Masterpieces of Mystery: The Fifties

by Ellery Queen (Editor)

Genres: Mystery, Anthologies

351 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1978

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

[Richard Mann · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are, I think, 20 volumes in this Masterpieces of Mystery matched set. The book is handsome and looks really good on your shelf with the other 19 volumes. This volume includes 19 stories written (or published, more probably) in the 1950s. As usual, there are very good stories here, and there are a couple of duds, to my way of thinking. The best of all is Margaret Millar's "The Couple Next Door," which appears in 8 different anthologies in my collection. Although Mary Roberts Rinehart (a master of the Had I But Known school of writing) is not one my favorite writers, her story here, "The Splinter" is one of the best in the book. The Ellery Queen story, "Miracles Do Happen," is unfortunately not one of his best. Thomas Walsh's "Cop on the Prowl" has both a satisfying story line and an emotional impact. Cornell Woolrich's "Blonde Beauty Slain" uses a fascinating story-telling technique, wherein it follows several different people after they buy the same newspaper at Mom's newspaper stand showing the effect of the headline story on each person and their situation. Woolrich was an unmatched genius in his day. Oliver La Farge's "Woman Hunt No Good" is a fascinating story set on an Arizona Apache reservation. I loved this quote: "It is reported that certain mild, recurrent seismic disturbances which have been recorded at Fordham University are caused by Fenimore Cooper spinning in his grave when Spotted Shield, Chief of Police of the Golquain Agency, emerges in the morning." This is a pleasant book with some fine stories.

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The trial of John Nobody / A.H.Z. Carr --3
Woman hunt no good / Oliver La Farge --2
The house that Nella lived in / Mabel Seeley --3
The gentleman caller / Veronica Parker Johns --3
Born killer / Dorothy Salisbury Davis --3
House party / Stanley Ellin --3
The couple next door / Margaret Millar --2
Anything new on the strangler? / James M. Ullman --3
The splinter / Mary Roberts Rinehart --3
Miami papers please copy / Rufus King --3
Dig that crazy grave! / Robert Bloch --3
And already lost--/ Charlotte Armstrong --3
Miracles do happen / Ellery Queen --2
Cop on the prowl / Thomas Walsh --3
The income tax mystery / Michael Gilbert --2
The women in his life / Whit Masterson --3
Carnival day / Nedra Tyre --2
The love connoisseur / John Collier --3
Blonde beauty slain / Cornell Woolrich--3