Welcome to Down These Mean Streets, bringing you the best of detectives from the Golden Age of radio. Welcome to down these mean streets where today we'll hear from one of the most famous amateur sloths in all of fiction,

Ellery Queen, a master detective created for the page, but who enjoyed a long run on radio,

and who brought to radio the signature hook from his stories a challenge to the

reader or listener to guess the solution of the crime before it was revealed. Elery Queen was created in

1928 by cousins Frederick Dene and Manfred Lee,

an amateur sleuth.

Elery worked alongside his father, Inspector Richard Queen of the New York Police, and the

inspector's assistant, Sergeant Veely.

He appeared in over 30 novels written by Danay and Lee, and his success resulted in their publishing of the Ellery Queen Mystery magazine

which is still in print today.

The signature hook of the Queen's stories was that challenge to the reader, a single page near the end of the book

that explained that the reader had access to the same clues

as Ellery Queen and that there was only one possible

solution to the crime.

Readers could try their luck and see it. one possible solution to the crime.

Readers could try their luck and see if they could reach the same conclusion as the

master detective.

Like his fellow successful literary detectives of the time, Ellery Queen eventually came to radio,

premiering on CBS in 1939. That show, starring Hugh Marlow as Queen, ran until

1940. The radio series introduced the character of

Elery's secretary and Girl Friday, Nicky Porter, who was later integrated into the

Prince stories. The show ran on radio in different runs over NBC, CBS, and ABC from

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