Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen is a mystery to those who do not know him. He was a fictional character of two cousins from Brooklyn, who both used the name to write mysteries. One of the cousins was Daniel Nathan, whose alias was Frederic Dannay. He was born in 1905 and died in 1982. The other cousin was Manfred Lepofsky, who used the name Manfred Bennington Lee. He was born in 1905 and died in 1971.

Ellery Queen wrote about murder cases based on his father's experiences as an Inspector for the New York Police, and they often worked as a team. His father would gather the clues while he would go over them and solve the crime. Ellery Queen's mysteries set themselves apart from others by giving the readers a chance to solve he mystery before the book's conclusion. There is a blank page near the end of every book that comes before the crime is solved, where Ellery personally urges the readers to try and figure it out before reading on.

The cousins also wrote about a detective named Drury Lane, using the name of Barnaby Ross as the author. They wrote four novels about this character. Fred Dannay would work out the plot and clues, and Manfred Lee would write all the words to fill in the plot, clues and the ending.

Ellery Queen mysteries were so popular the cousins were signed to do a radio show. They would write one minute stories as fillers on the radio and the listeners were urged to solve the crime. If they called in the winning murderer, they won a prize. In 1971, Peter Lawford starred in a movie for television titled Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You. There were other shows based on Ellery Queen books starring well known movie stars.