Ellery Queen

Ellery Queen is the joint pseudonym of American cousins Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905–1971), who together wrote a landmark series of detective novels. Their first book, The Roman Hat Mystery (1929), introduced the brilliant amateur sleuth Ellery Queen, a writer-detective who often left a challenge to the reader. The duo pioneered the "fair-play" mystery, providing all clues necessary for the reader to solve the crime. Over four decades, they produced dozens of novels, short stories, and radio plays, and also founded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, a cornerstone of the genre. Their work influenced generations of crime writers and helped define the Golden Age of detective fiction. The Ellery Queen series remains celebrated for its intellectual rigor, clever plotting, and enduring appeal to puzzle-loving readers.