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44. The Golden Eagle Mystery by “Ellery Queen Jr.” (1942)

Eleven “Ellery Queen Jr” books were written between 1942 and 1966. If there’s anything that’s going to stop me in my quest to read all the EQ books, it’s these “Junior” mysteries. They are hard to find, and almost always expensive to buy (I saw some for $50-$100 EACH on ebay.) Anyhow, one of these wound up in one of my ebay book lots. From what I can tell, this title is one of the most common of these “Junior” mysteries. It’s a children’s book.

In the conventional Ellery Queen mysteries, Djuna is a dark-skinned boy of indeterminate origin who lives with Ellery and his father. Djuna does the cooking, cleaning, etc. Djuna is not a politically correct character.

Djuna is the boy detective in this book, as he is for nine of the eleven “Junior” mysteries. Although it was written in 1942, my 1958 copy shows Djuna as an all-American white skinned smiling boy (how many white boys do you know named “Djuna?”)

Although it’s written for kids, this book is no pushover. It runs 200 pages, and has a complicated plot. Djuna visits his Aunt Patty in a seaside town and solves a 150 year old mystery with the help of his dog Champ, his new friend Billy, and an imaginary dog named Alberto. I enjoyed this more than I expected.

Track my Ellery Queen stats at:

http://www.bangtherockstogether.com/ed/eqstatus.html