John Dickson Carr

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John Dickson Carr (November 30, 1906–February 27, 1977) was one of the most highly esteemed writers of classical detective stories during the so-called Golden Age mysteries in the 1930s, crafting complex, plot-driven stories in which the puzzle is paramount. Also publishing under the pen name Carter Dickson, Carr was primarily known his intricate locked-room mysteries, in which apparently impossible or even supernatural crimes are eventually explained in rational terms by his detective. Carr created two of the most prominent of fictional detectives, characters who, in their day, were nearly as well-known as Hercule Poirot, Ellery Queen, or Nero Wolfe; writing as John Dickson Carr, he introduced the grumbling, rumbling Dr. Gideon Fell modeled on G. K. Chesterton; as Carter Dickson he created the even more flamboyant Churchillian figure of Sir Henry Merrivale. Although he was the son of a U.S. congressman from Pennsylvania, he lived for many years in England and most of his books are set there.