In the 1960s and early 1970s a number of writers ghosted Ellery Queen novels. Face to Face has been attributed to Jack Vance. It certainly reads like a Jack Vance novel: the murdered singer leaves a dying clue: the letters “f a c e” are scrawled on a piece of paper. Given that Vance later wrote a novel in his Demon Princes series called The Face the evidence seems incontrovertible. And then there are the fanciful Vancean character names: Ardene Piggyback Vlietland, Daffy Dingle, Gertie Hodge Huppenkleimer, and Glory Guild. If you enjoy puzzle novels, this mystery will challenge you. Jack Vance ghosted three other Ellery Queen novels: A Room to Die In, The Four Johns, and The Madman Theory. All are worth reading.
Read this one. I love the Ellery Queens with Ellery the Detective and have read all but a few of the story collections. Never much cared for that group farmed out with other characters though.
I’ve read several of those ghosted Ellery Queens. They vary widely in quality. I believe the four books written by Jack Vance are the picks of the litter.
The one by Avram Davidson’s good, too.
Two Ellery Queen books are attributed to Avram Davidson: On the Eighth Day and The Fourth Side of the Triangle. Which one do you recommend?
Finders Weepers, ghostwritten by Richard Demming is my favorite
I’ll have to track down FINDERS WEEPERS, Alberto. Thanks for the suggestion!
I do not like it, the puzzle is really clear from the very first moment when Roberta West enters Queen’s apartment; the alibi of the real murderer is really self-consistent, and nobody would have believed it, figure out a court! However, what is interesting is the interpretation of Ellery’s role in the story and – by extenssion . in
the world. His choice to reveal how did it go make us think that llery lives his talent as a curse, he’s got this talent and he’s got the responsibility to pursue the true of the facts, despite all that it takes and all the suffering and sorrow that it may cause. Ellery is something like a soldier defendign an ideal.
I think most of the ghost-written Ellery Queen novels have their own weaknesses, Max. My interest in this one was the possible participation of Jack Vance in the writing of the book.