John Dickson Carr

The American mystery crime writer John Dickson Carr (1906-1977) also published books under the pseudonyms Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson, and Roger Fairbairn. His first novel was published in 1930. He is considered one of the greatest authors of the so-called "Golden Age" of detective fiction, characterized by intricate plots and unsolved puzzles. Most of his works are set in England, where he lived for a long period, and involve the unraveling of seemingly "impossible" and "supernatural" crimes by eccentric detectives such as the Frenchman Henri Bencolin, the lexicographer Dr. Gideon Fell, the barrister Sir Henry Merrivale, and Colonel March of the Department of Queer Complaints. He was influenced by the works of Gaston Leroux (1868-1927), such as "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Mystery of the Yellow Room," and by G.K. Chesterton's "Father Brown" stories. Carr modeled his detective protagonist, the corpulent and courteous lexicographer Dr. Fell, after Chesterton himself. He was among the first to explore the genre of historical detective novels.