Dead Man's Tale

by Ellery Queen

Book by Queen, Ellery

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook, Mystery

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1961

About the author

aka Barnaby Ross.
(Pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee)
"Ellery Queen" was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery.

Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen's first appearance came in 1928 when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who used his spare time to assist his police inspector father in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death.

Several of the later "Ellery Queen" books were written by other authors, including Jack Vance, Avram Davidson, and Theodore Sturgeon.

Reviews

[Steve Goble]

This is not a mystery novel by Ellery Queen -- that is to say, by Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee, the two men who wrote under that name. Nor is it a novel about the fictional amateur detective and mystery writer Ellery Queen, the invention of the two previously named gentlemen. No, this is a crime novel by someone else, published under the name of Ellery Queen when that name was being used as a house name by the publisher. The actual author is Stephen Marlowe.

All this -- plus the fact that Dannay and Lee changed their approach to Ellery over time -- means you never really know what you are going to get with an Ellery Queen paperback.

This one is pretty good. It is a tale of bad people doing bad things to other bad people, with political intrigue thrown in. It is not really a mystery, and there is no detective. It is rather suspenseful, though, and tautly written. It moves at a good clip, too.

[Marie]

I have had this book FOREVER......I read it like every 10 years or so......but never remember the ending.....

Needless to say I read it again......and I loved it.....I was a big fan of the Ellery Queen series on TV with Jim Hutton (teenage crush!!) and for you young followers his son is Timothy Hutton.......

IF you are an old fashioned mystery lover this is your book.....it doesn't resemble the TV show at all....and I am ok with that......this book takes place right after WWII so you do need some background knowledge to understand what everyone was afraid of during the book......

[K. Counihan]

OK Not a True Ellery Queen

This was written in 1961 by a writer with the pen name Stephen Marlow. This is a WW2 and post war era story. The Queens are not in the story. I give this story 3.5 Stars It was OK for that time period.

[Juan Carlos]

Not a mystery at all. Not written by Ellery Queen themselves, just a ghost writer and a gangster's story

[May Grider]

This was a DNF for me.

[Fernando Nogueira]

Historia de policias, ladroes, mulheres, cortina de ferro que se desenrrola com rapidez e interesse pela próxima página.

[Neer]

Stephen Marlowe writes as Ellery Queen about the search for a man who had saved an American pilot's life during WWII.

More here:

http://inkquilletc.blogspot.in/2014/1...

[Ron]

Short but intricate adventure/mystery written in 1961 and set against the Iron Curtain tensions of the post-War period. More than that is too much of a spoiler. Parts of the plot-turns are groan-worthy and the Bond books by Fleming are probably a better choice for this sub-sub genre.

[Wyntrnoire]

Not by Queen. Ghost written.