
- Born: 21 August 1911, Oakland, California
- Died: 29 April 1968, Oakland, California
Overview
Detective writer, science fiction writer, and influential critic in both. Boucher’s detective stories – whether featuring red-headed Irish private detective Fergus O’Breen or Sister Ursula, nun turned sleuth – are lively, clever fair play puzzle plots in the tradition of John Dickson Carr and Ellery Queen, with impossible crimes and multiple solutions.
Works
- The Case of the Seven of Calvary (1937) ***
- The Case of the Crumpled Knave (1939) *****
- The Case of the Baker Street Irregulars (1940; Fergus O’Breen; also published as Blood on Baker Street)
- Nine Times Nine (1940; Sister Ursula; published under the pseudonym of H. H. Holmes)
- The Case of the Solid Key (1941; Fergus O’Breen)
- The Case of the Seven Sneezes (1942; Fergus O’Breen) ***
- Rocket to the Morgue (1942; Sister Ursula; published under the pseudonym of H. H. Holmes) **
- The Marble Forest (1951; published under the pseudonym of Theo Durrant; published in the UK as The Big Fear)
- Far and Away (1955; short stories)
- The Compleat Werewolf (1969; short stories)
- Exeunt Murderers (1983; short stories)
- The Compleat Boucher (1999; short stories)