Ellery Queen
All about Ellery Queen, bio, links to books
"The Roman Hat Mystery" (1929) introduced Ellery Queen as the son of
Inspector Richard Queen of the New York police department. Together,
they formed a formidable crime-solving team. Inspector Queen, in his
role as a policeman, collected all the clues connected with the crime in
question. His son Ellery, an intellectual and writer of detective
novels, would then collect and analyze the clues, ultimately solving the
crime.
This duo proved so popular that Lee and Dannay wrote 33
novels and numerous short stories starring the famous father and son
team.
In 1932, Lee and Dannay created another character under the pseudonym
Barnaby Ross. Drury Lane, a retired Shakespearean actor who also solved
crimes, was featured in four novels, but was never as popular as Ellery
Queen.
The concept of Ellery Queen expanded to include not only the written
work, but a popular radio series, as well as several film and television
projects.
In 1941, the two cousins started the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine.
Still published today, EQMM continues to showcase the best of current
detective fiction.
Ellery Queen has received many awards, and has left an indelible,
uniquely American mark on the crime fiction genre.