When it comes to information on Ellery Queen, Francis M. (for Mike) Nevins is the go-to guy. The publisher calls this book "definitive," and I'm not going to argue. Nevins covers the entire careers of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, gives plot summaries, and tells you what he thinks about the books. The EQ radio shows are covered, too, and so are all the ghost-written Queen novels. This section particularly interested me, as I've often been curious about some of these books. One of them was written by Gil Brewer, who seems like just about the last writer anyone would pick to write a novel with the Queen by-line. Don Tracy wrote a series of historical novels using Dannay and Lee's Barnaby Ross name. Nevins hasn't been able to discover the reason for these books' existence, and his comment about them is as follows: "Years ago I made myself read one. Never again!" There's also a complete Queen bibliography. Anyone interested in the history of the American mystery story in general or Ellery Queen in particular will want to have a copy of this book. It's an essential part of any mystery lover's library.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection -- Francis M. Nevins
When it comes to information on Ellery Queen, Francis M. (for Mike) Nevins is the go-to guy. The publisher calls this book "definitive," and I'm not going to argue. Nevins covers the entire careers of Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee, gives plot summaries, and tells you what he thinks about the books. The EQ radio shows are covered, too, and so are all the ghost-written Queen novels. This section particularly interested me, as I've often been curious about some of these books. One of them was written by Gil Brewer, who seems like just about the last writer anyone would pick to write a novel with the Queen by-line. Don Tracy wrote a series of historical novels using Dannay and Lee's Barnaby Ross name. Nevins hasn't been able to discover the reason for these books' existence, and his comment about them is as follows: "Years ago I made myself read one. Never again!" There's also a complete Queen bibliography. Anyone interested in the history of the American mystery story in general or Ellery Queen in particular will want to have a copy of this book. It's an essential part of any mystery lover's library.
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3 comments:
I've always felt that Tracy's use of the "Barnaby Ross" name was a coincidence and had absolutely nothing to do with Queen.
You'd think someone would have been familiar with the name and used a different one.
Bill,
Thanks for the nice words about Mike's book.
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