Besides being the gentleman detective whose apartment on West 87th Street, New York, is as well known as Sherlock Holmes’ flat in Baker Street, London, and whose father is Inspector Richard Queen of the New York Police Department, Ellery Queen is a writer composed of two individuals, Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee. Their collaboration started in 1929 when the twenty-three-year-old cousins lived in Brooklyn. They entered a detective story contest organized by a magazine, and won it with The Roman Hat Mystery, which had an immediate success. This was an obvious pointer, and Dannay and Lee gave up the business careers they had planned and took to writing. They have published twenty-five novels by Ellery Queen and four under the name Barnaby Ross, five books of their own short stories, many books of short stories by others, two books of radio stories, eight juvenile mysteries, and two volumes of detective bibliography, as well as editing Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine.

Manfred Lee lives in Roxburg, Conn., is interested in music, and is married and has eight children. Frederic Dannay lives in Larchmont, N.Y., collects books, is also married, and has two children.

(Text taken from the 1958 Penguin edition of The Four of Hearts.)

Manfred Lee died 1971 and Frederic Dannay 1982.

---

General Comments on the List

• Title (Publication date) Alternate Title(s) [Swedish Publication] Comments

  Texts taken from the backs of Pocket Books.

---

Books featuring Ellery Queen (or Richard Queen)

• The Roman Hat Mystery (August 1929) [1981 Håll i hatten]

• The French Powder Mystery (July 1930) [Varuhusmysteriet]

• The Dutch Shoe Mystery (September 1931) [1971 Skomysteriet]

• The Greek Coffin Mystery (April 1932) [1934 Konsthandlarens kista]

• The Egyptian Cross Mystery (October 1932) [1968 Det egyptiska korsmysteriet]

• The American Gun Mystery (1933) Death at the Rodeo

• The Siamese Twin Mystery (October 1933)

• The Adventures of Ellery Queen (November 1934) Short Stories

• The Chinese Orange Mystery (April 1934) [1938 Mandarinmysteriet]

• The Spanish Cape Mystery (March 1935)

• Half-way House (July 1936) [Mannen som var två]

• The Door Between (March 1937) [1940 Den stängda dörren]

• The Devil to Pay (February 1938) [2021 Mord i Hollywood]

• The Four of Hearts (August 1938) [1968 Hjärter fyra]

• The Dragon’s Teeth (September 1939) The Virgin Heiress [1940 Draksådden]

• The New Adventures of Ellery Queen (January 1940) Short stories

• Calamity Town (April 1942) [1943 Mr Queen har otur]

• There Was an Old Woman (March 1943) The Quick and the Dead [1952 Mord i andra hand] Lee felt that this was his worst book.

• The Murderer is a Fox (May 1945) [1977 Svälta räv]

• Ten Days’ Wonder (October 1948) [1949 Tio dagars underverk]

• Cat of Many Tails (September 1949) [1951 Katt med många svansar] Lee felt that this was his best book and it is also my personal favourite.

• Double Double (June 1950) The Case of the Seven Murders [1952 Dubbelspel]

• Origin of Evil (April 1951) [1952 Roten till det onda]

• Calendar of Crime (January 1952) Short stories

• The King is Dead (May 1952) [2015 Kungen är död!]

• The Scarlet Letters (May 1953)

• Queen’s Bureau of Investigation (January 1955) Short Stories

• Inspector Queen’s Own Case (September 1956) [1958 Kommisarie Queens eget fall] First edition published as November Song

• The Finishing Stroke (February 1958) [1968 De tolv julklapparna]

• The Player on the Other Side (September 1963) [1965 Spel mot en okänd] Ghost written by Theodore Sturgeon

• And On the Eight Day (March 1964) [1966 Och på åttonde dagen] Ghost written by Avram Davidson

• The Fourth Side of the Triangle (1965) [1967 Triangelns fjärde sida] Ghost written by Avram Davidson

• Queen’s Full (1965) Short stories

• A Study in Terror (1966) Ellery Queen vs. Jack the Ripper [1973 En studie i skräck and Ellery Queen kontra Jack Uppskäraren] Sherlock Holmes part written by Paul W. Fairman

• Face to Face (1967) [1974 Mördare en face]

• The House of Brass (1968) Ghost written by Avram Davidson

• Queen’s Experiments in Detection (1968) Short stories

• The Last Woman in His Life (1970)

• A Fine and Private Place (1971) [1972 Ett mord blir till]

• The Tragedy of Errors and Others (1999) Short stories, essays and an outline for a novel

The stories ghost-written by Davidson and Sturgeon were all written from detailed outlines by Dannay and edited by Lee.

---

Books featuring Drury Lane

• The Tragedy of X (1932) [X-tragedien]
• The Tragedy of Y (1932)
• The Tragedy of Z (1933)
• Drury Lane’s Last Case (1933)

---

Juveniles featuring Djuna

• The Black Dog Mystery [Duffy och bankkuppen]
• The Red Chipmunk Mystery [Duffy och det försvunna arvet]
• The Golden Eagle Mystery [Duffy och guldörnen]
• The Green Turtle Mystery [Duffy och sköldpaddsmysteriet]
• The Brown Fox Mystery [Duffy på farlig mark]

Ghosted by ? and edited by Lee.

---

Other books written by Ellery Queen

• The Glass Village (1954)
• Cop Out (1968)

---

Books published under the name of Ellery Queen

All of the following were edited and supervised by Lee, except The Blue Movie Murders which was edited and supervised by Dannay after Lee’s Death.

Written by

• Jack (John Holbrook) Vance: The Four Johns (1964) A Room to Die In (1965) The Madman Theory (1966).

• Richard Deming: Death Spins the Platter (1962) Wife or Death (1963) The Copper Frame (1965) Loosers, Weepers (1966) Why so Dead? (1966) Shoot the Scene (1966) Which Way to Die (1967) How Goes the Murder (1967) What’s in the Dark (1968) The Black Hearts Murder (1970)

• Edward D Hoch: The Blue Movie Murders (1972)

• Stephen Marlowe: Dead Mans Tale (1961)

• Talmage Powell: Murder With a Past (1963) Beware the Young Stranger (1965) Where is Bianca? (1966) Who Spies Who Kills? (1966)

• Gil Brewer: The Campus Murders (1969)

• ?: Ellery Queen, Master Detective (1941, also as The Vanishing Corpse. Based on a film based on The Door Between) The Penthouse Mystery (1941) The Murdered Millionaire (1942) The Perfect Crime (1942) The Perfect Crime (1942, based on a film based on The Devil to Pay)
  Terror Town (1957)
  The Last Man Club (1960) Kill as Directed (1963) The Golden Goose (1964, also as Who Killed the Golden Goose?) The Last Score (1964) Blow Hot Blow Cold (1964) The Killer Touch (1965) The Devil’s Cook (1966) Wedding Anniversary (1967) Uncle from Australia (1967) Guess Who’s Going to Kill You? (1968) Kiss and Kill (1969)
  The Three Students (1971) The Odd Man (1971) The Honest Swindler (1971)

---

More about Queen and his stories can be found at Michael E. Grost’s excellent site.

Thanks to Rand B Lee and Gregg Parmentier for information.

---

[Johan Blixt] 21 november 2021 / Johan Blixt / johan@jblixt.se