"E.Q. Griffen's Second Case"

DEPARTMENT OF SECOND STORIES

Adventures of Ellery in Queenland

"Josh Pachter's first story, 'E.Q. Griffen Earns His Name,' appeared in the December 1968 issue of EQMM; it was EQMM's 325th 'first story.' The author was only 16 years old when he wrote about Inspector Ross Griffen of the Tyson County Police Force, a widower with eleven children all of whom had been named after detective heroes (and one heroine) of his youthful reading (with one anachronism which we leave to you to spot). Thus, the Griffen children, helping to solve cases in which their father was involved, 'earned' their famous first and middle names — Jane Marple, Peter Wimsey, Albert Campion, John Jericho, Parker Pyne, Gideon Fell, Augustus Van Dusen, Sherlock Holmes, Perry Mason, Nero Wolfe, and the hero of Josh Pachter's 'first story,' Ellery Queen Griffen.

"Naturally, young Mr. Pachter plans to write stories about all the Griffen children; but before getting to Gideon, Augustus, Sherlock, Nero, et al., he has written a 'second case' about Ellery. (And who are we to complain?)

"When he finished and submitted 'E.Q. Griffen's Second Case,' Josh Pachter was 17 years old (ah, happy time! — and what a lesson to dropouts), and to celebrate his 18th birthday, in September 1969, Josh 'changed his scholastic status from high school senior to freshman at the University of Michigan,' where he is now 'studying Honors Journalism.'

"But however hard young Mr. Pachter may be studying journalism, we are sure he will find time for more adventures of Inspector Ross Griffen's children, and especially of 'Ellery in Queenland' ...

Return to Bibliography.