# OT: Vancean mystery novels *The Urth list — 1 messages, 1 voices, 21 May 2002* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Michael Andre-Driussi *21 May 2002, 15:44* Adam Stephanides asked me to name the titles to my atomic-scale reviews. THE FOUR JOHNS is the one that is "screamingly good until it completely blows out (alas!)"; THE MADMAN THEORY is the one that is "okay, but still better imho than one of the ones published under his own name"; A ROOM TO DIE IN is very good, one of his best mysteries (of the 6 I've read). The mysteries published under "John Holbrook Vance" I've read are: THE PLEASANT GROVE MURDERS (Joe Bain #2), THE FOX VALLEY MURDERS (Joe Bain #1), and THE DEADLY ISLES. Personally I would rank them all this way: 1. the Joe Bain books 2. A ROOM TO DIE IN 3. THE MADMAN THEORY 4. THE FOUR JOHNS 5. THE DEADLY ISLES > Adam wrote: > Iirc, these are all from the series of paperback tough-guy mysteries > published under Queen's name, but without Ellery as the detective. Yes, that is correct. > http://www.hycyber.com/MYST/queen_ellery.html lists FACE TO FACE, which iirc > is a "regular" Ellery Queen novel, as "ghostwritten by Jack Vance?", though > if you follow the link to "Novels Ghostwritten by Others," the attribution > is repeated without the question mark. I have not seen that attribution before. It is not given in my Galactic Central working bibliography. Nor do I find it in Cunningham's JACK VANCE: CRITICAL APPRECIATIONS AND A BIBLIOGRAPHY. Further investigation is in order! =mantis= ---