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PASTICHES

"Open Letter to Survivors" by Francis M.Nevins (EQ's Book of First Appearences 1982). starts off with a line from  "Ten Days' Wonder" (Chapter 10) : "... There was the case of Adelina Monquieux, his remarkable solution of which cannot be revealed before 1972 by agreement with that curious lady's executors..." Nevins takes it from here in this 1972 story about a unnamed "big whodunit writer who's cleaned up umpteen cases fo the New York force" who came to Adelina Monquieux's home. Adelina's will stipulates that her three identical looking sons Xavier, Yves & Zachary will get half a million dollars plus the income from another half a million in a trust. Her niece Marie get a few hundred thousands. The remaining twenty millions will go to charity and of course Adelaline get murdered! The name of the sleuth is never mentioned but is obvious.
Nils Hardin publisher and editor of the fanzine "Xenophile" published a special Ellery Queen-edition in June 1975. In it he tried his hand at a mystery story "The Ghana Word Mystery" by L.Ray Quaine, sadly due to some printing problem, aside from the title and two unreadable lines, two blank pages appeared...
Detective Comics No. 459 - May 1976 On the cover one can clearly make out Alfred Pennyworth, the police, Batman unmasking, and Elliot Quinn’s corpse. (Art: J.L.Garcia Lopez - Editing Julius Schwartz)Marty Pasko wrote the script for a 12 page Batman-comicstory called "A Clue Before Dying" (Detective Comics No. 459 - May 1976) Batman tries to find the man who killed mystery writer Elliot Quinn, and who may be the same man who killed an architect in Quinn’s home years ago.Not only an homage to Queen but in the story also "a" Lt. Dannay appeared!
When researching his 1981 'The Great Detectives' the late Julian Symons not only had the privilige of meeting Fred in Larchmont. He was able to put forward an interesting theory that there were in fact two Ellery’s -- the earlier one with the pince-nez and the later one post “Halfway House” He even constructed a theory that the earlier Ellery was, in fact, Ellery’s younger brother “Dan.” Fred thought the theory was 'inventive' but stated that Julian underestimated the way people change and even went as far as saying the theory was unconvincing. Julian included a pastiche 'Dan and the Fair Sabrina' a story about a missing statuette called 'Sabrina'.

It's a truly a pity that some of these stories are unobtainable... Jon Breen describes 'The Persian Fez Mystery or "The Tragedy of Q" by Joe R. Christopher as "one of the cleverest send-ups of the Queen style. Found in 30 copy(!) chapbook "Queen's Books Investigated" or "Queen is in the Accounting House" it reveals that Elroy Queep "..only in his novels solved the cases before the police, in real life his suggestions were always wrong..."

Case Closed (Original title: Meitantei Conan), aka Detective Conan in Japan and most other countries, is a detective manga and anime series by Gosho Aoyama and serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday since 1994. It follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo (Kudo Shinichi), a young detective inadvertently turned into a prepubescent boy by a secret criminal organization when they knock him out and give him a drug that was supposed to kill him. Several Eva Kadan, known as Eri Kisaki in the original, is famous lawyer who never loses. Eri is beautiful and talented, she's a very smart woman but aweful at housework or cooking. Kisaki is the Japanese for Queen.characters are named after famous detectives or detective writers. Eva Kadan, known as Eri Kisaki in the original, is a famous lawyer who never loses. Eri is beautiful and talented, she's a very smart woman but aweful at housework or cooking. Kisaki is the Japanese for Queen. (Source Wikipedia)

The 70th anniversary edition of EQMM had two pastiches . Edward D.Hoch's "The Circle of Ink"(EQMM, September 1999) placed Ellery and his married father (Jesse Sherwood) in a University and  Jon L.Breen's "The Gilbert and Sullivan Clue" lets Ellery deal with Y2K.  Edward Hoch even got Ellery to revisit Wrightsville in "The Wrightsville Carnival" (EQMM September/October 2005).
Following a discussion in March 2002 in a readersforum regarding the novel 'And on the Eight Day'  Dale Andrews tried his hand at writing a 'new' form of pastiche. It provides an epilogue to the existing story. Dale has been so kind allowing me to put it here. It comes, of course, with a spoiler warning so ... if you haven't read the original story look away now!

It eventually led to the writing of the pastiche "The Book Case" by Dale Andrews and Kurt Sercu. The story found it's way into EQMM (2007) and had an elderly Ellery Queen aiding Harry Burke to find the culprit. Ellery is called in since the victim is found amidst a collection of his books...
In 2008
Dale C. Andrews authored a prequel to The Book Case which has been accepted by EQMM for future publication. It's entitled "The Mad Hatter's Riddle." It is set in 1975. Ellery is called to Hollywood to serve as an advisor on the NBC Ellery Queen series for the filming of "The Mad Tea Party" episode, which fans will remember was the only episode in the series based on an authentic Ellery Queen story.

Ellery Queen is probably the only author who became the leading
character in a mystery pastiche. James Holding, who wrote the juveniles wrote a series of pastiches, estimable mysteries in their own right.  In these series King Danforth and Martin Leroy creators of the detective "Leroy King" solve crimes on their own during a round-the-world-tour. The titles of these stories evocated the early Queen-work. 

  The Norwegian Apple Mystery, November, 1960
  The African Fish Mystery
April 1961
  The Italian Tile Mystery,
September, 1961
  The Hong Kong Jewel Mystery,
November, 1963.
  The Zanzibar Shirt Mystery,
December, 1963.
  The Tahitian Powder Box Mystery,
October, 1964.
  The Japanese Card Mystery,
October, 1965.
  The New Zealand Bird Mystery,
January, 1967
  The Philippine Key Mystery,
February, 1968.
  The Borneo Snapshot Mystery,
January, 1972.

The auteur-editor appeared even less disguised in two mysteries with a MWA background. Robert Arthur's "The 51st Sealed Room" (EQMM October 1951)  begins at an MWA meeting in New York, with a number of inside-jokes and comments of special interest to mystery authors and goes on to murder. There is mention of EQMM then annual contest. Also, someone who has come up with an idea for locked room story says:"...when Carr and Queen and the others upstairs read it, they'll wonder why they didn't think of it themselves."
Brett Halliday is another mystery writer anxious to give the impression that MWA gatherings lead to murder. His 1954 novel "She woke to Darkness" begins at the annual MWA murder award dinner. Narrator Halliday gets into serious trouble after picking up a girl there and is forced to call upon Mike Shayne for help. During the dinner, Frederic Dannay asks Halliday to write another story for the EQMM contest. Manfred Lee is also mentioned; he was forced to stay home because of illness in the family. This actually also resembles the plot from a Columbo-episode "Murder by the Book"  

Ellery Queen, editor of his mystery magazine wasn't spared. He plays a pivotal role in several short stories concerning stories submitted to the magazine. The earliest example might be found in Baynard Kendrick's article on true-crime articles "The Case of the Stuttering Sextant" (EQMM March 1947) which was introduced by Clayton Rawson in the style of a Queen story.
There is Rick Rubin's "The Man who hated Editors"
(EQMM May 1960) The story about an unsuccessful writer who devises an unusual scheme to get even with the editors who have been turning his work down. One of those being "Emory Quinn Mystery Magazine"
Marge Jackson had a different idea along this line in "Dear Mr.Queen, editor"
(EQMM April 1963) She tells of a story submitted by a mother of 4 children which discloses an actual murder as well as a possible future murder. EQ as very concerned editor tries to head off the second crime.
"The Clementine Caper"
(EQMM, November 1956) by Larry Van Benthuysen also involves the matter of publication in EQMM. A suburban housewife, Alice, reads a newspaper item about a discovered corpse, and this becomes the basis for her speculation regarding murder, as well as the following conversation with her husband, George:

Alice: George, listen. Clementine was murdered, and I
       can prove it.
George: Do you want me to call Ellery Queen or do you
        think you can handle the caper yourself?
Alice: You think you're so funny... Maybe I will write
       this up and send it to EQMM and become rich and
       famous and divorce you.

Alice solves the crime, gets the story into EQMM and...doesn't divorce George...
James Holding did fit a foreign edition of EQMM into 'The Inquisitive Butcher of Nice'
(EQMM, July 1963) wherin one of the characters says: "The police will be angry if we touch anything...they will no doubt look for finger prints, clues, signs of a struggle. Thus is always done in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine which I read each month."
It was Allen Lang who found the ultimate use for EQMM. His "The Trail of the Catfish"
(EQMM January 1962) is about a detective Max Holloway whose job is tracking down those who steal library books. One one occasion he literally uses EQMM as a weapon.
More and more the name and work of Ellery Queen has become significant and influential. For example in Margaret Austin's 'Introducing Ellery's Mom'
(EQMM July 1962) we find one of the stories in which characters have been named after Ellery Queen. As was the case with Josh Pachter's "E.Q.Griffin Earns his Name" (EQMM December 1968) and "E.Q. Griffen's Second Case" (EQMM May 1970). A third story about the Griffen family, "Sam Buried Caesar," (EQMM August 1971) focused on Ellery's brother Nero Wolfe Griffen.
William Brittain wrote "The Man who Read Ellery Queen"
(EQMM december 1965) about Arthur Mindy, an alert 80 year old who is admitted to an old age home with the one treasured possesion - his complet collection of the Queen canon. He solves a crime at the home a la EQ by use of pure logic and is rewarded by the compliment of being told: 'Thank you, Mr.Queen".
Richard M.Gordon wrote a clever mystery parody of Thomas Gray' poem called "Ellery in a Country Churchyard" (EQMM, September 1964)

Recognition has also come outside the field of mystery. For e.g. in the Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Field' 1954 play "Anniversary Waltz", the leading character is subjected to a barrage of questions and responds by asking "Who are you, Ellery Queen?" Or e.g. as shown in the lyrics for the Tavares hitsingle Whodunit by K.St.Louis and F.Perren:

       She went dancin’ in the dark, somebody stole her heart
       Ellery Queen if you’re so keen
       Won’t you help me find my sweet thing (Yeah, yeah)

( References
"From..... tqcb" by Nils Hardin in Xenophile #14,
June 1975
"The Misadventures from Ellery Queen" EQMM Sep/Oct 2005)

 

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