Ellery Queen finds himself in charge of the young rambunctious lad, Djuna. What better way to spend his time than at the newly opened amusement park called Joyland. But the park’s designer pride and joy is his “House of Darkness”. A haunted house that reminds Queen of the set of Dr. Caligari. But what terror does the darkness hold? Ellery Queen and Djuna is about to find out!
aka Barnaby Ross. (Pseudonym of Frederic Dannay and Manfred Bennington Lee) "Ellery Queen" was a pen name created and shared by two cousins, Frederic Dannay (1905-1982) and Manfred B. Lee (1905-1971), as well as the name of their most famous detective. Born in Brooklyn, they spent forty two years writing, editing, and anthologizing under the name, gaining a reputation as the foremost American authors of the Golden Age "fair play" mystery.
Although eventually famous on television and radio, Queen's first appearance came in 1928 when the cousins won a mystery-writing contest with the book that would eventually be published as The Roman Hat Mystery. Their character was an amateur detective who used his spare time to assist his police inspector father in solving baffling crimes. Besides writing the Queen novels, Dannay and Lee cofounded Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, one of the most influential crime publications of all time. Although Dannay outlived his cousin by nine years, he retired Queen upon Lee's death.
Several of the later "Ellery Queen" books were written by other authors, including Jack Vance, Avram Davidson, and Theodore Sturgeon.
A clever Queen shorter work from 1935. A "locked room" mystery. A fun house at an amusement park. The fun house lacks any source of light. The patrons wander from room to room in total darkness. PC types will find the dialect of the African American cringe worthy. It is minimal. So who shot the victim in the dark.
I've had this on my nook forever--It got buried in my library and it's damned short story! Anywho...it's a fun little story involving a fun park called Joyland (oh Stephen King...hope you did not snag this--lol) and a ride designed by a Frenchman called The House of Darkness and the murder that occurs therein. Typical Ellery Queen fun--deduction, multiple suspects and lots of 1930's charm.