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This database is compiled from my own research. I apologise for any errors or omissions. Dates are UK first publication. I have only included those writers who are well known for their crime fiction.
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Margery Allingham.(1904-1966) Home Authors
Her full name was Margery Louise Allingham. She was born in London and attended The Perse High School for Girls in Cambridge, before returning to London and the Polytechnic for Speech-Training. Her father was the author, H. J. Allingham, and also the editor of 'The New London Journal', to which she contributed articles and Sexton Blake stories. In 1928 she married Philip Youngman Carter, who collaborated with her and designed the jackets for many of her books. They lived on the edge of the Essex Marshes. Her famous fictional detective was Albert Campion.
Link Allingham, Margery.
Link A Guide to Classic Mystery and Detection.
Link Margery Allingham.
Link Allingham, Margery.
Link Margery Allinghamr
Link Ed's Internet Book Review: Margery Allingham.
Link Margery Allingham
Link Margery Allingham.
E.G. Bartlett. Home Authors E.C. Bentley.(1875-1956) Home Authors
His full name was Edmund Clerihew Bentley. He was born in London and educated at St. Paul's School. He invented the Clerihew as a competitor to the Limerick. He was a journalist and in spite of writing only four mystery books, was immensely influential on subsequent writers. Some consider "Trent's Last Case" to be the first modern crime novel. His fictional detective was a journalist, Philip Trent.
Link E.C. Bentley and some Related Writers.
Link E.C. Bentley
Anthony Berkeley.(1893-1971) Home Authors' Names.
His real name was Anthony Berkeley Cox. Also wrote as Francis Iles. British soldier, journalist, book reviewer. Fictional detectives are Ambrose Chitterwick and Roger Sheringham.
Link Anthony Berkeley.
Link Twelve Englishmen of Mystery edited by Earl F. Bargainnier.
Link Anthony Berkeley
Edgar Box.(1925-) Home Authors
His real name is [Gore] Eugene Luther Vidal. educated Los Alamos School, New Mexico. Vidal grew accustomed at an early age to a life among political and social notables. He was born at the military academy, West Point, New York, where his father was an instructor. He was raised near Washington, DC, in the house of his grandfather, Thomas P. Gore, a US senator from Oklahoma. Vidal learned about political life from him and when he was a teenager he adopted the first name of Gore. Vidal also spent time on the Virginia estate of his stepfather, Hugh. D. Auchincloss. After graduating from Philips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, he served on an army supply ship in the Aleutian Islands, near Alaska. Much of his time in the Enlisted Reserve Corps he devoted to writing. Upon his discharge he worked for six months for the publishing firm of E.P. Dutton.
Link Gore Vidal Reader.
Link Knitting Circle: Gore Vidal.
Link Gore Vidal 1.
Link Gore Vidal 2.
Link Gore Vidal 3.
Ernest Bramah.(1868-1942) Home Authors
His full name was Ernest Bramah Smith. He tried being a journalist and then became private secretary to Jerome K. Jerome. He wrote the tongue-in-cheek mock-Chinese Kai Lung stories, and the excellent cases of Max Carrados - the blind detective!
Link Ernest Bramah.
Link Ernest Bramah
Link Ernest Bramah Bibliography.
Link Online Classical Literature.
Link Ernest Bramah Online.
Lynn Brock.(1877-1943) Home Authors
His real name was Alister McAllister. He served in British Intelligence while a chief clerk at the National University of Ireland. This was probably before and during the Irish Uprising (1916-1921). He also wrote a few novels and plays under the name of Anthony Wharton. His famous detective was Colonel Warwick Gore. Janet Caird.(1913-) Home Authors
She was born in Malawi and her full name is Janet Hinshaw Caird. Henry Calvin.(1922-1999) Home Authors
He was a successful journalist who wrote five detective novels. He was born and lived in Glasgow. Under his real name of Clifford Hanley he also produced plays, popular songs, comedy radio scripts and non-fiction works about the history of Glasgow and Scotland. He is probably best known for having written the words for the traditional pipe tune Scotland The Brave.
Link Hanley, Clifford. Novelist.
Link Scotland the Brave.
Link Scotland The Brave.
John Dickson Carr.(1906-1977) Home Authors
John Dickson Carr was born in Uniontown, Pa. USA. He attended Hill School, Pottstown Pa., and Haverford College. He Studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, where he met Clarice Cleaves, whom he married in 1932. During WW2 he moved to England and worked for the BBC. While there, he wrote one of the best known radio series "Appointment With Fear", which starred the actor Valentine Dyall. After 1946, he lived in England, Tangier, New York and finally moved to Greenville, South Carolina in 1967. He wrote under the names Carter Dickson and Carr Dickson, also. He used G.K. Chesterton as the model for his most famous detective character Dr. Gideon Fell. His others were Henri Bencolin, Sir Henry Merrivale, and Colonel March who was based upon his friend and fellow crime writer John Rhode.
Link John Dickson Carr Page.
Link The John Dickson Carr Collector.
Link On Dr. Fell.
Link CULT FILM SITE: International Cinema
Link J.D. Carr.
Link JOHN DICKSON CARR - CARTER DICKSON.
Link John Dickson Carr 1.
Link John Dickson Carr 2.
Link John Dickson Carr 3.
Link John Dickson Carr 4.
Leslie Charteris.(1907-1993) Home Authors
He was born Leslie Charles Bowyer Yin in Singapore, with a Chinese father and an English mother. He attended private school and then went to Cambridge University. In 1926 he dropped his studies and changed his name to Leslie Charteris, because of his success as an author. In 1932 he moved to the USA and worked in Hollywood as a scriptwriter; becoming an American citizen in 1942. He is best known for the exploits of his detective Simon Templar a.k.a The Saint.
Link Leslie Charteris
Link News and Rumors about The Saint and Leslie Charteris.
Link Raffles: The Gentleman Burglar.
Link The Saint's Volvo 1800.
Link Author Signatures.
Link The Saint.
Link THE ASTOUNDING B MONSTER | REVIEWS.
Agatha Christie.(1890-1976) Home Authors
She was born in Devon and educated at home, studying singing and piano in Paris. Married Colonel Archibald Christie in 1914 (divorced, 1928). Then married the archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930. Served as a Voluntary Aid Detachment nurse in Torquay during WW1, and worked in the dispensary of University College Hospital, London, during WW2. Assisted her husband on excavations in Iraq and Syria. Awarded C.B.E. in 1956; D.B.E. in 1971. Her best known detectives are Hercule Poirot, Jane Marple and Mr. Parker Pyne.
LinkBiography of Agatha Christie.
LinkAgatha Christie Society.
LinkAgatha Christie related links.
LinkAgatha Christie Czech page - links.
Link Agatha Christie
LinkThe Mysterious Affair at Styles.
LinkAgatha Christie.
LinkAgatha Christie - Brazil.
LinkWhodunnit?.
LinkAgatha Christie - The Icelandic Homepage - Links.
LinkAgatha Christie: History of the Mystery.
LinkSpecific authors: Agatha Christie.
LinkWho 2: Agatha Christie Profile.
LinkDøden på nilen.
LinkDELICIOUS DEATH -The Agatha Christie Works List-.
LinkAll Saints Torre, Torquay in Torbay.
Link Agatha Christie.
J. Storer Clouston.(1870-1944) Home Authors
A Victorian writer, who became well known for his humorous novels, "The Lunatic at Large" (1893) and "The Lunatic at Large Again". He had a satirical sense of humour. Around 1900 he turned to crime fiction, and kept going through the 1920's. He is best known today for a single mystery short story, "Coincidence". He was a barrister and Vice-Convenor of Orkney. He became an authority on the history of Orkney.
Link The Family of Clouston.
Link The Spy in Black.
Link Count Bunker.
The Detection Club. Home Authors
An informal association of detective story writers in Britain, founded about 1930. It exists purely for amusement and to talk shop. The members have jointly written a few crime stories. Its members probably included Margery Allingham, E.C. Bentley, Anthony Berkeley, G.K. Chesterton, Agatha Christie, G.D.H. & M. Cole, Freeman Wills Crofts, Clemence Dane, Michael Innes, Edgar Jepson, Millward Kennedy, Ronald A. Knox, John Rhode, Dorothy L. Sayers, Helen Simpson, Henry Wade, Hugh Walpole, Victor L. Whitechurch.
Link The Detection Club.
Link The John Dickson Carr Collector.
Edmund Crispin.(1921-1978) Home Authors
Educated at Merchant Taylors and St. John's, Oxford where he read Modern Languages. He was a keen musician from the age of fourteen. He travelled in Germany before WW2. His real name was Robert Bruce Montgomery and he was a successful composer. His favourite crime writer was John Dickson Carr. He wrote the music for the first 6 'Carry-On' films. He never married, and preferred a quiet life, spending most of it in Devon. His fictional detective is Dr. Gervase Fen. Towards the end of his life he returned to writing crime fiction.
Link Edmund Crispin.
Link Edmund Crispin.
Link Mysterious Oxford.
Link Bruce Montgomery.
Link The Edmund Crispin Index.
Freeman Wills Crofts.(1879-1957) Home Authors
He was born in Dublin. He became chief assistant engineer on the Belfast & Northern Counties Railway. He was a keen amateur musician. His fictional detective was Inspector French.
Link Freeman Wills Crofts 1.
Link Freeman Wills Crofts 2.
Link Freeman Wills Crofts 3.
Marten Cumberland.(1892-1972) Home Authors
He spent 6 years at sea as a naval wireless operator. After WW1 he became a journalist and editor. Later on he settled in Paris to write detective novels. Finally settled in Ireland. Also wrote as Kevin O'Hara. His fictional detectives are Saturnin Dax and Chico Brett. Peter Curtis.(1904-1983) Home Authors
Her real name was Norah Robinson Lofts, under which she wrote many historical romances. Also, wrote under the name Juliet Astley.
Clemence Dane.(1888-1965) Home Authors
Her real name was Winifred Ashton. She was also a mystery-film scriptwriter.
Link Alfred Hitchcock - Movies.
Link A Celebration of Women Writers.
Link Burns Mantle Best Plays Series Books.
Arthur Conan Doyle.(1859-1930) Home Authors
Educated at Stonyhurst and graduated from Edinburgh University as a Doctor. He practised in Southsea from 1882. Ceased practising medicine in 1890, and devoted himself to writing. His short stories were published in the Strand Magazine. The non-crime ones are of little interest. His famous detective is Sherlock Holmes. He was knighted in 1902. In his later years he became obsessed with Spiritualism. This must have affected his judgement as he was taken-in by the famous "Cottingley fairies" hoax. Despite this, he managed to gain some justice for Oscar Slater and George Edalji.
Link Sherlock Holmes.
Link Sherlock Holmes - Baker Street Web Ring Residents.
Link A Sherlockian Holmepage.
Link The Arthur Conan Doyle Index.
Link The Lost Special.(1908) Doyle.
Link Cottingley fairies.
Link The Case of Oscar Slater.
Link George Edalji.
Link True Cases of A.C. Doyle.
Link Arthur Conan Doyle.
Link Sherlock Holmes - Baker Street Web Ring Residents.
LinkThe Ultimate Sherlockian.
Robert Eustace.(1854-1943) Home Authors
He was a doctor and his real name was Eustace Robert Barton.
Link The Brotherhood of the Seven Kings.
J.S. Fletcher.(1863-1935) Home Authors
Full name Joseph Smith Fletcher. A journalist who was leader-writer on several newspapers before he became an author. His early books were about history but he soon turned to crime fiction.
Link Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Re J.S. Fletcher
Link J.S. Fletcher.
Richard Austin Freeman.(1862-1943) Home Authors
Richard Austin Freeman was a British Doctor of Medicine. He began studying at Middlesex Hospital at the age of eighteen. He joined an expedition to Africa in 1889, in which he served as physician, navigator and naturalist, and had experience in Europe during WW1. He gained extensive knowledge of uncommon plants and exotic poisons. His fictional detective was Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke, a private detective who used scientific methods to solve crimes.
Link Mystery & Thriller - by Author - Richard Austin Freeman.
Link Dr Thorndyke's Homepage.
Link Dr Thorndyke's Homepage 2.
Link Medical.
Anthony Gilbert.(1899-1973) Home Authors
Her real name was Kilmeny Lucy Beatrice Malleson. Also wrote as J. Keith, J. Kilmeny Keith and Anne Meredith. Her detective 'hero' was lawyer Arthur Crook. She wrote a total of 69 crime novels. Cyril Hare.(1900-1958) Home Authors
His real name was Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark. He was born near Dorking and was educated at Rugby school and at New College, Oxford, where he read History. In 1933 he married Mary Barbara Lawrence. As a barrister he dealt mainly with criminal cases. During WW2 he worked in the offices of the Director of Public Prosecutions, then when appointed a judge, he dealt entirely with civil cases in the County Courts. His fictional detectives were Inspector Mallett and the lawyer Francis Pettigrew. He wrote 9 detective stories.
Link Cyril Hare.
Link With a Bare Bodkin by Cyril Hare.
Link Cyril Hare. (1900-1958)
Michael Innes.(1906-1994) Home Authors
His real name was John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (J.I.M. Stewart). His mystery stories are classics of the genre. He was born near Edinburgh and was educated at Edinburgh Academy, then at Oriel College, Oxford. After graduation in 1929 he went to Vienna where he studied Freudian psychoanalysis. His first book gained him a lectureship at the University of Leeds and from 1936 he was professor of English at the University of Adelaide, Australia. While travelling to Australia he wrote his first mystery story. After WW2 he returned to England, and spent two years at Queen's University, Belfast before settling down as Reader in English Literature at Christ Church, Oxford, from which he retired in 1973. He published about 50 mystery novels, short stories, several novels, biographies and plays. His best known detective character in his crime fiction is Inspector John Appleby. He was married to Margaret Harwick. They had five children, one of them is the novelist Angus Stewart.
Link Michael Innes.
Link The Man From The Sea.
Link Michael Innes: Silence Observed.
Link Michael Innes: Hamlet, Revenge!
Link Michael Innes: There Came Both Mist and Snow.
Link Christmas at Candleshoe, by Michael Innes.
Link J.I.M. Stewart.
Link Michael Innes, J.I.M. Stewart.
Link Arts at Oriel College.
Link Mysterious Oxford.
Edgar Jepson.(1863-1938) Home Authors
Ronald A. Knox.(1888-1957) Home Authors
Full name was Ronald Arbuthnott Knox. He was apparently banned from writing more detective stories by his superiors in the Church. It seems amazing now, but the fact that they were detective stories caused them to be regarded as shamefully frivolous. His fictional detective is Miles Bredon.
Link Father Knox and the Ten Commandments of Detection.
Link Who Was Knox?
Link Knox Bibliography.
J.C. Masterman.(1891-1977) Home Authors
Full name John Cecil Masterman. Educated at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth and at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read Modern History. He studied at Freiburg University in 1914 and was interned as an enemy alien in Germany for the duration of WW1. In 1919 he became Modern History tutor in Christ Church, Oxford. In the 1920s he played hockey and lawn tennis for England in International competitions. In 1931 he toured Canada with the M.C.C. In WW2 he worked for the intelligence service as chairman of the Twenty (XX) Committee which supervised the operation of double agents. He became Provost of Worcester College, holding the position of University Vice-Chancellor in 1957-58. He was knighted in 1959.
Link J.C. Masterman.
Link Mysterious Oxford.
Link J.C. Masterman by Martin Edwards.
Link Intelligence Activities. (Facts!)
A.A. Milne.(1882-1956) Home Authors' Names.
His full name was Alan Alexander Milne. He is best known for his childrens stories, particularily those about Winnie-the-Pooh. However, he wrote 1 crime fiction novel & 2 mysteries. He was first educated at his father's private school, Henley House. One of his teachers there was H.G. Wells. He gained a scholarship to Westminster School in 1893 and then went to Trinity College, Cambridge in 1900 to read mathematics. He became the editor of Granta, one of the university magazines. He first worked as a freelance writer, producing articles and poems, which were published by 'Punch' magazine. At the age of 24 he joined the staff of 'Punch'. Following a suggestion by H.G. Wells, from 1905 he published his 'Punch' articles and verses in several collected editions. After a few years he wrote several plays which were extremely successful. During WW1 he served briefly in France as a signals officer. By 1925 he could afford to retire, and consequently then wrote only for his own pleasure.
Link About A.A. Milne.
Link A Bookworm - A.A. Milne.
Link The Page at Pooh Corner.
Link The One Hundred Acre Wood Welcomes You.
Link The Red House Mystery.
Gladys Mitchell.(1901-1983) Home Authors
She was born in Cowley, Oxford and her full name was Gladys Maude Winifred Mitchell. Her detective stories are influenced by the fact that she spent most of her early life in the Oxfordshire and Hampshire countryside. She attended Goldsmith's College, University of London and after graduating became a teacher of English & History. In 1929 she started writing crime fiction novels featuring her detective Dame Beatrice Lestrange Bradley, a consultant psychologist.
Link Gladys Mitchell 1.
Link Gladys Mitchell 2.
Dilwyn Rees.(1914-) Home Authors
His real name was Glyn Edmund Daniel. Wrote non-fiction under the name Glyn Daniel. John Rhode.(1884-1965) Home Authors
His real name was Cecil John Charles Street. Also wrote as Miles Burton, F.O.O. and I.O. His fictional detectives were Dr. Lancelot Priestley, Inspector Arnold and Desmond Merrion. He wrote 76 detective books. Dorothy L. Sayers.(1893-1957) Home Authors
She grew up in the Fens, read Modern Languages at Oxford and was one of the first female graduates. She incorporated many of her own experiences into her books. Her detective character is Lord Peter Wimsey.
Link The Dorothy Sayers Index.
Link DOROTHYL HOME PAGES.
Link Celtic Research - Inheritance?
Link Craigadam Estate - Touring Accommodation and Exclusive.
Link "Flying Dreams" Linda's Office
Link Chesterton and Anti-Semitism
Link The John Dickson Carr Collector: first edition hardbacks.
Link Elizabeth George biography.
Link The COZY DETECTIVE MYSTERY MAGAZINE PAGE.
Link The Dorothy L. Sayers Society.
Link The Softer Side of Murder Mystery.
Link Monica Sheridan Mystery.
Link A Selection of Latin and Greek.
Link Untitled
Link Dorothy L. Sayers.
Victor L. Whitechurch.(1868-1933) Home. Authors.
His full name was Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch. Started as a country parson and eventually was appointed as Canon of Christ Church College, Oxford. Wrote many mystery and detective short stories, mostly featuring railways. Several were published in The Strand magazine. Later on in life he wrote several full-length detective novels. His most famous detective was Thorpe Hazell (created to be as unlike Sherlock Holmes, as possible).
Link The Affair of the German Dispatch-box.
Link A Warning in Red.
Sara Woods.(1922-) Home Authors
Her real name is Sara Bowen-Judd. She writes also under the names Anne Burton, Mary Challis and Margaret Leek.
Link Sara Woods.
Home Authors Go to top.

Database of crime fiction authors, books and links. Rev. 14 : February 2001. murder@crimefiction.com
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