Paul Halter

Paul Halter (born 1956 in Hagenau, Alsace, France) is a writer of crime fiction known for his locked room mysteries.[1] Halter pursued technical studies in his youth before joining the French Marines in the hope of seeing the world. Disappointed with the lack of travel, he left the military and, for a while, sold life insurance while augmenting his income playing the guitar in the local dance orchestra. He gave up life insurance for a job in the state-owned telecommunications company, where he works in what is presently known as France Télécom. Halter has been described as the natural successor to the late John Dickson Carr, generally considered the 20th century master of the locked room genre.[2] Throughout his nearly thirty novels his genre has been almost locked room mystery, and as a critic has said "Although strongly influenced by Carr and Christie, his style is his own and he can stand comparison with anyone for the originality of his plots and puzzles and his atmospheric writing."

His first published novel, La Quatrieme Porte (The Fourth Door) was published in 1988 and won the Prix de Cognac, given for detective literature.[3] The following year, his novel Le Brouillard Rouge (The Red Fog) won "one of the highest accolades in French mystery literature", the Prix du Roman d'Aventures.[4] He has now published more than thirty novels. Several of his short stories have been translated into English; by June 2010 six will have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; ten were collected and published by Wildside Press as The Night of the Wolf.[5]

Bibliography

Novels

Dr. Twist and Chief Inspector Hurst novels:

Owen Burns and Achilles Stock novels:

Other novels:

Short story collections:

References

  1. ^ Master of Locked Room Mystery
  2. ^ Greatest Locked Room Mystery Ever written
  3. ^ Works and Awards
  4. ^ Master of Locked Room Mystery
  5. ^ Paul Halter in EQMM