Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1929 by American crime fiction writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee and the name of their main fictional character, a mystery writer in New York City who helps his police inspector father solve baffling murders. Dannay and Lee wrote most of the more than thirty novels and several short story collections in which Ellery Queen appeared as a character, and their books were among the most popular of American mysteries published between 1929 and 1971. In addition to the fiction featuring their eponymous brilliant amateur detective, the two men acted as editors: as Ellery Queen they edited more than thirty anthologies of crime fiction and true crime, and Dannay founded and for many decades edited Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, which has been published continuously from 1941 to the present. From 1961, Dannay and Lee also commissioned other authors to write crime thrillers using the Ellery Queen nom de plume, but not featuring Ellery Queen as a character; several juvenile novels were credited to Ellery Queen, Jr. Finally, the prolific duo wrote four mysteries under the pseudonym Barnaby Ross.
Michael Francis Gilbert was an English solicitor and author of crime fiction.
Julian Gustave Symons was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature. He was born in Clapham, London, and died in Walmer, Kent.
Cecil John Charles Street, who was known to his colleagues, family and friends as John Street, began his military career as an artillery officer in the British Army. During the course of World War I, he became a propagandist for MI7, in which role he held the rank of Major. After the armistice, he alternated between Dublin and London during the Irish War of Independence as Information Officer for Dublin Castle, working closely with Lionel Curtis. He later earned his living as a prolific writer of detective novels.
The Golden Age of Detective Fiction was an era of classic murder mystery novels of similar patterns and styles, predominantly in the 1920s and 1930s.
Inspector Gabriel Hanaud is a fictional French detective depicted in a series of five novels and one novella by the British writer A. E. W. Mason. He has been described as the "first major fiction police detective of the Twentieth Century".
London Particular is a 1952 mystery crime novel by the British writer Christianna Brand. It is the fifth in a series of novels featuring her fictional police detective Inspector Cockrill and also portrays another of her characters Inspector Charlesworth. It was published in the United States in 1953 under the alternative title of Fog of Doubt.
A Three-Pipe Problem is a 1975 mystery detective novel by the British writer Julian Symons. A pastiche of the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, it takes place in the present day. The title refers to a line spoken in The Red-Headed League, referring to a particularly tricky problem that will take Holmes the time it takes to smoke three pipes to solve. It was followed by a sequel The Kentish Manor Murders.
The Progress of a Crime is a 1960 mystery crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It was awarded the 1961 Edgar Award.
The Blackheath Poisonings is a 1978 historical mystery novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It is a murder mystery set in the late Victorian era.
The Belting Inheritance is a 1965 mystery detective novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It is a traditional country house mystery harking back towards the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. It was republished by British Library Publishing in 2018 along with another Symons novel The Colour of Murder.
The Colour of Murder is a 1957 crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It was awarded the Gold Dagger of the Crime Writers' Association for that year. It was republished by British Library Publishing in 2018 along with another Symons novel The Belting Inheritance.
The End of Solomon Grundy is a 1964 crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. The title refers to a line in the nursery rhyme Solomon Grundy.
Sweet Adelaide is a 1980 historical crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It is based on the real-life 1886 Pimlico Mystery concerning the possible murder Thomas Bartlett by his wife Adelaide. Symons had already enjoyed success with another Victorian-set mystery The Blackheath Poisonings.
The Immaterial Murder Case is a 1945 mystery detective novel by British writer Julian Symons. His debut novel, it was the first in a trilogy featuring the Scotland Yard detective Chief Inspector Bland. The story gently makes fun of the "Great Detective" archetype popular during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction Symons wrote the book in 1939 but didn't submit it for publication for several years during the Second World War.
A Man Called Jones is a 1947 mystery detective novel by British writer Julian Symons. It is the second novel in his trilogy featuring the Scotland Yard detective Chief Inspector Bland. Symons was critical of the "Great Detective" that features in so many novels during the Golden Age of Detective Fiction and demonstrates this in the climatic scene where Bland assembles all the suspects to explain his theory, only to first send them to sleep and then be confronted by the late arrival of a previously unknown character on which the whole puzzle hinges.
Bland Beginning is a 1949 mystery detective novel by British writer Julian Symons. It is the third and final novel in his trilogy featuring the Scotland Yard detective Chief Inspector Bland. It features Bland before he became a policeman, becoming involved in his first ever case.
The Paper Chase is a 1956 mystery crime novel by the British writer Julian Symons. It was published in America the following year by Harper & Brothers under the alternative title of Bogue's Fortune. It was reviewed by fellow writers Milward Kennedy in The Guardian and Philip John Stead in the Times Literary Supplement.
The Plot Against Roger Rider is a 1973 mystery thriller novel by the British writer Julian Symons. The novel takes place both in England and Francoist Spain. It was published in the United States by Harper.
Buried for Pleasure is a 1948 detective novel by the British writer Edmund Crispin, the sixth in his series featuring the Oxford professor and amateur detective Gervase Fen. As with the rest of the Fen novels, a complex Golden Age-style mystery is combined with elements of farce. Fen contests a by-election in rural constituency, but events are rapidly overtaken by a murder case. It features Detective Inspector Humbleby who also appeared in the next novel Frequent Hearses as well as most of the short stories in the series.
