If you enjoyed the Philo Vance novel, "The Canary Murder Case," discussed on the Classic Mysteries podcast this week, you might also enjoy Ellery Queen's "The Tragedy of Errors
The Philo Vance novels of S. S. Van Dine are generally seen as precursors of the early Ellery Queen novels, and certainly Queen - the detective character - is clearly modeled after Vance. Personally, I prefer Queen, although both authors specialized in fair play puzzles, providing readers with the clues which should - if properly interpreted - lead them to the criminal.
"The Tragedy of Errors" is an interesting example of how the "Ellery Queen" collaboration really worked: of the two cousins who made up "Ellery Queen," Frederick Dannay generally came up with the plot outline, complete with the various clues, twists and turns. His cousin, Manfred Lee, then "fleshed out" the bare bones of the outline, writing the actual novel itself.
In "The Tragedy of Errors," we see how that worked, because we are given the full Dannay-written outline of a never-completed novel. Dannay had completed the synopsis, but Lee died before he could turn it into a novel. The book also contains a half-dozen short stories, not collected into books before, and a number of essays about Ellery Queen. These articles, by family members, other mystery authors and scholars, provide a great deal of insight into Ellery Queen and the art of mystery writing in general.
It is a pity that this appears to be the only book by Ellery Queen currently in print in the United States. I'm grateful to the Crippen & Landru Press for publishing it, and I do heartily recommend it.
You have been nominated for the Literary Blogger Award. Details can be found at http://pkmadsen.blogspot.com/2009/06/holy-schmoley.html.
Thanks for keeping crime classics current.
Posted by: PK the Bookeemonster | June 13, 2009 at 12:04 PM
Thanks for the nomination, PK - and glad you enjoy the mysteries!
Posted by: Les Blatt | June 15, 2009 at 04:09 PM