"Then He’s Still in This Confounded Labyrinth"

WE LIKE to track down first appearances whenever we can, especially classic detective fiction stories. And it doesn't get much more classic than an Ellery Queen adventure. In this one, EQ (the detective) battles bafflement as he tries, both figuratively and literally, to throw light on just how a man dies in . . .

"The House of Darkness."

By Ellery Queen (1905-71 and 1905-82; Wikipedia HERE and A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection HERE).

First appearance: The American Magazine, February 1935.

Illustrated by Ray Prohaska (1901-81).

Reprints:

  The Passing Show, May 4, 1935

  Fiction Parade, June 1935

  Collected in The New Adventures of Ellery Queen, 1940

  World’s Great Detective Stories (as "The Adventure of the House of Darkness"), 1943

  Murder for the Millions, 1946

  The Wickedest Show on Earth, 1985.

Short story (10 pages).

Online at Archive.org starting (HERE) and finishing (HERE).

   "There were four blackish holes in the middle of the back, from which a ragged cascade of blood had gushed."

THERE IS NO JOY in the Joyland amusement park on this hot afternoon because a man has been murdered, shot in a perfectly dark room. The best thing that Ellery Queen has going for him in his investigation is that of the six possible suspects at least one of them must be the murderer; the big problem, however, is finding enough evidence, because there doesn't seem to be any at all. Ellery would do well to heed Shakespeare: "To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look". . .

Principal characters:

~ Monsieur Dieudonné Duval ("that tireless demon of the scenic-designing art"), Ellery Queen, the detective ("No powder marks? Why, that’s impossible! There must be powder marks!"), Djuna ("My other hand. It—it’s wet an’ sticky an’—an’ warm"), Captain Ziegler of the county detectives ("I found this bird myself"), the barker ("It’s grim. It’s shivery. It’s terrifying ...."), Dr. Anselm Hardy, the eye specialist ("The ... dead man"), Nora Reis ("We don’t know anything about this—this horrible thing"), Matthew Reis ("Then he operated upon my eyes"), Juju Jones, a prize fighter, and Jessie ("Me an’ Jessie we been havin’ a high ol’ time down yonduh in a room that bounced ’n’ jounced all roun’"), James Oliver Adams ("Don’t know this dead creature, and I wish to heaven I’d never been tempted by this atrocious gargoyle of a place"), Madge Clarke ("My husband is very jealous"), Tom Clarke ("He made me. It was a trap. I knew it"), and the coroner ("Good shooting, Mr. Queen").

Reference and resources:

- "might be the White Rabbit":

  "The White Rabbit is a fictional and anthropomorphic character in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He appears at the very beginning of the book, in chapter one, wearing a waistcoat, and muttering 'Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!' Alice follows him down the rabbit hole into Wonderland." (Wikipedia HERE.)

- We previously stumbled into "The House of Darkness" (HERE).

- Our latest contact with EQ (the detective) is "The President Regrets" (HERE).

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~