Ellery Queen

This is a summary page linking to hopefully what will be a complete set of reviews of the Ellery Queen novels.

To provide myself with some boundaries, I’m only going to consider the books that deal with Ellery himself or that were definitely written by Fred Dannay and/or Manfred Lee
- the list of books follows and I would appreciate it if anyone better informed than me feels that I’ve missed something out or included something that I shouldn’t of. It’s based on the Wikipedia bibliography and the only omission that I’ve made is A Study In Terror as it sounds tangential at best. Links to reviews will appear as they are created. Obviously this is going to take a while to fill up, so be patient.

Novels Featuring Ellery Queen

• The Roman Hat Mystery

Ellery’s first mystery (albeit not chronologically) as he investigates murder in a theatre and a vanishing top hat.

• The French Powder Mystery

A dead body in a department store window leads to the first classic of the canon, with a spectacular denouement.

• The Dutch Shoe Mystery

Murder in the operating theatre – a nice double bluff for those who’ve read too many detective novels.

• The Greek Coffin Mystery

Or the one everyone includes in their “Best Of” lists – with good reason. Ellery fails to find a hidden will in a buried coffin – but finds an extra body instead.

• The Egyptian Cross Mystery

Crucified decapitated corpses. Do you need to hear any more?

• The American Gun Mystery

Ellery goes to the rodeo – and the writers push credibility a bit too far.

• The Siamese Twin Mystery

Ellery gets stranded in a house by a forest fire. Murder and mayhem ensue. A classic.

• The Chinese Orange Mystery

A backwards crime scene and a missing tangerine (or Chinese Orange) lead to one of Ellery’s more impressive deductions – although it does stretch credulity somewhat.

• The Spanish Cape Mystery

A ladies man is found strangled, sitting on a patio, naked, apart from a cape draped around his body. A nice diversion for another of Ellery’s holidays.

• Half-Way House

A murder in five acts – a more restrained set-up than usual and probably more straightforward to work out the murderer… although you might have to put yourself in a 1930′s mindset to do so for one or two of the assumptions.

• The Door Between

A rare locked room mystery for Ellery to sort out – no-one could have cut the throat of Karen Leith apart from the person who discovered the body. But we know she didn’t do it, so who on earth did?

• The Devil To Pay

It’s off to Hollywood and the murder of a businessman with plenty of enemies but very few friends. Ellery goes undercover as he tries to sort out who actually killed him.

• The Four of Hearts

Hollywood’s golden couple find themselves kidnapped and then poisoned. Ellery is in a race against time to prevent their children from suffering the same fate.

• The Dragon’s Teeth
• Calamity Town
• There Was An Old Woman

A typical mystery novel family – a domineering matriarch and a bunch of weird children – including how to use a duel to murder someone, but not in the obvious way.

• The Murderer is a Fox
• Ten Days’ Wonder
• Cat of Many Tails

A serial killer stalks the streets of New York in a change of pace for the series – currently links to a joint review by myself and Patrick of At The Scene Of The Crime, but I will update this with my own review when I get to it in sequence.

• Double, Double
• The Origin of Evil
• The King Is Dead
• The Scarlet Letters
• The Finishing Stroke

Possibly an early attempt at finishing the series – another odd household of guests – and some very odd cryptic messages.

• The Player On The Other Side

The first ghost-written novel and a significant departure in plot as well. The murderer is clear, but who is giving him the instructions?

• … and on the Eighth Day
• The Fourth Side of the Triangle
• Face to Face
• The House of Brass
• The Last Woman in His Life
• A Fine and Private Place

Short Story Collections featuring Ellery Queen

• The Adventures of Ellery Queen
• The New Adventures of Ellery Queen (inc. the novella The Lamp of God)
• Calendar of Crime
• QBI – Queen’s Bureau of Investigation
• Queens Full
• QED – Queen’s Experiments In Detection

Novels not featuring Ellery Queen

• The Tragedy of X

Drury Lane, retired actor, investigates the impossible poisoning of a businessman on a crowded tramcar.

• The Tragedy of Y

Another barmy household – containing one of the cleverest things I’ve seen in a mystery – namely, why would someone choose an antique mandolin as a murder weapon.

• The Tragedy of Z
• Drury Lane’s Last Case
• The Glass Village
• Inspector Queen’s Own Case
• Cop Out

Other Books

• The Tragedy of Errors – detailed plot for an unwritten story + extras
• The Adventure of the Murdered Moths and Other Radio Mysteries

ADDENDUM: For anyone who’s impatient or, for whatever reason, desires a second opinion, then try Ellery Queen: A Website In Deduction for an existing complete bibliography – it’s in the QBI section.