
In honor of the seventieth anniversary of the first Ellery Queen novel, Crippen & Landru is proud to publish the first completely new Ellery Queen book in almost thirty years. "The Tragedy of Errors" is the lengthy and detailed plot outline for the final, but never published EQ novel, containing all the hallmarks of the greatest Queen stories - the dying message, the succession of false solutions before the astonishing truth is revealed, and scrupulous fairplay to the reader. And the theme is one that Queen had been developing for many years: the manipulation of events in a world going mad by someone who aspires to the power of gods. On the 70th anniversary of the release of The Roman Hat Mystery in 1999, the plot outline for The Tragedy of Errors was released. When Manfred Lee died in April, 1971 "Fred Dannay has announced that he will carry on with Ellery Queen and has told me that most of the plot outline of Ellery's next case had been worked out prior to Lee's death. But his own poor health, his full time editorial and anthological duties, and the death of his own wife in the summer of 1972, have resulted in a long delay between novels. How much longer only time will tell." (Royal Bloodline Francis Nevins, Jr.) Never before published: Frederic Dannay's last complete plot outline/summary of a Queen
mystery to be written by his cousin, Manfred B. Lee, the other half of the
"Queen" partnership. Lee's death prevented the book from ever being completed.
This beautifully made 222-page book, of which some 250 numbered copies sewn in cloth were
made, includes critical reflections on Queen's work by a host of mystery writers. Also
included is a separate pamphlet of selected facsimile pages of Dannay's first draft of
"Tragedy of Errors," heavily edited and annotated by the author,
illustrating the EQ creative process at work.
"Terror Town" was made into an episode of the Alfred Hitchcock Hour: "Terror at Northfield" (1963). 'Wedding Anniversary' was reprinted in a special issue (70th birthday of The Roman Hat Mystery) of EQMM |
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