked against him w hen he an d the police tried to
insure the full tru th w as not disclosed about his W rightsville cases. In T en
Day's Wonder, Ellery m et D iedrich van H orn, an astute fan:
[Van H orn: ] '.. .Here, let me refill your g lass/
But Ellery w as busy staring at one of the shelves.
'I told you I w as a fan of y o u rs / said D iedrich van Horn.
'M r. V an H orn, I'm throw n. You have them all.'
'A n d these I've read .'
'Well! T h ere's h ard ly anything an au thor w o n 't do to
repay this sort of kindness. A nybody I can m u rd er for you?'
'I'll tell you a secret, Mr. Q ueen,' said his host. 'W hen
H o w ard [Van H o rn 's son] told m e h e'd asked you u p here—and
to w o rk on a novel!— I w as excited as a kid. I've read every book
y o u ever w rote, I've follow ed y o u r career in the papers, and the
greatest regret of my life w as that d u rin g y o u r tw o visits to
W rightsville I co u ld n 't get to m eet you. The first tim e—w hen
you stayed w ith the W rights [Calamity Town]—I w as in
W ashington m ost of the tim e hun tin g w ar contracts. The
second tim e—w h en you w ere here on th at Fox business [The
Murderer is a Fox]—I w as in W ashington again, this tim e by
req u est of—well, it d o esn 't m atter. But if th at's not patriotism , I
d o n 't k now w h at is.'
'A n d if this isn 't flattery—'
'N o t a bit of it. A nd incidentally,' sm iled D iedrich, 'y o u
m ay have fooled W rightsville in both of those cases, b u t you
d id n 't fool m e.'
'Fool you?'
'I follow ed the H aight and Fox cases pretty closely.'
'I failed in b o th of them .'
'D id you?'
D iedrich g rin n ed at Ellery. Ellery grinned back.
'I'm afraid I d id .'
'N o t a chance. I told you, I'm a Q ueen expert. Shall I tell
you w h at you d id?'
'I'v e told y o u !
'I hesitate to call my honored guest a cockeyed liar,'
chuckled D iedrich, 'b u t you solved the m u rd er of Rosem ary
H aig h t—an d it w asn 't y o ung Jim, even tho u g h he d id pull that
fast stu n t of m aking a break at N ora's funeral and ru n n in g that
101
n ew sp a p er w o m an 's car—w h at w as her nam e?—off of the road
in his escape. You w ere protecting som ebody, Mr. Q ueen. You
took the rap .'
'T hat w o u ld n 't give m e a very good character, w ould it?'
'D epends. O n w hom you w ere protecting. The m ere fact
th at y o u d id a thing like th at—y o u being w hat y o u are—is a
clue.'
'C lu e to w hat, Mr. V an H orn?'
'I d o n 't know . I've beaten my brains out about it for years.
M ysteries b other me. I guess th at's w hy I'm such a sucker for
th e m .'
'Y ou have m y type of m ind,' rem arked Ellery.
'L abyrinthine. But go on.'
'W ell, I'd bet a w hole lot that Jessica Fox d id n 't com m it
suicide, either. She w as m u rd ered , Mr. Q ueen, and y o u proved
it, an d w h at's m ore you proved w ho m u rd ered h er... I th in k ...
a n d y o u w ith h eld the tru th about it, too, for I suppose y o u r ow n
reaso n .'
'M r. V an H orn, y o u should have been a w riter.'
'W h at I d o n 't get in the Fox case—is w here the tru th
m ig h t lie. I know all the people involved in the H aight case, for
th at m atter—is w here the tru th m ig h t lie. I know all the people
involved in both cases, and I'd sw ear none of them is the
crim inal type.'
'D o esn 't that answ er y o u r question? T hings w ere w hat
they seem ed and I failed to establish otherw ise.'
D iedrich w as looking at him th ro u g h the sm oke of his
cigar. Ellery looked back, politely. T hen D iedrich laughed.
'You w in. I w o n 't ask you to violate any confidences. But
I d id w an t to establish m y right to be know n as the n um ber one
Q ueen fan of W rightsville.'
'I w o n 't even react to that one,' m u rm u red Ellery, 'o n
advice of co u n sel/
D iedrich n o d d ed w ith enjoym ent, pulling on his cigar
(47).
As "the n u m b er one Q ueen fan of W rightsville" surm ised, there was
m ore to E llery's local career than m ost people knew, b u t Van H o rn was the
only one w ho ever realized it. H e later used his know ledge to m u rd er his
wife and fram e his step-son, w hile m anipulating Ellery into d raw in g the
conclusion th at the step-son w as the m urderer. Ironically, it was a
102
com bination of E llery's ap p aren t failures in W rightsville an d his w ell-know n
d ed u ctiv e m ethods w hich led him to be m an ip u lated by clever m u rd erers
later in his career. Such cases w o u ld prove devastating to his self-esteem and
he w o u ld question his confidence for the rest of his career.
N otes
1
Ellery Q ueen w as not the only character to experience good-natured
ribbing, or o u trig h t prejudice, because of his profession. In D orothy L.
Sayers' Strong Poison (1930) m ystery w riter H arriet Vane w as tried for the
m u rd e r of her boyfriend after purchasing arsenic as research for one of her
novels. She w as valiantly defended by Lord Peter W imsey w ho believed
in h er innocence— and the rest is history.
103
The Q ueen M ethod
Ellery Q ueen's m ethods of detection develo p ed over tim e, along w ith
his personality. Like characters in trad itio n al literature, Ellery m ade m istakes
and m atu red em otionally as a result. As a detective, w ho sh o u ld have left
justice to the legal system , Ellery's confidence grew to include vigilantism . As
a result, Ellery suffered agonies of conscience as he blam ed him self for not
prev en tin g the d eath s of the victims. As he m atu red em otionally Ellery,
u n lik e m ost characters in a detective fiction series, aged physically as well.
These factors com bined to m ake a character w ho w as m uch m ore believable
and likable th an the Ellery Q ueen in the earliest books.
E llery's p rim ary m ethods of detection, like those of his hero Sherlock
H olm es, w ere observation an d deduction. H e d id have a sense of intuition,
b u t ten d ed to rely on logic first and foremost. D uring the investigation Ellery
k ep t his theories to him self, telling no one his line of thought, not even
Inspector Q ueen. This led to some tension betw een father an d son, b u t the
Inspector u n d ersto o d Ellery's m ethods and w as not offended. In The Roman
Hat Mystery the Inspector explained Ellery's m ethod: "Ellery is m erely
in d u lg in g in his favorite gam e of ratiocination. He d o esn 't kn o w w here the
papers are any m ore th an y o u do. H e's guessing... In detective literature," he
ad d e d w ith a smile, "they call it the art of deduction" (183). Ellery him self
described his m ethod in its sim plest terms: "I'm one w ith K ant at least to this
ex ten t...th at p u re reason is the highest good of the h u m an hodge-podge. For
w h at one m in d can conceive, another m ind can fathom ..." (Dutch Shoe 18).
104
E llery's m ethods in clu d ed m ore th an observation an d reason,
h ow ever; he also ad d ed a healthy dash of im agination. This elem ent is w hat
set him ap art from the Inspector, w ho relied on the details of police
procedures, an d m ade him such an outstanding detective. Ellery explained
this com bination to a ju d g e in Halfway House:
T v e b een told Mr. Q u e e n / rem arked Judge M enander
after he h ad m ad e his apologies to Lucy for the ordeal she h ad
gone th ro u g h , 'th at there is an extraordinary story connected
w ith y o u r solution of this case. I confess I'm a little curious.
Yours seem s to be a strange destiny, you n g m an. I've h eard tales
about you. W hat magic d id you perform this tim e'?
'M agic,' m u ttered Pollinger. T h a t's w h at it w as all right.'
Ellery glanced at Bill, Lucy, A ndrea; they sat on the ju d g e's
leather sofa w ith h an d s joined, like three children. 'M agic? For
old h an d s, gentlem en, th a t's naive. The ancient form ula: pick
out the facts an d p u t them together. Mix thoroughly w ith plenty
of logic. A d d a d ash of im agination. Presto!'
'It sou n d s delicious,' said Judge M enander dryly, 'b u t not very
in fo rm a tiv e ' (205).
E llery's tendency to keep his theories to himself, except for an
occasional cryptic rem ark, w as referred to as "Elleryana": 'T y p ical Ellery ana,
observe; w hich, as E llery's readers are apt to know , are alw ays interesting and
often cryptic" (Egyptian Cross iii). N ot to m ention frustrating, since Ellery's
m eaning w as never clear u n til the d enouem ent w h en he b ro u g h t all the
pieces of the puzzle together and explained the crime.
E llery's ratiocination w as often described in elaborate detail. In T h e
Dragon's Teeth he p rep ared for a long night of thinking:
H e opened a fresh package of cigarets [sic] and lined the
tw enty w hite tubules up on the desk before him so th at they
resem bled the rails of a picket fence. He filled a w ater goblet
w ith w h at w as left of the Scotch and set it conveniently at his
elbow. Mr. Rum m ell, sizing up the situation, vanished. He
105
retu rn ed ten m inutes later bearing another q u art of Scotch and a
tall carton of coffee.
Mr. Q ueen barely acknow ledged his thoughtfulness. He
rem oved his jacket, laid it neatly on a chair, loosened his
necktie, and rolled u p his shirt-sleeves.
Then, w ith the goblet in one h an d an d a cigaret [sic] in the other,
he seated him self in the sw ivel-chair, set his feet u p o n the desk, and
began (199).
O ver tim e Ellery' habits changed little. Eventually he quit sm oking,
b u t he alw ays kept coffee and / or Scotch on h an d w hen faced w ith serious
thinking. It w as his habit to think the crime th ro u g h based on the
in fo rm a tio n at hand, consider all the possible conclusions, an d arrive at the
correct deduction. The denouem ent usually follow ed, a gathering of all the
suspects in w hich the killer w as revealed.
The m ain objection to E llery's deductive m ethod w as lack of proof.
Because he relied on logic, Ellery som etim es lacked enough physical evidence
to convict the crim inal. This w orked against him in court and in his field
w ork. In Ten Days' Wonder D iedrich Van H orn, m u rd erer and Ellery Q ueen
fan, criticized the "Q ueen M ethod":
'I th in k you know , Mr. Queen, w hat an a d m ire r I've
alw ays been—y o u r w ork in fiction and in life,' D iedrich said. 'I
shou ld have told you last year, w hile you w ere visiting here,
that in spite of m y adm iration I've alw ays considered y o u r
m eth o d —th at justly celebrated 'Q ueen M eth o d '—extrem ely
w eak in one respect.'
'M ore th an one, I'm afraid,' said Ellery. 'But w hich one do
you have in m ind?'
'Legal proof,' said D iedrich pleasantly. 'The kind of proof
policem en w ith no im agination and district attorneys w ith
factual training and judges w ith rules to judge by d em an d w hen
a m an is accused of a crime. The law, unfortunately, isn't
im p ressed w ith m ere logic, no m atter how brilliant. It asks for
adm issible evidence before it's w illing to p u t a defen d an t in
jeopardy.'
106
'N ice p o in t/ n o d d ed Ellery. 'I'm disinclined to defend
m yself beyond saying that I've alw ays left the gathering of
evid en ce to those w hose business evidence-gathering is. My
functio n has been to detect crim inals, not to p u n ish them . I
ad m it th at occasionally som eone I've p u t the logical finder on
has given the evidence-gatherers a ru n for their m oney.'
'H o w e v e r/ and Ellery's tone grew grim , 'I d o n 't think
th ey 're going to find this particular job too m uch for them ' (214).
V an H o rn w as u nusually astute. M ost killers w ere confounded by
Ellery's ap p aren tly m agical deductions. O n m ore th an one occasion a killer
referred to him as devilishly clever. "T here's som ething of the devil in you"
the killer told him in The Four of Hearts (216). Likewise one of the killers in
The Dragon's Teeth told Ellery, "Y ou're the devil him self", to w hich he
replied "Is that fair to the O ld 'B ub' [Beelzebub, or the Devil]?" (197).
C lever or not, Ellery still needed evidence to convict the killers he
caught. Judges in particu lar gave him a h ard time. In the short story T h e
Case Against Carroll, the judge told the court: "I know w hat Ellery Q ueen
show ed. H e sho w ed his usual talent for m aking som ething out of nothing.
E llery's idea of proof!" (Queen's Full 120). The sam e ju d g e rem inded one of
the attorneys th at "evidence is w hat trials are ruled by, and evidence is w hat
you ain 't got" (121). Fortunately for Ellery, the Inspector specialized in police
procedures w hich generally p ro v id ed him w ith the evidence he n eeded to
back u p his claims.
Because Ellery could choose on w hich cases he w anted to w ork, and left
the evidence-gathering to the police, he came off looking like a genius.
D annay and Lee d id not hesitate to m ake fun of this aspect of the "Q ueen
107
M ethod." In the short story Half a Clue, the Inspector sum m arized Ellery's
"genius" in one sentence:
The Inspector shot erect. 'Ellery Q ueen, do you m ean to
stan d here and say that H enry Brubuck drops dead at our feet
an d practically as he hits the floor you know w ho killed him ?'
Ellery said, 'Yes' (Q.E.D. 109).
A lth o u g h his m ethods changed little over the course of the series,
Ellery him self changed constantly. D annay an d Lee u p d ated his m annerism s
and habits to reflect current trends in detective fiction. As a result, Ellery
becam e infinitely m ore h u m an and, thus, m ore likable. In the earliest novels
(1929 - 1935), Ellery w as a H arvard-educated m an of leisure w ho had nothing
better to do th an poke into his father's business. He w as brilliant and h ad a
genius for crim e-solving, b u t came across as an arrogant, intellectual snob
w ho d id not hesitate to show off his education by quoting literature in its
original language, be it Latin, French, Germ an, or M iddle English. Years later,
Ellery reflected on his younger self:
'...it [youth] has it's disadvantages. I m ust have been
insufferable. So cocky and know-it-all. D id I get into your hair
m uch?'
'I w as a lot y o unger then m y self/ Inspector Q ueen grinned
{Finishing Stroke 174).
Young Ellery w as also a new author w ho lacked confidence in his
w riting.
H ow young Ellery w as m ay be judged by the fact that he took his
review s seriously. The sw eet ones puffed him to the point of
bloat; the so u r ones positively shriveled him. The review s of
The Roman Hat M ystery had been, on the w hole, nourishing.
The touch of acidity in the Saturday Review o f Literature notice,
how ever, infected him deeply. To be accused of m ere
com petence w as galling; to be called a 'philovancish bookw orm '
108
etched itself into his soul; to be charged w ith coyness revolted
him . T here is an innocence and w o n d er about a you n g au th o r's
first-born; to call it nam es is to com m it a crime against nature.
Ellery w rith ed (25).
The u n certain y o u n g au thor w as also an inexperienced detective.
It w ill be rem em bered alw ays that this w as a y o u n g er Ellery than
has heretofore been encountered—an Ellery w ith a cosmic
egotism th at is com m only associated w ith sophom ores. Life was
sw eet, there w as a knotty problem to solve, a to rtuous m aze to
stride confidently through, and, to ad d a pinch of dram a, a very
superior sort of D istrict A ttorney to bait (Greek Coffin 113).
P erhaps D annay and Lee grew tired of w riting about a young,
inexperienced snob w ho w as alw ays being com pared to S. S. Van D ine's Philo
Vance. To m ake Ellery m ore interesting, D annay and Lee had him m ake
m istakes: he came to the w rong conclusions, publicly accused innocent
people, an d otherw ise em barrassed himself. H e became discouraged and
vow ed to change his approach:
[Inspector:] 'Com e now , El, snap out of it. The w orld
h a sn 't come to an end. W hat if y o u r Khalkis solution w as a
flop? Forget it/
Ellery looked u p slowly. 'Forget it? N ot for a long time,
d a d / H e clenched one fist and regarded it blankly. 'If this affair
has tau g h t m e one thing above all others, it's taught me this—
and if ever you catch me breaking this pledge p u t a bullet
th ro u g h my conk: N ever again w ill I advance a solution of any
case in w hich I m ay be interested until I have tenoned into the
w hole every single elem ent of the crime, explained every
particle of loose e n d / *
The Inspector looked concerned. 'Com e now , boy—'
'W hen I think of w hat a fool I've m ade of m yself—w hat a
sw ollen, u n m itig ated , egotistical jackass of a fool...'
* This goes far to explain a situation concerning w hich
m uch conjecture and even criticism has arisen. It has been
rem ark ed that from Ellery's m ethod as show n in the three
novels already given to the public, he has alw ays seem ed
inconsiderate of his father's feelings, tightly suppressing w hat he
109
kn o w n or had reasoned concerning a crim e until the last gasp of
the solution. W hen it is recalled this vow of E llery's came in a
case preceding those others already published, his strange
conduct is understandable. - J. J. McC (Greek Coffin 142).
As he m atu red , Ellery w as still sensitive about his early failures. He
w as reluctant to p ublish some cases, as J. J. McC explained:
[Ellery w as reluctant to publish this story] For an
in te re stin g duality of reasons. In the first place, the Khalkis case
occurred early in his career as an unofficial investigator u n d er
the cloak of the Inspector's authority; Ellery h ad not yet at that
tim e fully crystallized his fam ous analytico-deductive m ethod.
In the second place—and this I am sure is the m ore pow erful
reason of the tw o—Mr. Ellery Q ueen until the very last suffered
a th o ro u g h ly h u m iliating beating in the Khalkis case. No m an,
h o w ev er m odest— and Ellery Queen, I think he w ill be the first
to agree, is far from that—cares to flaunt his failures to the
w orld. H e w as p u t to sham e publicly, and the w ound has left its
m ark. "N o," he said positively, "I d o n 't relish the notion of
castigating m yself over again, even in print."
It w as not until we pointed out to him —his publishers
an d I—th at far from being his w orst affair, the Khalkis case
(published u n d e r the present title of The Greek Coffin M ystery)
w as his greatest success, that Mr. Q ueen began to w aver—a
h u m a n reaction w hich I am glad to point out to those cynical
souls w ho have accused Ellery Q ueen of being som ething less
th an h u m a n ... Finally, he threw u p his hands and gave in (ix).
The young Ellery Q ueen w as also m ore concerned w ith the puzzle of a
case th an the people involved. He w as m otivated by the unsolved problem :
"He disliked m ysteries. H e had alw ays disliked mysteries; they annoyed his
sense of intellectual balance. T hat w as w hy he had alw ays been so interested
in the solution of crim es..." (Door Between 157). As he m atured, he
u n d e rsto o d that w h en it came to solving crimes, people and their problem s
w ere m ore im p o rtan t that the intellectual puzzle. As he told a friend in T he
110
Spanish Cape Mystery: "I've often boasted that the h u m an equation m eans
n o th in g to me. But it does, dam n it all, it does!" (221).
E llery's com passion for others w as reflected in The Siamese Twin
M ystery w h en he tried to keep the others trap p ed w ith him in a house about
to be consum ed by a forest fire occupied, so that they m ight not die in terror:
"H e looked u p at the door above their heads. There w as only one course, he
knew ; he m u st keep them interested, boiling, frightened— anything so they
d id not think of the blazing horror roaring over their heads" (211). Ellery was
unselfishly thinking of protecting the others, not of his ow n death:
He w ish ed w ith fierce yearning that at this m om ent, w hen their
atten tio n w as w holly caught, w hen for the fluttering instant they
tu rn ed their faces aw ay from death, that d eath w ould come
crashing an d sm oking u p o n them th ro u g h a collapsed ceiling, so
that th eir lives m ight be snuffed out w ith no w arning and no
p ain (220).
As Ellery becam e less intellectually detached, he also becam e m ore
physically active in his cases. He got in fights, broke his hand, occasionally got
shot (m ere flesh w ounds, of course), tackled fleeing killers an d leaped
betw een others and danger. Such actions could be in terp reted as either
recklessness or that perhaps D annay and Lee w ere trying to toughen Ellery's
intellectual im age. They could also reflect his developing concern for others,
an o u tw ard m anifestation of his desire to help those in need.
Som etim es Ellery's sym pathy for others w as obvious. In H alfw ay
H o u se , he tried to com fort a friend w hose sister had been convicted of
m u rd e r. H e both offered com fort and financial assistance:
111
Bill w as lying on the bed, half-dressed. His dusty shoes
had left a w ide earthy stain on the sheet. His necktie was tw isted
aro u n d his collar, and h is sh irt w as w et all over, as if he had
stepped u n d e r a show er w ith o u t taking it off. He w as staring u p
at the ceiling w ith o u t expression. His eyes w ere red, and it
seem ed to Ellery that he had been crying.
Ellery said: 'B ill/ in a gentle voice, but Bill did not stir.
'B ill/ said Ellery again, and he came in and sh u t the d o o r to
stand w ith his back against it. 'I suppose I d o n 't have to tell you
h o w ..' He fo u n d it surprisingly difficult to express h im self.
'W h at I m ean to say is th at I’m leaving. I d id n 't w ant to duck
out w ith o u t telling you that I'm not finished w ith this thing. In
a w ay, it's lucky Lucy got w hat she did. If it had been the Chair...
N ow th ere's no need for racing against tim e.'
Bill sm iled. It w as very queer to see h im sm ile, w ith h is
eyes red and su n k en and his face like a death-m ask. 'H av e you
ever been in a cell?' he asked, quite conversationally.
'I know , Bill, I k n o w .' Ellery sighed. 'But it's better th a n —
well, the o th er th in g [execution]. I’m going to w ork, Bill. I
w anted you to know it.'
'D o n ’t th in k / said Bill w ith o u t tu rn in g his head, 'I ’m
u n ap p reciativ e, Ellery. It's just th a t..' His lips com pressed.
'I'v e done n o th in g at all. It's been a m ost m ystifying
puzzle. It's even m ore m ystifying now . But th e re 's one ray of
s u n s h in e ... Well, le t’s not discuss it now. Bill.'
'Yes?'
Ellery scuffed the rug. 'E r...h o w about m oney? This th in g
m u st have p u t you in debt to the w hole w orld. A n appeal, I
m ean. It costs a lot, d oesn't it?'
'N o, Ellery, I can ’t accept...I m ean, thanks just the sam e.
Y ou're a brick.'
'W e ll.' Ellery stood there irresolutely for a m om ent. Then he
w en t to the bed and patted Bill's d am p shoulder and w ent out (139).
Som etim es Ellery's sym pathy was less apparent. In The Murderer is a
Fox, Ellery investigated a tw elve-year-old m u rd er because w ar hero Davy Fox
feared he w o u ld becom e a m u rd erer like his father. A t the request of Davy
and his fiancee, Linda, Ellery re-investigated the case in w hich D avy's father,
Bayard, allegedly m u rd ered D avy's m other, Jessica. From the beginning
112
Ellery w as undecid ed about Bayard, the convicted m u rd erer, b u t w as so
sym pathetic to w ard s the y o ung couple he felt he had to try.
E llery's com passion w as roused at the inhum ane treatm ent of the
convict by his police g u ard . W hen the gu ard left Bayard alone, handcuffed to
his bed, Ellery w as outraged and tried to com fort Bayard by offering him a
cigarette. A fter painstakingly recreating the investigation, Ellery realized that
D avy, as a very y o u n g child, had accidentally poisoned his m other. Knowing
the guilt and an g u ish such know ledge w ould cause Davy, he convinced the
police th at Jessica com m itted suicide. W hile such a solution w as not entirely
honest, Ellery m ade a m oral decision th at allow ed an innocent m an to get out
of prison and saved a y o u n g m an from a lifetim e of guilt. H ow different
from the cocky y o u n g intellectual to w hom the h u m an elem ent m eant
n o th in g .
E llery's strong sense of m orality, com bined w ith his grow ing selfconfidence as a detective, led to a new kind of arrogance. It w as not the
snobbish intellectual arrogance of the young Ellery, but a confidence that w ith
his ability and experience, he w as capable of catching the m ost devious of
killers. In Ten Days' Wonder, D annay and Lee gave a tongue-in-cheek
description of E llery's grow ing confidence:
H is prey w as m an, and he prow led the bottom lands of iniquity
w ith an enchanted w eapon, sw elling in fame w ith each bloody
chase. N ever h ad evildoers seem ed fiercer, or m ore cunning, or
m ore w illing for the bag. For he w as Ellery, son of Richard,
m ighty h u n ter before the Law; and none m ight prevail against
him (176).
113
This self-assurance led Ellery not only to set a trap for a killer using
him self as bait (in There was an Old Woman), b u t to confront the killer alone
w ith his conclusions an d allow the killer to take the honorable w ay out:
suicide. In Ten Days Wonder Ellery gave m u rd erer D iedrich Van H orn a
choice betw een public hum iliation or suicide:
Finally D iedrich said: T h e re m ust be som ething. Every
m an has his price. Is there anything I can offer you to keep you
from going to D akin [the police chief]?7
A nd Ellery said: 'Y es/
Ellery's gloved hand came out of the desk draw er.
In it glittered the snub-nosed Smith & W esson .38 safety
ham m erless he h ad seen there on the n ig h t V an H o rn h ad
show n him the rifled safe.
D iedrich's m o u th tw itched, but that w as all.
Ellery laid the revolver back in the draw er.
H e d id not close the draw er.
H e got to his feet.
'Y ou'll w rite out a note first. Give any excuse y o u think
w ill rin g tru e—grief, ill health.
'I'll w ait outside the study. I d o n 't think y o u 'll dem ean
yourself by trying to take a pot shot at me; but if you have any
such th o u g h t in m ind, forget it. By the tim e you can w heel that
chair aro u n d to this side of the desk to get the gun, I'll be in the
other room ; and I'll be in the dark.
'I think, Mr. Van H orn, th at's all' (223).
Ellery used the same tactic in The Door Between, u n d er slightly
different circum stances. As the killer dep arted to "do the honorable thing,"
D annay and Lee revealed that Ellery had no proof. H e had bluffed the killer
into suicide:
A n d he w o ndered as he w atched the gold wax m elt and
ru n u n d e r the heat: H ow prove a case of m ental m urder? H ow
prove th at a m an can com m it m u rd er not w ith his h an d s b u t
w ith his brain? H ow p un ish a natural force, like the desire for
rightful vengeance? H ow catch a w ind, or trap a cloud, or m ake
justice condem n itself to death?
114
Ellery stared m orosely into the grate. The last fragile scrap
of stationary w as licked u p by the flame as he w atched, and all
th at w as left w as residue of ash w ith a blob w eighing it d o w n like
a m ass of m ortality.
A nd he tho u g h t th at bluff w as m an 's defense against the
im palpable, and conscience his only guide. A nd he th o u g h t how
easy it w as, and how terrible it was, w ith only pen and ink and
p ap er an d w ax as his tools, for a m an to accom plish the one and
stir u p the other.
H e shivered a little before the d ark fireplace. It w as too
m uch like playing G od to feel entirely com fortable (206).
Such highly em otional stakes took their toll on Ellery. As he became
m ore an d m ore involved w ith the people in his case, he becam e m ore and
m ore exhausted after each case. A lthough he could recognize his ow n
exhaustion, Ellery could not alw ays recognize w h en he w as investing too
m uch in a case em otionally:
W hen Ellery tu rn ed the key in his ap artm ent door
S u n d a y night, and let him self in, and shut the door, and flung
aside his h at an d coat, and sank into his deepest chair, it w as
w ith a spent feeling. H is bones ached, and so did his head. It
w as a relief just to sit there in the quiet living-room thinking of
n oth in g at all.
He alw ays felt this w ay at the conclusion of a case— tired,
sluggish, his vital energies sapped.
He closed his eyes.
To be alone?
T hat w asn 't quite true. D am n analyzing again! But this
tim e his m in d dw elt on a m ore pleasant subject th an m urder.
Just w hat was his feeling for Paula Paris? Was he sorry for her
because she w as psychologically frustrated [agoraphobic], because
she shut herself u p in those sequestered room s of hers and
denied the w orld the excitem ent of her com pany? Pity? N o, not
pity, really. To be truthful about it, he rath er enjoyed the feeling
w hen he w en t to see her that they were alone, that the w orld
w as sh u t out. W hy w as that? (Four of Hearts 218).
G iven the em otional toll of E llery's cases, it w as not surprising that
P aula Paris' agoraphobic lifestyle seem ed appealing. Sometimes, even w hen
115
Ellery knew he should not get involved in a case, his desire to help others
overcam e his com m on sense. Such w as the case in Ten Days' Wonder w hen
Ellery realized his friend H o w ard Van H o rn w as in love w ith his ow n young
step-m other, Sally (w hose m u rd er by her h u sb an d w ould later be blam ed on
H ow ard). Ellery knew better th an to get involved in an adultery case and
once he realized th at w as the situation, he advised H o w ard an d Sally against
their course of action. W hen they ignored his advice, he still w anted to
resolve the problem . As a result H o w ard and Sally used him as a scapegoat,
blam ing him for stealing Sally's jewels, w hich they had really used to pay a
blackm ailer. In the end Ellery realized he had no one but him self to blame:
It had been w rong from the start. H e'd had no business
m ed d lin g in H o w ard 's am nesia. But there had been a m ystery
then, an d the h u m an elem ent of liking and curiosity. Lately,
how ever, w h en he learned about the erotic explosion at Lake
Pharisee, he should have ru n rap id ly for the nearest exit. O r if
he h ad stayed, he should have refused firm ly and finally to act in
any capacity w hatever in the negotiations w ith the blackm ailer.
At any step along the w ay he m ight have spared him self the
sickening eventuality of H o w ard 's perfidy sim ply by being
sensible. So, really, he h ad no one to blam e but himself.
But it w as a com fortable castigation. Peace perched on his
suitcase, a therapeutic com panion (151).
Ellery failed in m any w ays in the Van H orn case: failed to prevent
H ow ard an d Sally from having an affair, failed to prevent them from giving
in to blackm ail, and failed to prevent their deaths. The fact that he later
concluded D iedrich V an H orn w as the real killer and drove him to suicide
w as sm all com pensation after so m any failures. As a result, Ellery vow ed to
give up his detective career; in the future he w ould sim ply w rite fiction and
116
stay o u t of investigations. Cat o f M any Tails, the book after Ten Days'
W o n d e r , found Ellery still depressed by his failure in the Van H orn case:
In the W rightsville V an H o rn case Ellery h ad ru n into
stun n in g treachery. He h ad found him self betrayed by his ow n
logic. The old blade had tu rn ed suddenly in his hand; he had
aim ed at the guilty w ith it and it had ru n thro u g h the innocent.
So he h ad p u t it aw ay and taken u p his typew riter. As Inspector
Q ueen said, ivory tow er stuff.
U nhappily, he h ad to share his tu rret w ith an old knight
w ho jousted daily w ith the w icked. Inspector Richard Q ueen of
the N ew York city police departm ent being also the unhorsed
cham pion's sire, it w as a perilous proxim ity.
T d o n 't w ant to hear about a case,' Ellery w ould say. 'Just
let m e be.'
'W h at's the m atter?' his father w ould jeer. 'A fraid you
m ight be tem pted?'
'I'v e given all that up. I'm not interested any longer.'
But that w as before the Cat strangled A rchibald D udley
A bernathy (6).
U nable to resist, Ellery d id get involved in h u n t for the m ysterious Cat.
As in Ten Days' Wonder, he w as m anipulated by the killer and belatedly
realized it, thus costing several lives. A fter tw o such cases in a row, Ellery
w as devastated. He sought resolution of the m otive w ith the killer's old
m entor, Professor Bela Seligm ann, V iennese Psychiatrist (a F reudian, of
course). In stead of finding the killer's motive, he found com fort and w isdom
in S eligm ann's counsel:
'...D o not b u rd en yourself, young man, w ith a respon­
sibility w hich has not been yours at any tim e and w hich you
personally, u n d e r any circum stances, could not have controlled.
So far as y o u r p o w er to have altered events is concerned, the
p rin cip al difference betw een w hat has h ap p en ed and w hat m ight
have h ap p en ed is that Cazalis died in a prison cell rath er than
on the excellently carpeted floor of his Park A venue office.'
'N o m atter w hat you say, Professor, or how you say it, the
fact rem ains that I w as taken in by Cazalis' deception until it was
117
too late to do m ore th an hold a verbal post-m ortem w ith you
here in V ienna. I d id fail, Professor S eligm ann/
'In that sense—yes, Mr. Q ueen, you faile d / The old m an
leaned forw ard su d d en ly and he took one of Ellery's hands in his
ow n. A nd at his touch Ellery knew that he h ad come to the end
of a road w hich he w ould never again have to traverse. 'You
have failed before, y o u w ill fail again. This is the natu re and the
role of m an.
'The w ork you have chose to do is a sublim ation, of great
social value.
'Y ou m u st continue.
' I w ill tell you som ething else: This is as vital to you as it
is to society.
'But w hile y o u are doing this im portant and rew ard in g
w ork, Mr. Q ueen, I ask you to keep in m ind alw ays a great and
true lesson. A tru er lesson than the one you believe this
experience had tau g h t you.'
'A n d w hich lesson is that, Professor Seligm ann?' Ellery
w as very attentive.
'T he lesson, mein H err/ said the old m an, patting Ellery's
hand, 'th a t is w ritten in the Book of M ark. There is one God;
and there is none other hut he' (Cat 296-7).
As Ellery considered the w isdom of this, and that the professor m ight
be right, Inspector Q ueen called w ith the new s that both the killer and his
w ife (the p resu m ed killer) had com m itted suicide. Ellery blam ed him self for
their deaths as well:
'I'm too late again,' Ellery heard him self saying in the
m ost ridiculously em otional voice. 'I'v e killed Cazalis [the
killer] the w ay I killed H ow ard Van H orn. If I'd checked Cazalis
against all nine m u rd ers im m ediately instead of resting on my
shiny little laurels Cazalis w ould be alive today. Alive instead of
dead, Professor Seligm ann. Do you see it? I'm too late again.'
The grandfatherly voice said, 'W ho is being neurotic now,
mein HerrV and it w as not gentle, it w as juridical. But it was
still safe.
'I sw ore after the Van H orn business I'd never gam ble
w ith h u m an lives again. A nd then I broke the vow. I m ust
have been really bitched u p w hen I did that, Professor. My
bitchery m ust be organic. I broke the vow and here I sit, over the
grave of m y second victim ' (294).
118
F ortunately, Ellery eventually recovered his confidence and realized he
w as not to blam e for the d eath of the victims or the killer, b u t the seed of
d o u b t rem ained, how ever w ell hidden, for the rest of his career. He had a
close call in The Player on the Other Side, w hich rem in d ed h im of his
p rev io u s failures:
T he bars insisted on trying to slide u p w ard th ro u g h
E llery's hands. H e gripped them , w hich had the extraordinary
effect of squeezing tw o tears out of his eyes. They scalded; he was
glad that they hurt, glad that they turned the p rim Bible reader
[Walt] into a blur; glad masochistically, childishly. Pain in any
am o u n t w ould at this m om ent, he felt, be just. H e w ished he
could be sure th at fit p u n ish m en t w ould seal off his bottom less
self-scorn; oh, if it w ould, he w ould seek out the stern w ield er of
the nine-tailed cat, w hoever he m ight be, confess his crim inal
stup id ity and be thankfully flogged for it. Fantasy, of course;
there w o u ld be no escape, ever, from the fury and contem pt in
w hich Ellery Q ueen held the great m an.
A h an d grasped his shoulder. N o m atter w hat policem an
this m ight be, Ellery thought, he can never m ake a case against
me; and this, really, w as the core of his despair.
The h an d squeezed his shoulder, and the Inspector's voice
said, 'It's all right, son. We got here in tim e after all. H e d id a
sloppy job. H e's going to be all right.'
Ellery felt his hand slip from the bars and his body tu rn
tow ard the source of the voice. He did not w ipe his face or feel
em barrassm ent; in a w arm , all-but-forgotten sense, this w as his
father.
'H ey ...h e y ...' A soft, draw n-out breath; Ellery recalled its
use over b ark ed knees and broken treasures. 'H ey, now , son.'
Ellery w ent w ith his father dow n the corridor. He could
d raw a clean b reath now , rem em ber his handkerchief, stand six
feet tall once more. A nd it w as rue and w ry he felt, blow ing his
nose and trying to grin.
'W an t to tell m e w h at h appened to you, son?' Inspector
Q ueen asked gently.
'You bet,' said Ellery. 'I'v e solved if (Player 204-5).
D annay and Lee provided a good balance over the course of the novels.
D espite occasional struggles w ith failure and despair, Ellery rem ained
119
confident m ost of the tim e. Such struggles w ere n o t too frequent and only
served to m ake him m ore believable and likable to the reader. D annay and
Lee described E llery's ability to bounce back, and his u n d erly in g doubt, in The
Finishing Stroke, w hich flashed back to a case early in Ellery's career:
E ventually the d arkness lifted—from y o u n g Mr. Q u een 's spirit,
at least— and other cases came along to engage his interest and
talen t for seeing tw os and p u ttin g them together. H e solved
them . H e w rote his books. H e even becam e fam ous. But he
never forgot how he had failed in his second—really his first—
m u rd e r case. Long after the details faded from his m em ory, the
fact rem ain ed —like ringw orm ro u ted b u t not d estro y ed —
itching u n d e r his skin (168).
Ellery occasionally gave in to other em otions. In The Scarlet Letters,
w hen Ellery realized the alleged lover w as really nothing m ore than a
blackm ailer, he w as so disgusted he w anted to kill the culprit:
H e caught H arrison at the side of the jaw w ith a right
cross th at knocked the actor's chair over backw ards an d lan d ed
him on the h earth of his fireplace.
But as Ellery drove away, he felt no righteous flush—of
even sm all victory. H e h ad achieved exactly as m uch as a m an
can w ith his bare hands.
It w as not enough.
H e should never have come w ithout a deadly w eapon
(103).
E llery's sense of justice and personal honor w as p u t to the test in the
short story The Case Against CarrolL Ellery was unable to prove John Carroll
innocent of m u rd er and, at C arroll's request, kept the full inform ation about
the case from Mrs. C arroll in o rd er to protect her h u sb a n d 's honor:
She saw Ellery then and she struggled to her feet an d was
at him so sw iftly that he alm ost stepped back.
'I thought you w ere supposed to be so m arvelous at these
things! You h av e n 't done anything for John—an y th in g .'
120
C arroll tried to d raw her back, b u t she shook him off. H er
pain-etched face w as livid.
'I d o n 't care, John! You should have h ired a real detective
w hile there w as still time. I w anted y o u to—I begged you and
T ully not to rely on som eone so close to the police!'
'H elena, really.' W est w as em barrassed.
Ellery said stonily, 'N o, Mrs. Carroll is quite right. I was
the w rong m an for this, alth o u g h not for the reason y o u give,
Mrs. Carroll. I w ish I had never got m ixed u p in it.'
She w as staring at him intently. 'T hat alm ost sounds as
if...'
'As if w hat, H elena?' West w as trying to h u m o r her, get
her aw ay.
'A s if he know s. Tully, he does. Look at his face!' She
claw ed at Ellery, 'You know , and you w o n 't say anything! You
talk, do you hear? Tell me ! Who's behind this?'
W est w as flabbergasted. W ith surprise John C arroll
stu d ied E llery's face for a m om ent, then he w ent to the barred
w in d o w and stood there rigidly.
'W ho?' H is wife w as w eeping now . 'W ho?'
But Ellery w as as rigid as Carroll. 'I'm sorry, Mrs. Carroll.
I can't save y o u r husband. It's too late' (Queen's Full 122).
D espite the difficulty of the situation, Ellery honored C arroll's decision;
he agreed it w as better for the family to think John Carroll h ad died the
v ictim of a m iscarriage of justice, instead of a m urderer. Even the prison
w ard en an d Inspector Q ueen w ere unaw are of the details:
[W arden:] 'H e [Carroll] gave me a m essage for you, by the
way.'
'T hanking him , I suppose,' Inspector Q ueen said bitterly.
'W hy, yes, Inspector,' the W arden said. 'H e said to tell
y o u r son how grateful he was. W hat on earth d id he m ean?'
'D o n 't ask h i m,' the Inspector said. 'M y son's constituted him self
a one-m an subcom m ittee of the A lm ighty' (124).
D espite his hum bling failures, it appeared that Ellery played God once
again. H e had learned from his experiences, how ever; he learned to accept
his hu m an ity an d acknow ledge his m istakes w ith o u t agonizing over them .
As he told the innocent w id o w in a Fine and Private Place: "Of course, I could
121
be d ead w rong about you; I've been w rong before, and m ore th an once. This
tim e, though, I confess, Td like to be right" (163).
Ellery not only grew em otionally over the course of the series, he aged
physically as well. This w as an u n u su al acknow ledgm ent for a m ystery series.
M ost series characters aged slowly, if at all; most rem ained a consistent age
and the stories rem ained in a specific tim espan. In The Finishing Stroke
Ellery struggled w ith the idea of aging:
H e h ad been toiling for alm ost tw o hours now at his
beautiful electric typew riter, and all he had to show for it w as a
sheet of yellow p ap er dirtied w ith five and half lines of less than
deathless prose containing 53 w ords, 21 of w hich he had gone
back and Xed out.
N o energy, Ellery thought, drooping. I'm vitam in-poor, a
m an w ith a built-in tranquilizer. Give me a h arp an d I'm happy.
T hirty novels u n d e r m y belt—w hat do I w an t w ith thirty-one?
W eren 't nine sym phonies good en o u g h for Beethoven?
W ith som e alarm he realized that he w as getting old.
This w as such an overw helm ing th o u g h t th at he im m ediately
typed tw o and half lines m ore, disdaining to X out so m uch as a
typographical error. But th en the futility of it all hit him again,
he d ro o p ed again, an d he found him self w ishing it w ere noon so
th at he m ight decently m ake him self a Bloody M ary (170).
Ellery's aging u ndoubtedly reflected that of D annay and Lee. T h e
Finishing
Stroke w as published in 1959. The authors w ere fifty years old that
year, had w ritten thirty books, five short story collections, and edited Ellery
Queen's M ystery Magazine for thirteen years, along w ith countless
anth o lo g ies. If Ellery w as a reflection of D annay and Lee's com bined work, no
w o n d e r he felt old and tired.
If Ellery felt old, his father felt even older. Inspector Queen's Own Case
focused on the problem s of aging and retirem ent. The Inspector, forced into
122
m an d ato ry retirem en t at sixty-three, bored an d resentful, stru g g led w ith
feeling useless: "R ichard Q ueen opened his eyes an d for a m om ent looked his
arm s over. T h ere're like an anatom ical sketch of a cadaver, he thought,
w o rn o u t [sic] cables of m uscle an d bone w ith corrugated covers w here skin
used to be. But he could feel the life in them , they could still hold their own,
they w ere useful" (9). The fact th at the Inspector h ad been a w id o w er for over
thirty years only m ade him feel older and m ore lonely an d useless.
W hen d u ty called, the Inspector jum ped at the chance to assist the local
police. W hen he need ed inform ation and ad d itio n al assistance, he called on
his old police b u d d ies w ho had also been forced into retirem ent. They called
them selves the 87th Street Irregulars after the Q ueen's hom e address and
Sherlock H olm es' Baker Street Irregulars. The Irregulars ap p eared again in
House of Brass. A fter helping the Inspector a second time, one of the retired
officers suggested they start The Richard Q ueen D etective Agency:
'A n d show these y o u n g tw erps on Centre Street,' chortled
H ughie Griffin, 'th a t life begins at sixty-three.'
'W e've got am ong the six of us about tw o h u n d red years
of know -how ,' A1 M urphy nod d ed . 'M ore I think of it, the better
it so u n d s' (145).
D annay an d Lee did not p u rsu e the idea of the Inspector's detective
agency. In fact, for the rest of the series the Inspector's retirem ent w as ignored
as th o u g h it never happened. P erhaps D annay and Lee decided that w hile
they w anted their characters to age realistically, they d id not w an t to p u sh the
Inspector any closer to d eath from old age. After all, if Ellery w as pushing
fifty, the Inspector h ad to be in his seventies. For the rest of the series, Ellery
123
rem ained som ew here in his thirties or forties w ith his exact age unspecified;
the Inspector rem ain ed som ew here in his sixties, b u t not yet retired. W ith
their characters an d m ethods of detection w ell-developed, D annay and Lee
felt free to beg in occasional experim ents in w hich their stories tu rn ed in
u n ex p ected directions.
124
The Inconsistent Q ueen
It is not u n u su al for an author w ho w rites a series to m ake m istakes or
m isrem em b er details from novel to novel; a casual read er w o u ld not notice
such trivial errors, b u t devoted fans spot them instantly. D annay an d Lee
w ere no exception. U sually their m istakes w ere trivial, b u t over their fortytw o year career, they m ade their share of obtrusive errors. A t other tim es the
authors p u rp o sefu lly chose to experim ent w ith u n u su al settings or plot
devices. Some of these ventures pro v ed m ore successful th an others.
M ost of D annay and Lee's inconsistencies w ere of the trivial sort. For
instance in The Siamese Twin Mystery, Ellery ow ned a beautiful, distinctive
m edieval rin g w hich he u sed to trap a kleptom aniac. W hile the ring w as
useful in this story, it w as never m entioned again. This sort of inconsistency
is u n d erstan d ab le and forgivable; the authors could not be expected to list
every item in Ellery's possession and keep track of such details.
D iscrepancies in the characters' habits or know ledge w ere m ore
obtrusive and disconcerting. For exam ple, in The Spanish Cape Mystery, the
victim w as found on a patio n u d e except for an opera cape, and Ellery
discussed how difficult it m ust have been for the killer to strip the body:
'H m m . It m u st have been rather a job, at that,' m used Ellery.
'H av e you ever tried to disrobe an unconscious or sleeping
person? I have, and you may take my w ord for it it's not as easy
as it sounds. There are all m anner of arm s and legs an d things
th at get in the w ay. Yes, yes, a job. A job that w o u ld n 't have
been u n d ertak en , especially at such a time, w ith o u t a definite
and utterly essential end in view ' (79).
125
Since Ellery d id not have children to dress and care for, the astute
read er w as likely to w o n d er how he knew of the difficulty of disrobing an
unconscious or sleeping person. Fortunately for his rep u tatio n , Ellery seldom
m ade such in crim in atin g com m ents.
D annay an d Lee w ere u nusually inconsistent w ith the sm oking habits
of Ellery an d Inspector Queen. From his earliest days, Ellery sm oked
cigarettes, and occasionally a pipe, and the Inspector took snuff. By the 1950s
Ellery sm oked less and the Inspector had given u p snuff. In the later books
the authors could not quite decide if the Inspector sm oked or not. In There
Was an Old Woman the Inspector "...lit a stogie and began to p uff on it
w ith o u t relish" (62); in Cat o f M any Tails he "...to o k one of E llery's cigarettes;
he never sm oked cigarettes" (73); and in The Player on the Other Side: "'O h?'
said his father, slow ly reaching for one of Ellery's cigarettes; he alm ost never
sm oked cigarettes" (112). Perhaps the Inspector him self could not decide if he
"never sm oked" or "alm ost never sm oked cigarettes," or p erh ap s he
struggled w ith the habit, never quite giving it up com pletely.
Ellery w as also effected by the authors' inconsistent details. A lthough
Cat of M any Tails w as a w ell-w ritten and suspenseful story, it contained an
u n u su a l n u m b e r of inconsistencies and blatant errors. Ellery accepted help
from relatives of tw o of the victim s and even sent one u n d erco v er w ith the
Inspector's blessing (192). A lthough Ellery had relied on inform ation from
victim s' fam ilies before, he had never allow ed them to participate in the
126
actual investigation. It is also unlikely that the police w ould have agreed to
p u t a private citizen in d an g er w ithout just cause.
U nlike the rest of the books in the series, Cat of M any Tails w as not fair
to the read er, for the au th o rs w ithheld an im p o rtan t fact. Ellery him self
recalled the detail close to the end of the case; this conversation w as not
m entioned w h en the scene took place early in the book:
Of course! It w as Cazalis w ho h ad been responsible for the birth
of the idea. Ellery recalled it all now. It h ad come u p d u rin g that
Septem ber n ig h t in the R ichardson apartm ent, in the first hours
of the on-scene investigation of L enore's m u rd er. T here h ad
been a lull an d Ellery found him self in conversation w ith the
psychiatrist. They had talked about Ellery's fiction and Dr.
Cazalis h ad rem arked w ith a smile that the field of phobias
offered Ellery's craft rich stores of m aterial. O n being pressed,
C azalis h ad m entioned w ork he him self had done on
"ochophobia, and nyctophobia" in relation to the developm ent
of "ponophobia"; in fact, Ellery rem em bered saying, he had read
a p ap er on the subject as at convention in Zurich. A nd Cazalis
h ad talked for a little about the findings, until they w ere
in te rru p te d by the Inspector and recalled to the sorry business of
the n ig h t (255).
S ergeant Velie w as not quite him self in Cat of M any Tails. As fear of
the serial killer grew in N ew York City, Velie sent his wife an d d au g h ter out
of tow n to safety. Such an action im plied an uncharacteristic lack of faith in
Ellery's ability to catch the Cat:
'Sent the w ife and kid to m y m other-in-law 's for a
m o n th .'
'To Cincinnati? Is B arbara-A nn—?'
'N o, Barbsy's okay. A nd as far as school is concerned,' said
S ergeant Velie argum entatively, 'she can catch u p any tim e.
She's got her m a's brains.'
'O h ,' said Ellery; and they am bled on in silence (103).
127
The strong, silent sergeant, for w hom five sentences in a row w as a
long speech, d ebated w ith Ellery for pages, discussing ideas and w ays to find
the killer. In the rest of the series, Velie adm ired Ellery an d considered him
the "M aestro," the m aster detective. For Velie to debate w ith Ellery on equal
term s, especially at such length, w as com pletely out of character; Velie spoke
m ore in this one book than he d id in the w hole series.
D espite his talkative dem eanor in Cat of M any Tails, Velie w as usually
p o rtray ed as sm art and quiet. In the short story Cold Money, he w as
u n u su ally stupid:
[Inspector:] ' Velie, get some used towels from the
bathroom . M aybe w e can sop up enough of this w et ink to m ake
out w h at M ullane w as w riting!'
'N o used tow els in h e re / called the Sergeant from the
b ath ro o m .
'T hen get some clean ones, you dim w it!' (Q.B.I. 43).
T he m ost glaring discrepancies occur in the flashback novel T h e
Finishing Stroke, w hich w as w ritten in 1958 b u t set in the late 1920s. Since
the novel w as set tw enty years in the past, it is u n d erstan d ab le th at D annay
and Lee m ight m ake some m istakes, b u t it is surprising such blatan t errors
slipped past b o th authors and their editor. For exam ple, in the earliest books
Ellery referred to his old D usenberg as "faithful Rosinate;" in later books he
called it "old D uesey." In The Finishing Stroke D annay and Lee
anachronistically referred to the car as "old D uesey." Likewise, Sergeant Velie
d id not start calling Ellery "M aestro" until 1939. Yet in The Finishing Stroke
he asked Ellery "H o w 's the other half live, M aestro?" (119).
128
T here is also a discrepancy in the series' chronology. The Roman Hat
M ystery w as the first book, w ritten in 1929. Yet The Greek Coffin M ystery,
w ritten in 1932, w as a flashback to Ellery's first case. T hat w o u ld m ake T he
Roman Hat M ystery his second case, yet in The Finishing Stroke, D annay and
Lee state that it w as Ellery's second case:
It is no exaggeration to say that as Ellery thrashed in his bed
th o u g h the interm inable night and the rain-gray d ay lig h t hours
of the follow ing m orning, his thoughts w ere not full of w isdom .
H e w as to encounter and su rm o u n t m any difficulties in the
course of his career: but he w as young then, the Case of the
C urious C hristm as Packages w as only his second investigation—
really his first in d ep en d en t one—and it seem ed to him the end
of the w orld h ad come (123).
The Player on the Other Side, w ritten in 1963, also contained some
un u su al inconsistencies. It described the unpleasant side of police w ork in
great detail. M ost of the Ellery Q ueen novels fit the traditional m odel of the
detective story. T hat is, the crime takes place off-stage. Solving the problem ,
not w itnessing the violence is the focus of the novel, so detailed descriptions
of inner-city crim e w ere very out of place. C onsidering that the Inspector had
to deal w ith such grim reality on a daily basis, it w as not surprising that for
this one novel he took u p sw earing:
It w as Inspector Q ueen, in the Q ueen apartm ent, hanging do w n
the telephone an d to his ow n surprise uttering a w ord w hich,
w hen he h eard it from the lips of a raided m adam , h ad shocked
even him ; th en ru n n in g out clutching hat and coat to m eet the
squad car he could already hear w ailing (99).
A n o th er variance in Player w as Ellery's unusual approach to finding
the inform atio n he needed to solve the crime. Instead of relying on logical
deduction, Ellery relied on bluffing: 'T h o u g h t Ellery: The prod, the goad, the
129
phrase that gigs, is; [sic] I know all about it" (117). Ellery approached each of
the suspects an d confronted them w ith this bluff, hoping for a confession.
Such trial-an d -erro r tactics w ere d isappointing an d below the M aestro's
dignity.
D annay an d Lee experim ented w ith other elem ents of the stories as
well. The four novels they w rote betw een 1937 and 1939 (The Door Between,
The Devil to Pay, The Four of Hearts and The Dragon's Teeth) w ere set in
H ollyw ood, reflecting their stint as screenw riters. D annay an d Lee w ere
trying to reach tw o new m arkets: H ollyw ood an d the new , glossy w om en's
m agazines. Because they w ere striving to w rite som ething w hich could easily
be ad ap ted to the screen or serialized in a m agazine for female readers, the
authors changed their focus from ded u ctio n to physical action an d romance.
On the w hole, the books w ere unsatisfying. In Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen,
Author and Detective, Francis N evins described The Devil to Pay, but the
description is applicable to all the "H ollyw ood Novels":
The plot is now here near Q ueen's best and now here n ear
com plex enough for a Q ueen novel, although it's com petent and
adequate in m ost respects. The characterization and dialogue,
how ever, are som ew hat less th an adequate. Even Ellery
becom es no m ore th an a m old for a B-picture leading m an;
change his nam e to Charlie Brow n and, except for the
deno u em en t scene, y o u 'd never know he w as su p p o sed to be the
detective of Q u een 's earlier novels (58).
N evins' description is sadly accurate. Ellery w as portrayed as an
em otional, occasionally comical, leading m an w ho relied on guess-w ork
instead of deduction. For example, in The Door Between w hile discussing the
130
case w ith Doc. Prouty, Ellery suddenly, for no apparent reason, suspected
poison:
Ellery ran over to him and g rip p ed his lapel. T ro u ty , stop
babbling before I throttle you! If the half-scissors d id n 't kill her,
w h at d id ?'
'A d iffe re n t...If y o u 'll give m e a chance—'
Ellery sm acked his father's desk. 'D o n 't tell me the knifew ou n d w as inflicted over a fir st w ound, a sm a ller w o u n d — to
obliterate it!'
The black jaw [Prouty's], w hich needed a shave badly,
dropped.
'Lord! I never d ream ed ...Is there any w ay of telling,
Prouty? Is the venom recognizable?'
'V e n o m ? ' repeated Dr. Prouty dazedly.
'It w as just yesterday. I'd been thinking over the case—its
curio u s angles. I got to thinking about K inum e.' Ellery was
exultant. 'A n d then I rem em bered K aren L eith's rem ark in g in
the sp rin g th at the old Japanese w om an came from the Loo-choo
Islands. I prom ptly referred to Britannica and fo u n d —p u re
h u n ch , m in d you!—th at a majority of the islands, especially a
place called A m am i-O shim a, are infested w ith a genus if
venom ous reptile called h a b u /
'H a — w h at?' said Prouty, goggling at him.
'T rim ersu ru s—I hope that I've rem em bered it correctly.
N o rattle, scaly head, attain a length of six to seven feet, and their
bite causes quick death.' Ellery drew a deep breath. 'It was the
m arks of fangs u n d ern ea th , Prouty?'
Prouty took the dangling cigar out of his m outh. 'W h a t's
the m atter w ith him , Q. [Inspector Q ueen]—is he crazy?'
E llery's smile vanished. 'You m ean it w asn 't a snake?'
'N o !'
'B ut I th o u g h t—' began Ellery feebly.
'A n d w ho said anything about a knife-w ound obliterating
a an o th er, sm aller w o u n d u n d ern eath ?'
'But w h en I asked you—'
P routy threw his h ands up. 'Look, Q. Put in a call to
M atteaw an, and then bring out the half-scissors' (141).
O ther poor plot devices included Ellery taking up ju-jitsu and altering
his appearance by grow ing a beard and changing his hair style. W orst of all
w as his attem pt to go undercover as a flashy new spaper reporter:
131
The ap p aritio n w as a tall lean young m an w ith a clean­
shaven face and features just a trifle too sharp to be handsom e.
The y o u n g m an w as attired in shapeless slacks of a dingy grey
[sic] hue an d the loudest sportscoat Fitzgerald, w ho h ad seen
everything, h ad ever laid eyes on. It w as a sort of disappointing
terra cotta, w ith w ide cobalt stripe slashing thro u g h an
assortm ent of b ro w n plaid checks. H is shoes w ere yellow
brogues. H is red-and-blue plaid socks curled aro u n d his ankles.
O n his head he w ore a tan felt hat w ith the fore p art of the brim
sticking straight u p in the air. A nd his eyes w ere covered by
blu e-tin ted sun-glasses.
'H ilary "Scoop" King, the dem on of the city-room / said
the apparition, leering. 'H azit, Fitz?'
'O h, m y G o d / groaned Fitz, hastily shutting the door.
'...yo u r ow n father w o u ld n 't know you in that get-up' (Devil to
Pay 108).
Ellery not only insisted he be the one to reveal the killer, w hich was
uncharacteristically vain of him , b u t he later bragged about it:
'R em em ber the O hippi case? I had som ething to do w ith
solving it, and this—' he opened his h an d — 'is a token of y o u r
p ueb lo 's gratitude, up to and including Glucke [the police
inspector Ellery w orked w ith in H ollyw ood], poor devil.
H onorary D eputy C om m issioner's badge. Look tough, you two,
and keep y o u r m ouths sh u t' (Four of Hearts 131).
D annay and Lee's H ollyw ood period w as m ercifully short. Their
attem pt at screenw riting p ro d u ced none of the desired results: the cousins
w orked on n u m ero u s screenplays but received no on-screen credit and only a
few Ellery Q ueen m ovies w ere m ade. The novels d id not ad ap t w ell to the
big screen, and the plots bore little resem blance to the original stories. Francis
N evins asked Frederick D annay about the m ovies w hile w riting Royal
Bloodline: "D annay and Lee had nothing w hatever to do w ith any aspect of
these films, and D annay told me that if he is w atching TV in bet at night and
a Q ueen m ovie comes on, he ducks u n d er the covers" (69).
132
F ortunately for D annay and Lee their other attem pts at unusual
settings w ere m ore successful. They loved to play w ith settings w hich
D annay described as "Ellery in W onderland" (ibid. 117). "The technique rests
on p lu n g in g the quintessential m an of reason into a m ilieu as m ad as the
u n d ersid e of C arroll's rabbit-hole and requiring him to forge some sort of
order out of the chaos" (ibid.).
These stories in clu d ed the novels There Was
an Old Woman and Double, Double, and the short story The Mad Tea Party.
The latter w as D an n ay 's favorite of the Q ueen short stories and w as the only
story by the original authors u sed in the 1976 television series starring Jim
H u tto n an d D avid W ayne.
There Was an Old Woman revolved aro u n d the eccentric Potts family.
Cornelia Potts, the m atriarch, w as head of the w o rld 's largest shoe franchise.
Of her six children, three w ere unu su ally eccentric: one son, H oratio, lived in
a "gingerbread" cottage on his m other's estate and w rote children's stories; the
other son, T hurlow , w as extrem ely sensitive about his u n u su al fam ily and
spent his tim e filing law suits against anyone w ho m ade derogatory rem arks
about the fam ily; the oldest daughter, Louella, w as a scientist w ho spent her
tim e w orking on a form ula for plastic in order to create a shoe that w ould p u t
the Potts fam ily out of business. A fter the court dism issed one of his
frivolous law suits, T h u rsto n vow ed to avenge future insults to the family
personally. At that point, the fam ily law yer hired Ellery to prevent T hurlow
from killing anyone.
133
Ellery w as unable to prev en t a m u rd er, b u t his attem pt to control the
chaos of the Potts household w as entertaining, although p erh ap s not to the
taste of all readers. As N evins sum m arized it:
As a result, T here W as an O ld W om an m u st ultim ately be
jud g ed a fascinating tw o-books-in-one, at o dds w ith itself at
every step, w ith som e fine in d iv id u al sequences in b o th the
novel-of-the-A bsurd and the detective-story sections, b u t never
ad d in g u p to an integrated whole. To cite an apt phrase in the
novel itself, it's 'too rich a m ixture of sense and nonsense, a
m ixture too thoroughly m ixed' (Royal B loodline 121).
Double, Double likew ise contained bizarre, fairy-tale elem ents; the plot
centered aro u n d a series of m u rd ers w hich follow ed the children's rhym e
"Rich-man, p o o r-m an /b eg g ar-m an , thief." The killer, d istu rb ed by his w ar­
tim e killing in W orld W ar II (like Davy Fox in The Murderer is a Fox) noticed
a p attern in tw o local deaths:
'A n d th en W inship [the killer] got one of the m ost
diabolical in sp iratio n s in the history of m urder. There had been
tw o d eath s in W rightsville recently w hich involved an d affected
Sebastian D odd [the local doctor]: the d eath of Old Luke MacCaby
from heart disease and the suicide of John Spencer H art.
W inship noticed that MacCaby, alw ays considered a pau p er, died
a rich m an, and H art, alw ays considered one of the tow n's
nabobs, d ied a poor man. The contrast stuck him. Rich m anpoor m an. Rich m an-poor m an.
'Into K en's brain, sharpened by acquisitiveness, sickened
by his w ar experiences—D akin [the police chief] told me
W inship w en t to pieces w hen he got back from overseas—into
K en's m ind leaped the old children's jingle.
'Im m ediately,' said Ellery, 'im m ediately Ken saw his
im p lem e n tatio n w hole. Rich man, poor man, beggar man,
thief-—an d then doctor. If the death of MacCaby, w ho had w illed
his fortune to D odd, and the death of H art, w hich left D odd in
sole possession of the great W rightsville Dye W orks, should be
follow ed by the deaths of a 'beggar' and a 'thief,' tw o people w ith
w hom D o d d also h ad a connection, and if that sinister
progression w ere to be brought forcefully to D o d d 's notice, then
D od d w o u ld be convinced of tw o things: first, that a doctor
134
w o u ld certainly be the next to die, and second, that he, D odd,
w o u ld certainly be that doctor. A nd if D odd w ere so convinced,
he w o u ld m ake a w ill' (224-5).
K en W inship set him self u p as the doctor's only heir, th en killed him.
C aught by the rhym e, his d istu rb ed m ind w as unable to stop killing, even
w hen there w as nothing to be gained. Instead of controlling events, he felt
com pelled to com plete the rhym e and keep killing. Ellery recognized the
p attern an d w as able to stop the m urderer.
'You know ,' said Ellery, 'every once in a w hile I'm caught
up short. T here's no explaining some things in feet, m inutes, or
pounds. There are tim es w h en nature, fid d led w ith, cracks
d o w n w ith a sort of cynical intelligence. D eterm inism seem s
prov ed an d fate seems to w ork in a d ark hum or. W hat H ard y
called satires of circumstance. C ertainly K enneth W inship m ust
have found him self in the grip of a force beyond his grasp. He
bro u g h t a certain p attern of events into being. W hen he tried to
stop, by a trem endous force of irony, he found he co u ld n 't' (229).
The Mad Tea Parti/ sim ilarly revolved aro u n d a fairy-tale them e. In it
Ellery atten d ed a houseparty w hich featured a private perform ance of Lewis
C arroll's Alice in Wonderland. A fter the host disappeared, Ellery received a
series of packag es/clu es based on A lice (shoes, cabbages, and chess pieces). In
the end Ellery tricked the killer into confessing via use of a "corpse" that
appeared to retu rn from the grave. This trite tactic, scoffed at by Ellery in T he
Chinese Orange M ystery, is oddly fitting in the fairy-tale setting and did not
seem out of place. D annay and Lee w ere sim ply enjoying the bizarre
atm osphere and experim enting w ith how m uch they could m an ip u late the
environm ent an d still have a good detective story. A lthough they used this
approach in only three stories, it w as successful and refreshing.
135
A n o th er area w ith w hich D annay and Lee experim ented over the years
w as E llery's relationships w ith w om en. Ellery w as attractive to w om en, and
obviously found them attractive as well, b u t he never had a serious long­
term relationship. H e h ad some sort of liaison w ith Paula Paris w hich lasted
several years an d a playful relationship w ith his secretary N ikki Porter, based
on m u tu al attraction, b u t (except for the H ollyw ood novels) D annay and Lee
did not forget the purpose of the Ellery Q ueen series w as m urder. As Ellery
told his frien d Beau R um m ell in The Dragon's Teeth, "My specialty is
m u rd er, not rom ance" (72).
Ellery appreciated beautiful, intelligent w om en, and they likew ise
found him attractive. H is encounter w ith M arian French in The French
Powder M ystery is typical:
They looked at each other for a startled m om ent. Ellery saw a
slender girl w ith smoky hair and deep grey [sic] eyes. There w as
an unaccented cleanliness about the lines of her y o u n g body that
m ade him feel pleased for W eaver's sake. She gave the
im p ressio n of straightforw ardness and strength of w ill—honest
eyes, firm lips, sm all strong hands, a pleasingly cleft chin and a
good straight nose. Ellery smiled.
M arion saw a tall athletic m an w ith a suggestion of
nascent vigor, startlingly intellectual about the forehead and lips,
cool and quiet and com posed. H e looked thirty, but w as
younger. There w as a hint of Bond Street about his clothes. His
long th in fingers clasped a little book and regarded her out of
pince-nez eyeglasses.... T hen she blushed slightly and her eyes
w avered aw ay tow ard the Inspector (64).
Ellery w as alw ays a gentlem an and behaved accordingly tow ards
w om en. In The Greek Coffin M ystery he overheard secretary Joan Brett
crying, b u t allow ed h er her privacy, know ing it had to do w ith a personal
136
m atter. In Halfway House Ellery displayed his m anners by looking a young
lady in the eye, instead of staring d o w n her low -cut evening gown:
'G ood e v e n in g / said A ndrea. She had gone strangely pale at the
sight of him . H er black low -cut evening gow n w ith its daring
lines m ight have caused another y o u n g m an to stare w ith
adm iration; b u t Ellery w as w hat he was, and he chose to study
her eyes instead. They w ere w ide w ith fear (76).
D espite his usually courteous behavior, Ellery occasionally gave in to
his sense of the m ischievous. In Halfway House, he enjoyed p u ttin g Bill and
A ndrea, w ho w ere obviously attracted to each other, in an intim ate situation:
Ellery stared at her. T hen he said lightly: 'M y car's a twoseater, y o u know . R um bleseat's w orking, though, if y o u —'
'I'll sit in the ru m b leseat/ said Bill thickly.
'I'm s u re / said A ndrea, 'w e can all three s it..'
'W ould y o u rath er sit on Bill's lap or m ine?'
'I'll d riv e / said Bill.
'N o t y o u / said Ellery. 'N obody drives this car b u t Dr.
Q ueen. I'm afraid y o u 're stuck A ndrea. I've been told by
habitues th at Bill's is the m ost uncom fortable lap in the w o rld .'
Bill strode off; his back w as stiff. A nd A ndrea plucked at
her h air and said softly, 'I'll take a chance.'
Ellery drove off w ith a negligent air, w histling. Bill sat
like a lu m p beside him, his hands at his sides. A ndrea w as very
quiet on Bill's lap. There w as no conversation; only occasionally
A n d re a m u rm u red a direction to Ellery. The car bounced
aro u n d rath er m ore th an seem ed necessary; for som e reason
Ellery seem ed unable to resist the sm allest bu m p in the road
(166).
W hen Ellery m et Paula Paris, he uncharacteristically fell in love at first
sight:
A n d Mr. Q ueen said to him self that Paula Paris w as
beyond reasonable do u b t the m ost beautiful w om an he h ad yet
m et in H ollyw ood. No, in the w orld, ever, anyw here.
N ow , Mr. Q ueen h ad alw ays considered him self im m u n e
to the g ran d passion; even the m ost attractive of h er sex had
n ev er m eant m ore to him th an some one to open doors for or
137
help in an d out of taxis. But at this historic m om ent m isogyny,
th at crusted arm or, inexplicably cracked and fell aw ay from him,
leaving him defenseless to the delicate blade.
H e tried confusedly to clothe him self again in the
garm ents of observation and analysis. There w as a nose—a
nose, yes an d a m outh, a w hite sk in ... yes, yes, very w hite, and
tw o eyes—w h at could one say about them ?—an interesting
straight line of gray in her black-lacquer hair... all to be sure, to be
sure. H e w as conscious, too, of a garm ent—w as it a Lanvin, a
Patou, or a Poirot?—no, that w as a little Belgian d etectiv e—a
design in the silk gown; yes, yes, a design, and a bodice, an d a
softly falling skirt that d ro p p ed from the knee in long, pure,
P raxielean lines, and an arom a, or rath er an effluvium ,
em an atin g from her person that was like the ghost of last y ear's
honeysuckle... Mr. Q ueen uttered a hollow in w ard chuckle.
H oneysuckle! D am n analysis. This w as a w om an. N o—
W om an, w ith o u t the procrusteanizing article. O r... w as . . . it...
th e W om an?
'H ere, h e re / said Mr. Q ueen in a panic, and alm ost aloud.
'Stop that, you d am ned fool' (Four of Hearts 27-8).
O ther th an Paula Paris and N ikki Porter, Ellery w as not rom antically
in v o lv ed w ith any of the w om en he met. His playful m ood, hokey accent
and the strong sexual overtones he evinced in The Origin o f Evil w ere very
out of character:
'Beagle.' Ellery glared. 'Beagle... Of course. O f course. No
other possibility. If I'd had the brain of a w ood lo u se ... Beagle,
Laurel, beagle!' A nd he sw ept her off her feet and p lan ted five
kisses on the top of her w et head. T hen he tossed h er on the
u n m ad e bed and before her horrified eyes w ent into a fast tap—
an accom plishm ent w hich w as one of his m ost sacred secrets,
u n k n o w n even to his father. A nd Ellery chanted, 'M erci, m u
p retty one, m y she-detective. You have follow ze clue of se arsen-ique, of ze little frog, of ze wallette, of ze eversing bu ze sing
you know all ze tim e—zat is to say, ze beagle. Oh, ze beagle!'
A nd he changed to a softshoe.
'But w h at's the breed of dog got to do w ith anything,
Ellery?' m oaned Laurel. 'The only connection I can see w ith the
w ord 'beagle' is its slang m eaning. Isn't 'beagle' a detective?'
Tronic, isn 't it?' chortled Ellery; and he exited doing a
Shuffle-Off-to-Buffalo, blow ing farew ell kisses and alm ost
b reak in g the p ro m in en t nose of Mrs. Monk, L aurel's
138
housekeeper, w ho h ad it pressed in absolute terror to the
b edro o m door (153).
F ortunately for Ellery's dignity, D annay and Lee usually avoided such
silly behavior. A fterw ards, Ellery w as only half joking in his declaration of
attraction to unavailable w om en, such as Sally V an H o rn in Ten Days'
W o n d er:
'O f co u rse/ Ellery w ent on, 'y o u can keep on calling me
Mr. Q ueen, b u t I'm going to tell your husband the very first
thin g th at I've fallen in love w ith you. Yes! A nd th en I'm going
to bu ry m yself in that guest house H ow ard w aved before m y
nose and w ork like m ad substituting literature for life... W hat
w ere you about to say, Sally?'
H e w o n d ered as he grinned at her w hich nerve he had
touched. She w as thoroughly upset; he thought for a silly
m om ent that she w as going to b u rst into tears.
'I'm sorry, Mrs. Van H orn,' said Ellery, touching her hand.
'I'm really sorry. Forgive me.'
'D o n 't you dare,' said Sally in an angry voice. 'It's just me.
I've got an inferiority com plex a mile long. A nd y o u 're very
clever'—Sally hesitated, th en she laughed—'E llery' (Ten D ays
31).
D annay an d Lee could never quite decide how Ellery should deal w ith
sexual tem ptation. In Cat of Many Tails he used h u m o r w h en he found
Celeste, sister of the victim and his tem porary assistant, asleep in his bed,
naked:
Ellery found him self sitting on the edge of the bed; the
back of his neck throbbed again. 'I've often dream ed about this
situ a tio n / he said, rubbing it.
'W hat?' said Celeste sleepily. 'Is it still today?'
H er black hair coursed over his pillow in sw eet poetic
dream s. 'B ut ex h au stio n / Ellery explained 'is the enem y of
poetry' (144).
Ellery w as not above feeling lonely. W hen Ken and Rima w ere
m arried in Double, Double, Ellery w as w istful; he had genuinely been
139
attracted to Rima. The bride and groom encouraged him to attend their
w ed d in g reception:
'N o t this tim e / Mr. Q ueen said hollow ly. 'T here's a lim it to
every m an 's endurance, an d this m arks mine. You tw o go on
about y o u r business and let m e get quietly p otted' (171).
D espite the hints in the in troduction to The Roman Hat Mystery, Ellery
never m arried. Like his father, and all good detectives, he w as destined to
avoid rom ance.
The last area w here D annay and Lee w ere blatantly inconsistent was
N ikki P orter's background. N ikki first appeared on the Ellery Q ueen radio
show ; D annay an d Lee hoped she w o u ld attract a fem ale audience (Nevins
Royal B lo o d lin e 83). N ikki Porter "w as a professional typist to w hom Ellery
had been taking his near-illegible m anuscripts u ntil she decided to do them
both a favor by asking for a full-tim e job as his secretary so that he could
dictate to her instead of scribbling" (N evins S o u n d 31).
D annay an d Lee appeared to have trouble deciding on N ikki's origin,
how ever; it kept changing as the series progressed. This w as partially because
Calendar of Crime (1952), a collection of short stories based on the first radio
show , w as p u b lish ed after N ikki's first appearance in p rin t in There Was an
Old Woman (1943). Readers w ho w ere not old enough to rem em ber the
radio show m ight have been confused.
In the novel There Was an Old W o m a n 1 Ellery and Sheila Potts w ere
strongly attracted to one another; after the m urders Sheila w anted to avoid
association w ith her fam ily nam e so Ellery offered her a job as his secretary.
140
She agreed to change her nam e and go to secretarial school. Ellery suggested
the nam e N ik k i P orter after the heroine in his current novel,2 and she agreed.
This origin, in w hich N ikki started w orking for Ellery in 1943, contradicted
her origin on the radio show in w hich she began w orking as his typist in 1939.
In the short story The Adventure of the Gettysburg Bugle N ikki had
just b eg u n to w ork for Ellery:
This is a very old story as Q ueen stories go. It h appened in
Ellery's salad days, w hen he w as tossing his talents about like a
S unday chef an d a red-headed girl nam ed N ikki P orter h ad just
attached herself to his typew riter. But it has not staled, this story;
it has an u n w ith erin g flavour [sic] w hich those w ho partook of it
relish to this day (Calendar 79).
If this story w as set in Ellery's "salad days," his youth, N ikki was an
anach ro n ism , since she d id not start w orking for him u ntil 1939 at the earliest
(w ith the advent of the radio show). Perhaps D annay and Lee w ere trying to
u p d ate Ellery, to m ake him younger in the present setting, an d sim ply
overlooked N ik k i's past.
In the short story The Adventure of the Dead Cat, even N ikki's friends
seem to have forgotten her past as Sheila Potts, or at least they d id not talk
about it:
'Ann! A nn Trent!' N ikki w as squealing. 'O h, A nn, you
fool, how ever d id you find me?'
'N ikki, y o u 're looking w onderful. Oh, but y o u 're fam ous
darling. The great E. Q .'s secretary...' (Calendar 181).
In The Scarlet Letters Ellery seems to have forgotten that N ikki w as
once Sheila Potts an d knew her eccentric m other and sister well. The
narrative stated: "It occurred to him suddenly that N ikki h ad lost her m other
141
very early an d h ad never know n a sister" (61). Sim ilarly the com ment: "He
rem em bered N ik k i's rem arking once, w ith the aw e of the b u d g eted w orking
girl, that M artha h ad bought a coat at Jay Thorpe" is also indicative of
am nesia on the au th o rs' p art (101). As the d au g h ter of m illionaire C ordelia
Potts, N ikki never h ad to w orry about m oney and took the job as Ellery's
secretary an d changed her nam e o n ly to avoid association w ith her in fam o u s
fam ily.
N ikk i's description also changed frequently. On the radio show she
was described as a blonde; in the movies she w as portrayed by a brunette. In
There Was an Old Woman and The Scarlet Letters, N ikki w as a redhead. As
Francis N evins su m m arized it: "We w ill pass over in silence the question
w hether these are m ere oversights or Q ueen's [Dannay and Lee's] w ay of
paying trib u te to the 'infinite variety' of w om an" {Royal Bloodline 83).
It is easy to forgive D annay and Lee such trivial changes or errors.
T heir w illingness to experim ent w ith elem ents in their novels, w hether
successful or not, kept them interested in w riting m ore Ellery Q ueen stories.
It is also un d erstan d ab le that since they constantly u p d ated the series, to keep
the setting alw ays in the present tim e, m istakes or inconsistencies m ight
creep in as they m odified the characters' past to fit the present. Some
reflections of changing current trends, like the attraction of H ollyw ood during
the late 1930s, d id not age well. Since D annay and Lee w ere am ong the first
p o p u lar m ystery w riters to w rite a long-running series, they could not have
142
foreseen the com plications to w hich their early choices w o u ld lead in Ellery's
fu tu re.
N otes
1
N ikki also ap p eared in the m ovie Ellery Queen: Master Detective and the
n o v e liz a tio n of the same, w hich w ere w ritten before There Was an Old
W o m a n . Like the other m ovies, D annay and Lee had no in p u t on this
m ovie or the su b seq u en t novelization.
2
T here w as no such novel. The closest reference w as that N ikki w as a
character in the story Ellery w as w riting w hen he w as not reading the
H olm es m an u scrip t in A Study in Terror. Careful readers w ould
rem em ber N ik k i's origin an d w o u ld pick u p on the hint.
143
Literary Motifs
O ver their forty-tw o year career D annay and Lee used a variety of
m otifs or techniques to keep the Ellery Q ueen novels fresh and interesting.
M ost of these elem ents originated d u rin g the G olden A ge w h en the Q ueen
novels follow ed a very specific pattern. These m otifs include the challenge to
the reader, the negative clue, the Birlstone gam bit, the dy in g clue, and the
double solution. The authors experim ented w ith variations on these
techniques over the years, retu rn in g to them d u rin g the last years of their
career in a loving rem em brance of the G olden Age.
The G olden Age Form ula
Because the G olden Age em phasized fairness to the reader, D annay and
Lee m ade sure th eir novels w ritten betw een 1929 and 1935, w hich focused on
the puzzle-them e p o p u lar at that tim e, contained everything the reader
needed to solve the case along w ith Ellery. Most of the books included a list
of the characters, w ith a brief description of each, a m ap of the crime scene,
and the challenge to the reader, so the reader w ould know w hen Ellery had
all the clues needed to solve the case.
The titles of D annay and Lee's G olden Age novels follow ed a specific
pattern. Each contained a place-nam e adjective and a noun such as T he
Roman Hat M ystery, The French Powder Mystery, or The Dutch Shoe
Mystery. In a neat tw ist, the title w as always a double-entendre w hich never
m eant w hat it seem ed to im ply. In The Dutch Shoe Mystery, for exam ple,
144
"D utch" referred to the D utch H ospital, the setting for the story. "Shoe"
referred not to a w ooden D utch shoe, b u t to the shoes w o rn by the killer
w hich tu rn ed out to be the key to solving the m ystery. This p attern held true
for the first nine Ellery Q ueen novels.
In keeping w ith the puzzle-focus p o p u lar in the G olden Age, D annay
an d Lee in clu d ed an anagram in The Greek Coffin M ystery. W hen read
vertically, the initial letters of each chapter in the table of contents (printed in
bold text to d raw attention) spelled out "The Greek Coffin M ystery by Ellery
Q ueen." W hile this w as an interesting touch, it is u n d erstan d ab le that the
authors only m ade one such puzzle w ithin a puzzle. Likewise, D annay and
Lee m u st have grow n tired of the form ula of their early novels. By 1936, they
had d ro p p ed the title p attern an d began to veer aw ay from the trappings of
the trad itio n al m ystery.
The Challenge to the Reader
The challenge to the reader w as a break in the action of the story w hen
Ellery ad d ressed the reader, sw itching from third-person to first-person
narrative, to indicate that he now h ad all the clues necessary to solve the
m ystery an d challenged the read er to solve it before he did. The reader could
p u t the novel d o w n at this point and try to "m atch w its" w ith Ellery. W hile
some readers found this break disturbing, m ost loved it and it becam e the
hallm ark of Ellery Q ueen. D annay and Lee used the challenge in the radio
show and it w as also u sed in the last of the three television series.
145
The first challenge, in The Roman Hat Mystery, was introduced, not by
Ellery Q ueen, b u t by his alleged literary agent, J. J. McC; thereafter the
challenges w ere issued by Ellery himself. The follow ing exam ple from T he
French Powder M ystery is typical:
I have often fo u n d it a stim ulating exercise in m y ow n read er of
m u rd e r fiction to pause at th at point in the story im m ediately
preceding the solution, and to try by a logical analysis to
determ ine for m yself the identity of the crim inal. ...Because I
believe th at n u m ero u s gourm ets of this species of fictional
delicacy are as interesting in the reasoning as in the reading, I
subm it in the p ro p er sp irit of sportsm anship the am icable
challenge to the read er...W ith o u t reading the follow ing pages,
R eader... There is a great tendency am ong detective-story lovers
to en d eav o r to 'g u ess' the crim inal by subm itting to the play of
b lin d instinct. A certain am ount of logic and com m on sense is
the im p o rtan t thing, the source of greater enjoym ent...
W hereupon I state w ith o u t reservation that the read er at this
stage in the recounting of The French Powder M ystery fully
cognizant of all the facts pertinent to the discovery of the
crim inal; an d that a sufficiently diligent study of w h at has gone
before should educe a clear u n d erstan d in g of w h at is to come. A
Rivedercil
E.Q. (220).
Ellery often rem in d ed the read er d u rin g the challenge th at he knew the
solution at th at point. In the challenge in The Dutch Shoe M ystery he told
the reader "To avoid any charge of unfairness I subm it the follow ing
refutation: th at I m yself ded u ced the answ er before going to the cabinet and
before telephoning H arper" (177).
A fter the G olden Age, D annay and Lee kept the idea of the challenge
but changed the form at. Instead of being a blatant break in the story, it became
sim ply an indication that all the clues had fallen into place for Ellery.
146
H e [the Inspector, w ho w as dozing] w as brought to an
a b ru p t realization of his su rroundings by a su d d e n crash. He
jerked u p rig h t, startled, to find Ellery on his feet.
'W h at's the m atter, for G od's sake?'
'N o th in g 's the m atter,' said Ellery. There w as rap t
expression on his face. 'N o th in g at all. G od's in his heaven, the
m o rn in g 's dew -pearled, all's right w ith the w orld. Good old
w orld. Best little w o rld ...I'v e got it.'
The Inspector sat still. Ellery rooted to the spot, his eyes
clear an d excited. T hen he n o d d ed to him self several tim e,
vigorously. He sm iled and w ent to the w indow and looked out.
'A n d just w hat,' said the Inspector in a dry voice, 'is the
answ er?' (Chinese Orange 160).
In the later books this stage of the story usually took the form of a
revelation in w hich som ething m u n d an e an d ap p aren tly u n related to the
case unexpectedly led Ellery to the solution. For exam ple, In The Scarlet
Letters, it h ap p en ed as Ellery w atched a sign-painter at the entrance to the zoo:
N ew York Zoological-som ething, it said. The painter was
w o rk in g over the first L.
Ellery sat up. But then he slum ped again.
H e w o n d ered w hat w as holding u p the line, and he stuck
his head out. Tw o cars h ad locked bum pers.
H e settled back for another wait, and his glance retu rn ed
to the sign painter.
L. O ...
The pain ter started on the G.
A n d there came a stroke, as of lightening, and the
heavens proclaim ed alarm s and excursions, and the rains cam e...
The p ain ter shook his head, gathered his buckets and his
brushes, and w ent away.
Ellery becam e aw are of a great honking and beeping
behind him . H e looked up, blankly. There w as nothing before
him . H e dro v e into Pelham Parkw ay.
L ightening again, and thunder.
H e drove in a daze, circling until he approached the
entrance again, and d riv in g slowly past the unfinished sign to
gaze w ith w o n d er at the run n in g paint. A nd he drove back to
the p ark in g circle, and he got out, and he w alked reverently in
the pelting rain back to the entrance—back to stare u p at the sign
and ad m ire how the heavens had opened and em ptied.
147
A sign, a sign (142).
W hatever the trigger, the revelation w as alw ays the intuitive, boltfrom -the-blue sort. Ellery, d ep en d en t on deduction and an obvious adm irer
of S igm und F reud, probably understo o d that the revelation w as a result of his
unconscious m in d continually w orking on the problem , b u t he nevertheless
appreciated it w h en it d id happen. This was apparent w hen the revelation
struck in The Last Woman in His Life: "That w as w hen the lightning struck;
the lightning th at—as on past occasions, if he w as lucky—rip p ed th ro u g h the
overcast of the long dry spell and shattered the clear air" (115-6). Of all their
motifs, the challenge / revelation is the one D annay and Lee u sed for the
longest stretch of tim e—nearly all of their career—sim ply changing the
form at to keep it interesting to the reader.
The N egative Clue
The negative clue, the m issing item w hich becam e im p o rtan t by its
absence, w as first used by Sir A rth u r Conan Doyle in Silver Blaze, one of the
m ost w ell-know n Sherlock H olm es stories. In this tale H olm es solved the
theft of a fam ous race horse based on the fact that the dog in the stableyard did
not b ark w h en the horse w as stolen, indicating that the dog knew the thief.
[Colonel Ross, ow ner of the m issing horse
'Is there som e point to w hich you w ould w ish to
a tte n tio n ? '
'To the curious incident of the dog in the
H olm es replied.
'The dog d id nothing in the night-tim e.'
'T hat w as the curious in c id e n t/ rem arked
H olm es (Doyle M e m o irs 27).
asked Holm es]
d raw my
night-tim e,'
Sherlock
148
Doyle, w ho w rote in the 1890s and early 1900s, used this m otif
sparingly; D annay an d Lee liked it and used it in five of th eir nine G olden
A ge novels. This u n u su al approach m eant the reader had to pay close
attention to the description of the crime scene in o rd er to determ ine if
anything th at should be there w as m issing. The m issing object w as not
alw ays noticed d u rin g the first search of the crime scene, although, once
noted, its absence usually led Ellery to the killer.
By th eir ow n adm ission D annay and Lee w ere a great adm irers of
Sherlock H olm es. It w as only natu ral that they use some elem ent created by
D oyle as a tribute to the m aster detective. U nlike their other motifs, D annay
and Lee d id not retu rn to the negative clue in their later years, possibly
because the technique h ad becom e so w ell-know n it w as trite, and therefore
unfair to the read er (i.e., too easy a solution).
The Birlstone G am bit
In Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective, Francis
N evins identified a second m otif w hich D annay and Lee borrow ed from
Doyle. H e referred to this m otif as the Birlstone G am bit (based on the nam e
of the m an o r house in w hich The Valley of Fear took place). To u n d erstand
this rath e r com plicated motif, one m ust be fam iliar w ith D oyle's Sherlock
H olm es novel The Valley of Fear, published in 1915.
In a unique plot tw ist
H olm es discovered an u n u su al relationship betw een the victim and the
killer.
149
A lth o u g h N evins w as not specific about all of the elem ents, a
com parison of The Valley o f Fear an d the ap p ro p riate Ellery Q ueen stories
in d icated th at the Birlstone G am bit involved the follow ing com ponents:
1. A victim w ho is not really dead.
2. A bo d y w hich can not be identified; the killer m ay be
m istak en for the victim .
3. The victim an d the killer share a m ysterious past in v o lv in g
m u rd e r or som e other crime.
4. The victim an d the killer have new identities; their shady
p ast is u n k n o w n even to their families.
5. The victim tu rn s the tables and becom es the killer in order to
get revenge for p ast actions.
Like the negative clue, D annay and Lee took the Birlstone motif, w hich
D oyle used only once, and m olded it into a defining elem ent of their own.
They w ould re tu rn to variations on this m otif years later in an attem pt to
recapture the nostalgic G olden Age of the m ystery genre. D annay and Lee's
influence lingers even today. V ariations on the Birlstone them e can be seen
in such diverse exam ples as the film s Body Heat and Diabolique, and
Jonathan K ellerm an 's novel Silent Partner. Because Ellery Q ueen's
p opularity declined after the d eath of author Frederick D annay in 1982, few
m ystery readers today realize the origin of this motif, or D annay and Lee's
contribution to its durability. Indeed, only Francis N evins, in his extensive
analysis of the Ellery Q ueen books (Royal Bloodline), has recognized this
elem ent of detective fiction and given it a name.
The D ying Clue
O ne of the m ost recognizable m otifs D annay and Lee used w as the
dying clue: the clue left by the victim w hich identified the killer. Francis
150
N evins referred to the dying clue as "the classic Q ueenian m otif...literally
synonym ous w ith the Q ueen canon of the Fifties an d Sixties..." (28). The
d yin g clue m otif assum ed that the victim w as th inking clearly en ough to
leave a m essage identifying his killer, even if p en and p ap er are not available.
As D annay and Lee described it in The Tragedy of X: 'T h e h u m an m ind is
capable of ... am azing things ... in the instant before death" (158). The authors
also assum ed th at "...th e re are no lim its to w hat the h u m an m in d cannot soar
in that u niq u e god-like instant before the end of life" (160).
Inspector Q ueen w as never certain of the validity of the dy in g clue. As
he told Ellery in The Siamese Twin Mystery. "Fve seen m en lie three seconds
before they passed out. T here's no assurance that because a m an know s he's
dying he's going to tell the truth" (159). Ellery disagreed w ith his father in the
novelette The Death of Don Juan, telling the Inspector: "...D ying m en m ay
accuse innocent persons falsely in m ystery stories, b u t in life they show a
deplorably sim ple respect for the truth" (Queen's Full 50).
In ad d itio n to the question of validity there w as another com plication:
a dying clue could be left by the killer in order to fram e som eone else, as was
the case in The Siamese Twin M ystery and the short story The Adventure o f
the Glass-Domed Clock:
Ellery sighed. 'I never d id believe O rr [the victim] left
those signs. It w as all too pat, too slick, too w eirdly unreal. It's
conceivable th at a dying m an w ill leave one clue to his
m u rd e re r's identity, b u t tw o ...' Ellery shook his head.
'If O rr d id n 't leave the clues, who did? O bviously the
m u rd e re r' (A d v e n tu r e s 275).
151
The m ost com m on objection to the dying clue was, w hy d id n 't the
victim sim ply w rite the killer's nam e? Ellery tried to explain this in the short
story E—Murder:
'A p p aren tly the stab w asn 't im m ediately fatal, although
A g o n 's killer m ight have tho u g h t it was. A gon m ust have
revived, or played dead, until his killer left, and then, calling on
his rem aining strength, penciled this symbol. If it has no special
m eaning for you, General, then w e're confronted w ith a dy in g
m essage in the classic trad itio n —A gon's left a clue to his
m u rd e re r's id en tity .'
The G eneral g ru n ted at such o u tlan d ish notions. 'W hy
c o u ld n 't he have just w ritten the nam e?'
'T he classic objection. The classic reply to w hich is that he
w as afraid his killer m ight come back, notice it, and destroy it,'
Ellery said unhappily, 'w hich I'll adm it has never really satisfied
m e' (Queen's Full 55).
Ellery contradicted him self (or changed his m ind) in the short story GI
Story:
Fancy verbal acrobatics are the pleasant preoccupations of
detective fiction. In real life they d o n 't happen. A m an w ho w ill
perform the m iracle of forcing his dying b rain and m uscles to
com m it a m essage to p ap er is not trying to be subtle or clever. If
he know s w ho d id the job on him his efforts can have only one
purpose: to transm it that inform ation as directly as he can. Clint
Fosdik, in w riting those tw o letters, GI, w as trying to do just one
thing: Name his killer (Q.B.L 112)
P erhaps because of the various contradictions and objections to this
motif, D annay an d Lee avoided the dying clue for years, only to retu rn to it
near the end of th eir career. By then it took on a fresh tone, as Ellery appeared
to have forgotten about it:
The old m an [Inspector Queen] w as shaking his head. 'I
never heard anything like this [Ellery's explanation of the
m eaning of the dying clue] in my w hole life! But Ellery, you said
B enedict d id identify his killer to you. The old dying-m essage
thing y o u 're so crazy about.'
152
"Could it be p rem ature senility?" Ellery m ade a face. "At
the tim e I didn"t even realize it w as a dying message! A nd then I
dism issed it from my alleged mind" (Last Woman 143).
The appeal of this m otif w as clear: the authors w an ted to believe the
h u m a n m in d w as capable of heroic effort at the m om ent of death, and it was
a good w ay of providing a clue for Ellery and the reader. It w as the technique
D annay and Lee u sed m ost often, and the variations (such as Ellery"s belief in
it, or having the killer leave the clue) kept it fresh and appealing to readers.
The D ouble Solution
D annay an d Lee experim ented w ith a new m otif in The Greek
Coffin M ystery: having m ore than one solution to the m ystery. Greek Coffin
w as unusu al, not only because it w as the first Ellery Q ueen novel to feature
this technique, b u t because it w as the only novel in w hich Ellery proposed
four d ifferen t solutions—of w hich three w ere w rong. W hile interesting, the
four different solutions an d Ellery"s clumsy m istakes w ere rath er tiresom e.
Fortunately for their readers, D annay and Lee refined this technique d u ring
the 1940s an d 1950s w hen they used it extensively. By then it had developed
into a double solution; the first solution w as correct, b u t Ellery later revealed
a second com plication w hich further resolved the case w ith o u t contradicting
the first solution.
In The Door Between, Ellery"s first solution w as that au th o r K aren
Leith com m itted suicide. The second solution w as that she w as d r iv e n to
suicide by h er fiance, w ho w as m otivated by his rom antic love for her sister
(w hom she h ad m istreated). The second solution d id not invalidate the first,
153
b u t instead b u ilt on it and show ed the com plexity of the relationships of the
p eople involved.
In cases w ith a second solution, Ellery w as m ore likely to confront the
killer alone to reveal that he knew the w hole story. In The Door Between
and Ten Days Wonder he not only confronted the killer, b u t left him w ith the
choice of jail or suicide. Sometimes Ellery kept the second solution a secret
from those involved, usually in order to protect them from the psychological
dam age the full know ledge could cause them. Such w as the case in T h e
Murderer is a Fox, w hen Ellery chose to hide the fact w ar hero D avy Fox had
accidentally poisoned his m other w hen he w as a sm all child.
The authors used a nice com bination of techniques in The Scarlet
Letters. In this novel Ellery tried to help his friend, m ystery w riter D irk
Law rence, w ho suspected his wife M artha w as having an affair w ith actor
V an H arrison. Ellery w as unable to prevent Lawrence from killing H arrison
w hen Law rence caught his wife and her lover together. Ellery w as stum ped
by the m essage "XY" left by the dying H arrison. Finally it occurred to Ellery
that the m essage w as incom plete, that the m issing p art changed the m eaning
of the m essage. H arriso n 's in ten d ed m essage w as "XX," indicating that he had
been double-crossed, not "XY" indicating the need to add the letter "Z" to
com plete the series. In essence, this was a negative dying clue, a com bination
of the negative clue and the dying clue. Ellery then ran to stop the jury before
they could acquit Dirk, and revealed the second solution: D irk set M artha up
as an adulteress so he could kill her and the actor hired to play lover. Since it
154
w ould a p p e ar he shot H arrison in self-defense, and that M artha got caught in
the cross-fire, he w o u ld be allow ed to inherit her w ealth w ith o u t being found
guilty of m u rd er. This w as the only instance w here the authors com bined so
m any of th eir techniques. W hile it was successful, any subsequent use of this
com bination, especially the negative dying clue, w ould have become
predictable.
D annay and Lee used the double solution alm ost as often as the dying
clue. This technique allow ed them to develop com plex plots and provide the
reader w ith a surprising tw ist at the end. Like the dying clue, it w as closely
associated w ith the Q ueen canon, although other authors also used it.
M odern m ystery authors seldom use this technique any more, possibly
because it is unrealistic, but m ore likely because it has becom e trite.
A lth o u g h m any of these techniques are now considered over-used,
they w ere fresh and new w hen D annay and Lee m ade use of them . While
these techniques w orked w ell d u rin g the authors' lifetimes, they have not
aged well. Because D annay and Lee are no longer aro u n d to continue and
upd ate the series w ith new techniques, the Ellery Q ueen books have lost their
freshness and th eir once broad appeal.
155
W ho Really W rote Ellery Q ueen?
D urin g their lives Frederick D annay and M anfred B. Lee w ere credited
w ith w ritin g not only the Ellery Q ueen series, b u t other m ysteries w hich did
not feature Ellery an d Inspector Richard Q ueen, even th o u g h they w ere
p ublished u n d e r the Ellery Q ueen pseudonym . Sources p u b lish ed since
D annay's d eath in 1982 indicate that D annay and Lee d id not w rite all the
books attrib u ted to them .
It is reasonable to assum e that they had agreed not
to allow disclosure of any inform ation on ghostw riters using the Ellery
Q ueen p se u d o n y m un til after their deaths.
The only com prehensive w ork to date on Ellery Q ueen is Royal
Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective by Francis M. N evins,
published in 1974.1 N evins analyzed every aspect of D anny and Lee's writing:
novels, short stories, radio, television an d movies. N evins w o rk ed closely
w ith Frederick D annay to produce the book, so the inform ation w as the m ost
com prehensive available to date. N evins w as careful w hen discussing
authorship; he alw ays su p p o rted the assum ption that D annay and Lee w rote
all of the Ellery Q ueen books. M any fans have w o n d ered about the books Cop
Out and The Glass Village w hich, unlike the rest of the series, d id not feature
Ellery an d Inspector Richard Q ueen. N evins defended Cop O u t:
A lth o u g h none of these elem ents is objectionable in itself, their
com bined appearance in a Q ueen novel seem s so out of place
th at one m ight alm ost believe that the w rong byline got on the
book th ro u g h a p u b lish er's error. In fact, i f Frederick Dannay
had not told me unequivocally and to my face that he and
Manfred Lee and no others conceived and executed Cop O ut, I
would not have believed it (203 em phasis added).
156
D espite his assertion that D annay and Lee w rote all the Ellery Q ueen
books, N evins listed their books in three categories: 1) novels p u b lish ed as by
Ellery Q ueen (these books com prised the original series; it is also referred to as
the Q ueen canon), 2) paperback novels signed as by Ellery Q ueen (books
u nrelated to the original series), and 3) historical novels signed as by Barnaby
Ross (D annay an d Lee's other pseudonym ). If D annay and Lee w rote all of
these, w hy the differentiation? Also, w hy d id n 't Contemporary A uthors
attribute the non-series books to D annay and Lee? Indeed, recent reference
books indicate that not only w ere the non-series books w ritten by
ghostw riters, b u t so w ere som e of the books in the original Ellery Q ueen
series. C om prehensive tables are listed below; identities of the ghostw riters
are based on Francis N evins' article Death and Ghosts.
Year
1929
1930
1931
1932
1932
1932
1932
1933
1933
1933
1933
1934
1934
i935
1936
1937
The Ellery Q ueen Series
A ttributed to Frederick D annay and M anfred B. Lee
Title
Book Type
Author
The Roman Hat Mystery
Novel
Dannay & Lee
The French Power Mystery
Novel
Dannay & Lee
The Dutch Shoe Mystery
Novel
Darinay & Lee
The Greek Coffin Mystery
Novel
Dannay & Lee
Novel
The Egyptian Cross Mystery
Dannay & Lee
The Tragedy of X
Novel
Dannay & Lee as Barnaby
Ross (1940 as Ellery Queen)
The Tragedy of Y
Novel
Dannay & Lee as Barnaby
Ross (1941 as Ellery Queen)
The American Gun Mystery
Novel
Dannay & Lee
(a.k.a. Death at the Rodeo, 1951)
Novel
Dannay & Lee
The Siamese Twin Mystery
The Tragedy of Z
Novel
Dannay & Lee as Barnaby
Ross (1942 as Ellery Queen)
Drury Lane's Last Case: The Tragedy Novel
Dannay & Lee as Barnaby
of 1599
Ross (1946 as Ellery Queen)
The Chinese Orange Mystery
Novel
Dannay & Lee
The Adventures of Ellery Queen
Short Stories
Dannay & Lee
The Spanish Cape Mystery
Novel
Dannay & Lee
Halfway House
Novel
Dannay & Lee
The Door Between
Novel
Dannay & Lee
157
!
1
j Year
1 1938
1 1938
j 1939
I 1940
i 1942
! 1943
j 1945
j 1945
j 1948
I 1949
i 1950
j 1951
j 1952
j 1952
j 1953
j 1954
S 1955
j 1956
j 1958
I 1963
1 1964
j 1965
! 1965
1 1966
I 1967
1 1968
I 1968
j 1969
j 1970
! 1971
The Ellery Q ueen Series
A ttributed to Frederick D annay and M anfred B. Lee
Author
I
Title
( Book Type
j The Devii to Pay
! Novel
I Dannay & Lee
1The Four of Hearts
1 Dannay & Lee
j Novel
I The Dragon's Teeth
I Novel
I Dannay & Lee
! (a.k.a. The Virgin Heiress, 1954)
j The New Adventures of Ellery Queen j Short Stories j Dannay & Lee
i Calamity Town
1 Novel
I Dannay & Lee
j There Was an Old Woman
i Novel
I Dannay & Lee
1The Murderer is a Fox
j Dannay & Lee
j Novel
1 The Case Book of EUery Queen
1 Short Stories
j Dannay & Lee
j Ten Days Wonder
! Novel
; Dannay & Lee
I Cat of Many Taiis
I Novel
j Dannay & Lee
j Double, Double
1 Novel
I Dannay & Lee
1 The Origin of Evil
I Novel
I Dannay & Lee
1 The Ring is Dead
i Novel
j Dannay & Lee
! Calendar of Crime
1 Short Stories I Dannay & Lee
! The Scarlet Letters
j Novel
! Dannay & Lee
; The Glass Village *
1 Novel
1 Dannay & Lee
| Q.B.I.: Queen's Bureau of
j Short Stories j Dannay & Lee
; Investigation
! Inspector Queen's Own Case
j Novel
I Dannay & Lee
j The Finishing Stroke
1 Novel
j Dannay & Lee
\ The Piayer oh the Other Side
! Novel
j Theodore Sturgeon
\ And on the Eighth Day
j Novel
\ Avram Davidson
i The Fourth Side of the Triangle
| Novel
! Avram Davidson
! Queen's Full
! Short Stories j Dannay & Lee
| Novel
j A Study in Terror
1 Dannay & Lee
! Face to Face
: Novel
| Dannay & Lee
j The House of Brass
I Novel
i Avram D a^dson
1 Short Stories
j Q.E.D.: Queen's Experiments in
j Dannay & Lee
! Detection
j Dannay & Lee
I Cop Out *
j Novel
! Novel
| Dannay & Lee
I The Last Woman is His Life
\ Novel
! Dannay & Lee
I A Fine and Private Place
1
j
j
;
j
j
* Does not include the characters Ellery and Richard Queen
j Year
! 1961
I 1962
1 1963
! 1963
I 1963
N on-Series Books by G hostw riters
U sing the Ellery Q ueen P seudonym
(These books do not feature Ellery and Inspector Richard Queen)
Publisher
Author
Title
! Stephen Marlowe
Dead Man's Taie
j Pocket Books
1 Pocket Books
| Richard Deming
Death Spins the Platter
Murder With a Past
j Pocket Books
I Talmage Powell
Wife or Death
I Pocket Books
j Richard Deming
kill as Directed
I Pocket Books
1 Hemy Kane
!
j 1964
! 1964
1 1964
j 1964
\ 1965
j 1965
j 1965
i 1966
| 1966
1 1966
j 1966
! 1966
! 1966
j 1966
1 1967
j 1967
| 1968
! 1969
j 1969
| 1970
! 1972
Year
; 1941
j
j 1942
j
1944
j
1946
1
1948
j 1950
| 1952
1 1954
I 1961
: 1962
!
1966
Non-Series Books by G hostw riters
U sing the Ellery Q ueen P seudonym
(These books do not feature Ellery and Inspector Richard Queen)
Author
Publisher
The Golden Goose
I Fletcher Flora
! Pocket Books
The Four Johns
1 Jack Vance
1 Pocket Books
Blow Hot, Biow Cold
j Fletcher Flora
I Pocket Books
I The Last Score
1 Charles Runyon
] Pocket Books
j Beware the Young Stranger
! Taimage Poweil
! Pocket Books
i The Copper Frame
i jfachard Deming
1 Pocket Books
I A Room to Die in
j Jack Vance
I Pocket Books
! The Kiiler Touch
1 Charles Runyon
I Pocket Books
I The Devil's Cook
I Fletcher Flora
1 Pocket Books
! The Madman Theory
I Jack Vance
I Pocket Books
! Where is Bianca?
j Taimage Powell
I Popular Library
j Taimage Powell
j Who Spies, Who kills?
j Popular Library
j Why So Dead?
| Richard Deming
! Popular Library
I jfachard Deming
j Losers, Weepers
1 Dell
I Shoot the Scene
j Richard Deming
1 DeH
1 How Goes the Murder?
1 Richard Deming
I Popular Library
j Which Way to Die?
I Popular Library
j Richard Deming
j I^chard Deming
1 What's in the Dark?
! Popular Library
: Guess Who's Coming to Rill You?
j Walt Sheridan
■Lancer
1 Kiss and Kill
| Charles Runyon
! DeH
I Gil Brewer
j The Campus Murders
j Lancer
! Richard Deming
j The Black Hearts Murder
j Lancer
\ Edward D. Hoch
1The Biue Movie Murders
] Lancer
j
The Ellery Queen, Jr. Series (for children)
U sing the Ellery Q ueen Pseudonym
Publisher
Author
j
Title
j James Holding
■Stokes. Collins,
: The Black Dog Mystery
I 1942.
I James Holding
; Stokes. Collins,
j The Golden Eagle Mystery
! 1943.
i Lippincott. Collins, ; James Holding
j The Green Turtle Mystery
1 1945.
! Lippincott. Collins, ! James Holding
j The Red C^pm urik Mystery
| 1948.
j Little Brown.
I James Holding
1 The Brown Fox Mystery
I Collins, 1951.
1 Little Brown. Hoder ; James Holding
| The White Elephant Mystery
! & Stoughton, 1951.
1 James Holding
i Little Brown.
! The Yeilow Cat Mysteiy
I James Holding
1 Little Brown.
I The Blue Herring Mystery
I James Holding
j
Golden
Press.
j The My stery of the Merry Magician
1James Holding
| The Mystery of the Vardshed Victim j Golden Press.
j
The Purple Bird Mysteiy
j
Putnam.
j
James Holding
159
j
! Year
j 1961
j 1962
j 1964
1 1964
j 1966
H istorical Books by G hostw riters
Using the Barnaby Ross Pseudonym
Publisher
Title
Quintin Chiivas
Trident/Simon &
Schuster
The Scrolls of Lysis
Trident/Simon &
Schuster
The Duke of Choas
Pocket Books
The Cree from Minataree
Pocket Books
Strange Kinship
Pocket Books
The Passionate Queen
Pocket Books
Author
Don Tracy
Don Tracy
Don Tracy
Don Tracy
Don Tracy
Don Tracy
The Finishing Stroke, published in 1958, w as a flashback to an
unsolved case early in Ellery's career. Ellery solved the case as an older m an
on the verge of retirem ent. The im plication w as that D annay an d Lee had
w ritten their last Ellery Q ueen book and w ere retiring. Indeed, recent sources
su p p o rt the notion that this is w hat happened. There w as a five-year gap
before the next Q ueen novel, The Player on the Other Side, w hich is now
know n to have been w ritten by T heodore Sturgeon. Since the non-series
books began in 1961—just tw o years before Sturgeon w rote Player—it is
reasonable to assum e that they w ere also w ritten by ghostw riters.
P erhaps all of the Q ueen novels published after 1958 w ere w ritten by
ghostw riters an d this inform ation w as not to be disclosed until after D annay's
death. P erhaps N evins did know about the ghostw riters b u t w as not allow ed
to disclose the inform ation; he certainly hinted th at D annay an d Lee d id not
w rite som e of the Q ueen novels.
A careful look at reference m aterials published before and after
Frederick D an n ay 's d eath w ould seem to indicate that D annay and Lee did
160
in d eed use gh o stw riters d u rin g their career, and that the inform ation w as not
p u b lish ed u n til after their deaths. Sources published before Frederick
D an n ay 's d ea th in 1982 do not m ention ghostw riters. These include N evins'
Royal Bloodline and Contemporary A utho rs.
Sources p u blished since 1982 attribute the Ellery Q ueen books to
D annay an d Lee, and several other authors. Critical Survey o f Mystery and
Detective Fiction published in 1988 listed (in addition to D annay and Lee)
A vram D avidson, Richard D em ing, E dw ard D. Hoch, Stephen M arlow e,
T aim age Pow ell, T heodore Sturgeon and John H olbrook (Jack) Vance as
Ellery Q ueen (M agill 1375). It did not specify w ho w rote w hich books, but the
obvious conclusion is th at the ghostw riters w rote the non-series books.
This assum ption is sup p o rted by Twentieth Century Crime Writers,
published in 1991, w hich specified w hich non-series books w ere w ritten by
D em ing, Pow ell and Vance (H enderson
8 8 8 ).
By 1992 Contemporary Authors
also listed D avidson, Sturgeon and Vance as Ellery Q ueen an d specified that
they w rote books in the original series. The source also referred to Ellery
Q ueen as a "house pseudonym ," im plying that D annay and Lee h ad tu rn ed
over their fam ous alter ego to anyone in their publishing house w ho w anted
to use it.
W hy w o u ld D annay and Lee m ake such a decision? By 1958 they had
been w riting Ellery Q ueen books for tw enty-nine years. D annay w as
personally editing Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Lee w as w orking on
editing a short story anthology each year; the purpose of both of these projects
161
w as to su p p o rt new authors and provide them w ith the oppo rtu n ity to be
published. Q uite likely, they w ere tired of w riting novels and w ished to
p u rsu e their editorial interests. A llow ing other authors to use their fam ous
p seu d o n y m m ay have sim ply been another w ay to offer new authors
a d d itio n a l p u b lish in g opportunities.
R and B. Lee, M anfred B. Lee's youngest surviving son, indicated in an
e-m ail m essage to Johan Blixt that his father suffered from w riter's block:
The S tu rg eo n /D av id so n ghosted stories w ere not only w ritten
from D an n ay 's outlines; my father, M anfred Lee, also w en t over
them w o rd for w ord, m aking changes and corrections as he felt
necessary. I know this because I saw him do it. In fact, I thought
he an d D annay h ad w ritten them until just recently, and D ad
has been d ead for 25 years. I had never know n that The Fourth
Side o f the Triangle was ghosted until I saw the info [sic] on your
[Blixt's] w eb page. I guess D ad was asham ed of that. (He had
w riter's block for a long time. I also know that he thought The
House of Brass w as one of the w orst canonical Q ueen books. He
th o u g h t the very w orst w as There Was an Old Woman. H is
favorite of all the books w as Cat of Many Tails. He also liked
Cop O ut, w hich he researched by going around w ith local police
on th eir m issions.) (Blixt)
So it seem s that even Lee's son is not certain w ho ghosted w hich books,
only that Lee had severe w riter's block.
As new reference m aterials are published, m ore ghostw riters are
credited w ith Ellery Q ueen books. The m ost recent version of C ontem porary
A u th o r s (on-line), now indicates th at James H olding 2 and Stephen M arlow e
also ghosted as Ellery Q ueen b u t does not specify w hich books (Gale). There
does not seem to be a definitive list of the ghostw riters. Why? Gregg
Parm entier, a fan w ho p ro v id ed some of the sources for Johan Blixt's Ellery
Q ueen w eb page, offered the follow ing opinion:
162
I believe that it has never been announced by D anay [sic], Lee, or
their estates w ho actually w rote any of the ghosted novels. I
believe that the ghostw riters them selves are the only sources of
th a t inform ation, and that m any have never publicly stated
an y th in g about it (Parm entier).
In F ebruary 1998 Francis M. N evins published an article in D im e
N ovel R o u n d u p , called Death and Ghosts, w hich finally explained the
relationship b etw een D annay, Lee and the Ellery Q ueen ghostw riters.
M anfred Lee did experience severe w riter's block for nearly ten years. D annay
and Lee's first solution w as to m ake arrangem ents w ith T heodore Sturgeon
and A vram D avidson to ghost The Player on the Other Side, A nd on the
Eighth Day, The Fourth Side of the Triangle, and House of Brass w orking
from D ann ay 's detailed outlines. Lee edited the w orks despite his w riter's
block. The arrangem ent w orked out fairly well.
This w as not D annay and Lee's first experience w ith ghostw riters. In
1945 D annay, faced w ith his w ife's term inal illness, w ished to spend m ore
tim e w ith his fam ily, b u t was bogged dow n by the obligations of outlining
scripts (to be fleshed out by Lee) for the weekly radio show The Adventures of
Ellery Queen. N evins described D annay's thoughts in The Sound of
Detection:
In the early years of the radio program , Fred and M anny had
auth o rized the publication of tw o Radio and Television Mirror
short stories and tw o W hitem an Better Little Books, all based on
Q ueen scripts but adapted into prose versions by uncredited
others an d issued u n d er the Ellery Q ueen byline. If prose
adaptations could be successfully contracted, w hy co u ld n 't the
creation of the detailed plot outlines that w ere F red's contri­
butions to the radio show? If the w riter w ho took over was
chosen w ith sufficient care, the listening audience w o u ld n 't be
able to tell the difference (67).
163
As a resu lt A nthony Boucher, a m ystery w riter w ho review ed books for
the San Francisco Chronicle, was hired to outline the scripts. Boucher
p ro d u ced m ore th an a h u n d red high-quality outlines, including tw o stories
w hich w ere the forerunners of Cat of Many Tails and Ten Days' Wonder, tw o
of D annay an d Lee's finest novels .3
In the face of Lee's w riter's block in the late 1950s, D annay and Lee's
publisher p ro p o sed a sim ilar arrangem ent for a cycle of non-series paperback
books to be published u n d er the Ellery Q ueen pseudonym . The M eredith
agency w ould pay the ghostw riters a flat fee (around $ 2 ,0 0 0 per book); the
royalties w o u ld be split by D annay and Lee after the agency took its
co m m issio n .
M anny, w ho h ad eight children to support and w as still
suffering w riter's block, favored the idea. Fred [Dannay] was
violently opposed b u t felt his cousin's financial and creative
problem s left him little choice but to go along. The m anuscripts
w ritten by the various ghosts w ere subm itted to M anny, w ho
edited them m ore or less as Fred edited (and som etim es heavily
revised) the stories he bought for Ellery Queen's Mystery
M a g a zin e. But Fred refused to even read a single one of the
books th at w ere published u n d er this scheme an d ...term in ated
the arran g em en t soon after M anny's death (N evins Ghosts 4).
In the sam e article N evins adm itted that w hile w orking on Royal
B lo od line D annay had told him the w hole story about the ghostw riting
scheme and asked th at it not be included since it d id not belong in an
exam ination of D annay and Lee's work. N evins agreed. In Ghosts he
adm itted: "But anyone w h o 'd learned from the Q ueen novels to read w ith
care, noticed the text's silence about alm ost thirty novels published as by
164
[Ellery] Q ueen and the scrupulous listing of every one of those titles in the
checklist at the end of my book, m ust have figured out the truth" (ibid.). He
also stated for the record that D annay and Lee did w rite Cop O ut, and that Lee
eventually overcam e his w riter's block and w rote the last of the Ellery Q ueen
n o v els.
G iven the poor quality of the non-series books by the ghostw riters, it is
not su rp risin g that D annay and Lee regretted the w hole scheme and w anted
to keep it quiet. It is also u nderstandable that the ghostw riters them selves
continued to respect D annay and Lee's w ish for silence on the subject, even
after their deaths. Certainly Francis N evins had it right: " ...in the long
perspective it w o u ld have been so m uch better if Fred and M anny had been
able to just say N o" (Ghosts 17).
N otes
’
A synopsis of this w ork is used in Contemporary Literary Criticism; the
w o rk itself w on the M ystery W riters of A m erica's Edgar A llan Poe aw ard
in 1975. N evis later supplem ented it w ith The Sound of Detection: Ellery
Queen's Adventures in Radio (1983).
2
Francis N ev in s' article Death and Ghosts confirm ed that H olding ghosted
the Ellery Q ueen, Jr. series, w hich w as edited by M anfred Lee.
3
D annay liked these scripts so m uch he used them as ro u g h sketches on
w hich he b ased m ore com plicated novel-length outlines. Boucher
deserves credit for the basic plot ideas, but N evins' Sound of Detection is
the only source w hich m entions his contributions to the Ellery Q ueen
radio show and, indirectly, these tw o novels.
165
The Forgotten M aster
A trip to the m ystery section of any bookstore yields few, if any, titles by
Ellery Q ueen. O ther G olden Age authors such as N ero Wolfe, A gatha
Christie, an d D orothy L. Sayers abound, so w hy not Ellery Q ueen? A lthough
the books w ere p o p u lar d u rin g D annay and Lee's lifetimes, the Ellery Q ueen
books seem to lack the continued popularity of their contem poraries. Perhaps
the decisions w hich D annay and Lee m ade regarding the series contributed to
this lack of staying pow er.
M odern readers m ight be repulsed by the fact that the books are so
dated. By continually u p d atin g the series, instead of setting it in a lim ited,
specific tim e-fram e, the books now have an inconsistent antiquated quality.
W hile the d ated quality m ight appeal to some readers (and certainly has not
h u rt the longevity of other G olden Age authors), the Ellery Q ueen books m ay
seem inconsistent to m odern readers. Each book is representative of the year
it w as w ritten, b u t the series as a w hole lacks a consistent tim e-setting.
C om pared to D oyle's Sherlock Holm es books for exam ple, w hich are always
set in late n in eteen th century London, the Ellery Q ueen books feel unaffixed
in tim e.
The techniques w hich w ere new w hen D annay and Lee used them are
now trite an d over-used and m ay be unappealing to the w ell-read m ystery
lover. Motifs such as the dying clue are w ell-know n to m ystery readers as
w ell as the general populace. Readers looking for som ething fresh or
166
u n u su al m ay be disap p o in ted w ith the Ellery Q ueen books, not realizing that
w hen they w ere w ritten the ideas in them w ere new and refreshing.
Likew ise, some of D annay and Lee's experim ents d id not age well. The
H ollyw ood novels particularly, w ith their tw o-dim ensional characters and
em phasis on action and rom ance, are unlikely to be of interest to m odern
read ers w ho expect w ell-developed plots and characters.
D annay and Lee's prolificacy m ay also be w orking against them. Ellery
Queen's M ystery Magazine is still being published. U sed bookstores are
glutted w ith the annual anthologies edited by the authors from 1946 to 1973.
These m agazines and anthologies overshadow the novels. R eaders looking
for an Ellery Q ueen short story collection are far m ore likely to find an
anthology edited by D annay w hich features the w orks of other authors.
The non-series Ellery Q ueen books, w ritten by ghostw riters, are of poor
quality com pared to the books by D annay and Lee. A reader random ly
selecting one, unaw are it w as w ritten by a ghostw riter, m ay assum e its quality
is representative of the w hole series. Indeed, few readers today realize that
the non-series book are different from the Q ueen canon; after all they appear
to be w ritten by the sam e author.
This is not to say that the Ellery Q ueen books are not w o rth reading—
far from it! They have a com plexity and d epth rare for their tim e and the
characters them selves are just as appealing as w hen they w ere first w ritten.
U nfortunately, m o d ern read ers w ho are unfam iliar w ith the history of
detective fiction are unlikely to take the tim e to research an au th o r's history
167
an d read all of his books in chronological order. Readers interested in the
light-hearted m ystery or the psychological thriller are unlikely to w ade
th ro u g h the forty-seven Ellery Q ueen novels looking for the few that suit
their taste.
So it seem s that w hile D annay and Lee's decisions kept their series
fresh and up-to -d ate d u rin g their lifetimes, not to m ention incredibly
p o p u lar, these sam e decisions have doom ed their w orks to near anonym ity
since the au th o rs' deaths. There is hope for Ellery Q ueen fans, how ever; as
large publish ers focus on best-selling authors, m ore an d m ore sm aller
publishers are focusing on m id-list authors w ith m oderate sales w ho sell at a
steady rate. These sm all publishers are also keeping older books in print so
new read ers can discover and enjoy them . Otto Penzler Books has begun re­
prin tin g classic m ysteries from the G olden Age, including the w orks of Ellery
Q ueen.
168
Lest We Forget
G iven the current lack of Ellery Q ueen books available, it is im portant
to rem em ber D annay and Lee's popularity d u rin g their lifetimes, their
accom plishm ents and contributions to the m ystery genre.
It is difficult for m odern readers to appreciate Ellery Q ueen's popularity
d u rin g his heyday. In 1939 w hen a broken w ater hose in the studio forced
The Adventures o f Ellery Queen off the air nine m inutes early the station
"w as besieged by literally thousands of calls, dem anding to know the
m u rd e re r's identity" (N evins S o u n d 34). Thanks largely to the radio show
Ellery's p o p u larity w as so great by the 1940s that Frederick D annay devised his
ow n G allup Pole. H e w ould m ail an envelope addressed to "Ellery Queen,
N.Y." Even w ithout a street address, the envelope inevitably m ade its w ay to
the Fifth A venue office the cousins rented in Ellery's nam e (ibid. 57).
Ellery Q ueen w as so p opular that by 1943 D annay and Lee w ere each
m aking approxim ately $50,000 per year on the books and radio program .
In
an article in Life m agazine that year, D annay and Lee explained how they
released each of th eir books in several editions using a technique they called
"reprocessing" (Bainbridge 70). The novel w ould be released in the U nited
States, serialized in a m agazine, released as a novel in Europe, translated in to
several foreign languages, and th en re-released in less expensive form s in th e
U nited States.
In ad d itio n to w riting the thirty-nine Ellery Q ueen books and eight
short story collections, D annay and Lee founded Elleiy Queen's Mystery
169
M ag a zine (EQMM) w hich is currently in its fifty-ninth year of publication and
continues to su p p o rt the genre by prom oting new and previously
u n p u b lish ed m ystery authors. D annay personally edited the m agazine for
nearly forty years.
D annay w as also a devoted scholar of the m ystery genre. A n avid
bibliophile, he collected the definitive library of m ystery fiction, w hich he
later sold or d o n ated to the U niversity of Texas. Because of his love for books
and scholarship, D annay u p d ated the list begun his friend, scholar H ow ard
H aycraft, to create The Haycraft-Queen Definitive Library of Detective-CrimeM ystery Fiction. This is a list of the best and m ost influential books of the
genre, inclu d in g m ainstream literature, w hich contributed to the develop­
m ent of the m ystery story. D annay also w rote Queen's Quorum, an
evaluative essay on short crim e fiction. H e used the sam e nam e w hen he
com piled a list of the 100 m ost im portant Detective-Crim e-M ystery short
stories. Both lists are considered still considered valuable resources for
scholars of the genre.
The M ystery W riters of A m erica recognized D annay and Lee's
contributions w ith five different aw ards; an unprecedented record that has
not been m atched by any other author (or w riting team).
1946 MW A Best Radio D ram a (the first tim e this aw ard w as
given) - for The Adventures o f Ellery Queen
1950 MW A Best Short Story - for ten years' service th ro u g h
EQMM
170
1961 MW A G rand M aster A w ard - for im portant contributions
in the m ystery field over time, and a significant o u tp u t of
consistently high quality m aterial
1964 MW A E dgar A llan Poe A w ard (best novel) - for The Player
on the Other Side
1979 MWA Special Edgar A w ard 1979 - celebrating 50th
A nniversary of the first EQ novel
In 1983 MWA established The Ellery Q ueen A w ard to recognize
w riting team s an d outstanding people in the m ystery-publishing industry; a
fitting trib u te for the m en w hose influence helped shape the A m erican
m ystery for m ore th an fifty years. In 1951 m ystery w riter and critic A nthony
Boucher p u b lish ed a p am phlet in honor of D annay and Lee's 25th Ellery
Q ueen novel (The Origin o f Evil). This pam phlet, long out of print, is
suitably quoted by alm ost every source that discusses Ellery Q ueen, for
Boucher asserted: "Ellery Q ueen is the A m erican D etective Story."
171
Bibliography
Bainbridge, John.
"Ellery Q ueen: Crim e M ade H im Fam ous and M ade His
A u th o rs Rich." Life. N ovem ber 22,1943. 70-76.
Blixt, Johan. <blixt@ paperdep.kth.se> "Ellery Q ueen Books." N ov. 19, 1997.
Personal em ail. (July 25,1998).
Bryfonski, D edria. Contemporary Literary Criticism. D etroit: Gale Research
C om pany, 1979.
Cox, J. R andolph. "D im e N ovels." The Encyclopedia Mysteriosa. W illiam L.
D eA ndrea, ed. N ew York: Prentice Hall, 1994.
Cox, J. R andolph. Masters o f Mystery and Detective Fiction: A n A n n o ta te d
Bibliography. N ew Jersey: Salem Press, 1989.
D eA ndrea, W illiam L. The Encyclopedia Mysteriosa.
N ew York: Prentice
Hall, 1994.
Derie, Kate.
"M ystery FAQ."
ClueLass Home
Page: A Mystery Lover's
N o te b o o k Dec. 11,1997. <h ttp ://w w w .clu elass.co m /F A Q .h tm l> (July 16,
1998).
Doyle, A. Conan. "Silver Blaze." The Memoirs o f Sherlock H o lm es.
1894.
N ew York: Berkely M edallion Books, 1943.
Doyle, A rth u r Conan.
1915.
The
Valley of Fear.
N ew York: Berkely
M edallio n Books, 1943.
Ethridge, Jam es M., and Barbara Kopala, eds.
Contemporary
A u th ors.
Detroit: Gale Research Com pany, 1967.
172
Gale Research.
Contemporary
A u th o rs. 1997.
<h ttp ://g a len e t.g ale .co m >
(N ov. 24,1997).
H ay craft, H ow ard, ed. The A rt o f the Mystery Story. N ew York: Biblo and
T annen , 1976.
. "M u rd er for Pleasure." The Art of the Mystery Story. H ow ard Haycraft,
ed. N ew York: Biblo and T annen, 1976.
H eising, W iletta L. Detecting W omen
2: A Reader's Guide and Checklist fo r
Mystery Series W ritten by W o m e n . D earborn, MI: P urple M oon Press,
1996.
H enderson , Leslie, ed.
Twentieth
Century Crime and Mystery W riters.
Chicago: St. Jam es Press, 1991.
M agill, F rank N.
Critical Survey o f Mystery and Detective Fiction. Vol. 4.
N ew Jersey: Salem Press, 1988.
M urch, A. E.
The
Development
of the
Detective
N o v e l.
W estport,
C onnecticut: G reenw ood Press, Publishers, 1958.
N evins, Jr., Francis M., ed. The Mystery Writer's A rt. Bow ling Green, OH:
B ow ling G reen U niversity P opular Press, 1970.
N evins, Jr., Francis M. Royal Bloodline: EUery Queen, Author and Detective.
Bow ling Green, Ohio: Bow ling G reen U niversity P opular Press, 1974.
N evins, Jr., Francis M. A nd Ray Stanich.
The Sound of Detection: Ellery
Queen's Radio A d v e n tu r e s . M adison, IN: B row nstone Books, 1983.
N evins, Jr., Francis M.
"D eath and Ghosts: The Ellery Q ueen Paperback
O riginals." Dime Novel R o u n d u p . February 1998: 2-27.
173
N evins, Jr., Francis M. <nevinsfm @ slu.edu> "EQ Books & Q uestion."
Aug.
10,1998. Personal em ail. (Aug. 10, 1998).
P arm entier, Gregg. <parm entier@ iow asp.physics.uiow a.edu> "Ellery Q ueen
Books." N ov. 25,1997. Personal em ail. (July 25,1998).
Q ueen, Ellery. The Roman Hat Mystery. 1929. N ew York: Signet, 1967.
. The French Power Mystery. 1930. N ew York: Signet, 1969.
. The Dutch Shoe Mystery. 1931. N ew York: Signet Classics, 1968.
. The Greek Coffin Mystery. 1932. N ew York: Signet Classics, 1969.
. The Egyptian Cross Mystery. 1932. N ew York: Signet Books, 1969.
. The Tragedy o f X. 1932. N ew York: A von Books, 1966.
. The Tragedy of Y. 1932. N ew York: International Polygonics, Ltd., 1986.
. The American Gun Mystery. 1933. N ew York: A von Publications, 1933.
. The Siamese Twin Mystery. 1933. N ew York: Signet Books, 1983.
. The Tragedy of Z. 1933. N ew York: A von Books D ivision, 1933.
. Drury Lane's Last Case: The Tragedy of 1599. 1933. N ew York: Avon
Publications, 1933.
. The Chinese Orange Mystery. 1934. N ew York: Signet Books, 1970.
. The Adventures of Ellery Q ueen. 1934. N ew York: Triangle Books, 1941.
. The Spanish
Cape Mystery. 1935. N ew York: Signet Books, 1983.
174
. Halfway House. 1936. N ew York: Signet Books, 1971.
. The Door Between. 1937. N ew York: Signet Books, 1980.
. The Devil to Pay. 1938. N ew York: Signet Books, 1980.
. The Four of Hearts. 1938. N ew York: Signet Books, 1970.
. The Dragon's Teeth. 1939. N ew York: Signet Books, 1980.
. The New Adventures of Ellery Queen. 1940. N ew York: Signet Books,
1973.
. Calamity Town. 1942. N ew York: Signet Books, 1980.
. There Was an Old Woman. 1943. N ew York: Signet Books, 1980.
. The Murderer is a Fox. 1945. N ew York: Ballantine Books, 1975.
. Ten Days Wonder. 1948. N ew York: Signet Books, 1980.
. Cat of M any Tails. 1949. N ew York: Ballantine Books, 1979.
. Double, Double. 1950. N ew York: Ballantine Books, 1975.
. The Origin o f Evil. 1951. N ew York: Signet Books, 1980.
. The King is Dead. 1952. N ew York: Signet Books, 1972.
. Calendar o f Crime. 1952. N ew York: Signet Books, 1972.
. The Scarlet Letters. 1953. N ew York: Signet Books, 1973.
. The Glass Village. 1954. N ew York: Pocket Books, 1955.
. Q-B.I.: Queen's Bureau of Investigation. 1955. N ew York: Signet Books,
1973.
175
. Inspector Queen's Own Case. 1956. N ew York: Bantam Books, 1966.
. The Finishing Stroke. 1958. N ew York: Signet Books, 1967.
. The Player on the Other Side. 1963. N ew York: Ballantine Books, 1975.
. And on the Eighth Day. 1964. N ew York: Ballantine Books, 1979.
. The Fourth Side of the Triangle. 1965. N ew York: Pocket Books, 1967.
• Queen's Full. 1965. N ew York: Signet Books, 1966.
. A Study in Terror. 1966. N ew York: Lancer Books, 1966.
. Face to Face. 1967. N ew York: Signet Books, 1968.
. The House o f Brass. 1968. N ew York: Signet Books, 1969.
• Q-E.D.: Queen's Experiments in Detection. 1968. N ew York: Signet
Books, 1970.
. Cop Out. 1969. N ew York: Signet Books, 1970.
. "W ho Shall Ever Forget."
The Mystery Writer's Art. Francis M.
N evins, Jr., ed. Bow ling Green, OH: Bowling Green U niversity Popular Press,
1970.
. The Last Woman is His Life. 1970. New York: Signet Books, 1971.
. A Fine and Private Place. 1971. N ew York: Signet Books, 1972.
Sayers, D orothy L. "The O m nibus of Crime. " The Art o f the Mystery Story.
H ow ard H ay craft, ed. N ew York: Biblo and T annen, 1976.
176
Schenker, Israel. "Ellery Q ueen W on't Tell H ow It's Done. " The New York
T im es.
February 22,1969.
L36.
Schw artz, Saul. Detective Story. Illinois: N ational Textbook Com pany, 1994.
Siegel, Jeff. The American Detective: A n Illustrated History. Dallas, Texas:
T aylor P ublishing Com pany, 1993.
Stine, Kate, ed. The Armchair Detective Book o f Lists. Second Edition.
N ew
York: Otto P enzler Books, 1995.
S tein b ru n n er, Chris and Otto Penzler. Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection.
N ew York: M cGraw -Hill, 1976.
Stew art, R. F. . . . A nd Always a Detective. London: D avid & Charles, 1980.
Sym ons, Julian. Mortal Consequences. N ew York: H arper and Row, 1972.
Sym ons, Julian, and T om A dam s.
The Great Detectives.
London: Orbis
Publishing, 1981.
T hom son, H. Douglas. Masters of Mystery. London: Folcroft Library Editions,
1973.
Trotsky, Susan M. , ed. Contemporary Authors, New Revised Series.
Detroit: Gale Research Com pany, 1992.
Van Dine, S. S. "T w enty Rules for W riting Detective Stories." The Art of the
M ystery Story. H ow ard Haycraft, ed. N ew York: Biblo and Tannen, 1976.
177