Ellery Queen: The Art of Detection: The story of how two fractious cousins reshaped the modern detective novel.

by Francis M. Nevins

Overview

Publishers Weekly: "Considering the wealth of professional and personal information, it's tempting to call this definitive." Francis M. Nevins, twice winner of the prestigious Edgar award for critical studies of Cornell Woolrich and Ellery Queen, delivers an unsurpassable work on "all things Queen." With an extensive bibliography, detailed histories of Ellery Queen in books, movies, radio and television, and reminiscences by both Fred Dannay and Manfred B. Lee who formed the writing partnership that created Ellery Queen, the book provides the most complete account available of how two Brooklyn cousins reshaped the modern detective novel. With 12 pages of photos and an index.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935797470
Publisher:	Perfect Crime Books
Publication date:	01/01/2013
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 10.00(h) x 0.76(d)

About the Author

Francis M. Nevins is the author of many popular culture books on mysteries and films, including two studies that were awarded Edgars by the Mystery Writers of America (Cornell Woolrich: First You Dream, Then You Die and Royal Bloodline: Ellery Queen, Author and Detective). In addition, Nevins has written many short stories and a number of novels. His previous books for Perfect Crime include a collection of his own short fiction, Night Forms, new editions of two novels, The 120 Hour Clock and The Ninety Million Dollar Mouse, and Love and Night: Unknown Stories by Cornell Woolrich.

Editorial Reviews

In his second book about two Brooklyn-born cousins who redefined the detective novel under the collective pseudonym Ellery Queen, two-time Edgar Award winner Nevins digs deeper into their lives and extraordinary body of work. Manfred B. Lee and Frederic Dannay (born Manford Lepofsky and Daniel Nathan in 1905, nine months and five blocks apart) began their writing career by entering a contest in 1928 on "a lark" and eventually launched Ellery Queen into a multi-media brand that included radio, film, television, and magazines. Settling on the name "Ellery Queen" to serve as both author and detective, Lee and Dannay (who died in 1971 and 1982, respectively) latched onto such motifs as manipulative murderers and deliberate clues, their simple early works evolving into complex psychological and allegorical novels like 1942's Calamity Town and 1948's Ten Days' Wonder. Nevins (Royal Bloodline), an accomplished mystery writer himself who was edited by Dannay, interjects first-person observations into his otherwise straightforward text and provides both plot summaries and critiques. In light of Nevins's displeasure at the incompleteness of his original 1974 effort, and considering the wealth of professional and personal information, it's tempting to call this definitive.
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Publishers Weekly