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The Tragedy of Errors and Others by Ellery Queen
Book Description "Ellery Queen IS the American Detective Story!" So wrote the great critic Anthony Boucher about the contributions of Ellery Queen to the mystery story. Queen appeared in novels and short stories, in the movies and on television, on the radio and even in comic books. In honor of the seventieth anniversary of the first Ellery Queen novel, Crippen & Landru is proud to publish the first completely new Ellery Queen book in almost thirty years. "The Tragedy of Errors" is the lengthy and detailed plot outline for the final, but never published EQ novel, containing all the hallmarks of the greatest Queen novels—the dying message, the succession of false solutions before the astonishing truth is revealed, and scrupulous fairplay to the reader. And the theme is one that Queen had been developing for many years: the manipulation of events in a world going mad by people who aspire to the power of gods. The Tragedy of Errors and Others also contains the six hitherto uncollected Ellery Queen short stories, and a section of essays, tributes, and reminiscences of Ellery Queen, written by family members, friends, and some of the finest current mystery writers. Reader Reviews 11 of 11 people found the following review helpful: A must for all Queen fanatics!, March 21, 2000 Reviewer: John DiBello from Brooklyn, NY There's been far too little written about Ellery Queen--truly the master of American detective fiction. This book from Crippen and Landru is a great step forward. In addition to the full outline of Dannay and Lee's final but never finished novel "The Tragedy of Errors," there's also a selection of EQ short stories and best yet, a collection of appreciations and essays by collaborators and contempraries to EQ, covering the early period of the pince-nez Ellery to the later ghost-written (but plotted and edited by Dannay and Lee) psychological and religious thrillers--and even the Ellery of radio and the comics! EQ's been sadly out of fashion in the mystery field over the last 20 years--following a resurgence in 1976 with the NBC-TV series, various publishers have reissued several books but let them go out of print quickly; the essays in "The Tragedy of Errors" remind me how much I wish all the EQs were still available for today's new mystery readers. This is the best book I've yet seen on the *history* of Ellery, the cousins who created him, and the groundbreaking "Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine." The very best compliment I can give this book? It makes me *need* to go back and re-read all my EQ favorites. Now, if I can only figure out those cryptic dying clues...
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