Francis Duncan was the pen name of William Underhill (1918–1988), a British writer who published over twenty works of detective fiction between 1938 and 1959. [1] Later in his career he also wrote five historical romances (as Hilary West) and children's fiction (as Robert Preston). [2] Underhill's detective works follow the conventions of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, and mostly feature one of two detective characters – Peter Justice or Mordecai Tremaine. [3] Largely neglected after his death in 1988, the success of a reprint of his 1949 novel Murder for Christmas in 2015 has led to further works being brought back into print. [1]
Biography
Born in Bristol in 1918 to a working-class family (his father was a docker at Avonmouth [2]), Underhill obtained a scholarship to Queen Elizabeth's Hospital school, but was unable to afford to attend university. [4] Underhill began writing in his spare time to supplement his income as a debt collector for Bristol City Council. [1] He married Sylvia Henly in 1938 and had two children – Kathryn in 1943 and Derek in 1949. [2]
In World War II he registered as a conscientious objector and volunteered for the Royal Army Medical Corps, serving as a medical orderly in France shortly after D-Day. [1] His son, Derek, recalls his father saying that his most successful writing period was during World War II, when his time off-duty gave him the freedom to write, and there was a ready market for escapist detective fiction. [2] After World War II, there was a national shortage of teachers and he was given training to be a primary school teacher. [1] After undertaking an external economics degree he later became a lecturer in economics and history at a college of further education. He died of a heart attack in 1988. [3]
Detective fiction
His novels were moderately successful but, owing to his pseudonym, he remained virtually unknown and his books soon went out of print. [3] A reprint of his 1949 novel Murder for Christmas in November 2015 proved commercially and critically successful, leading the publisher Vintage Books to put out a call for information about the author, about whom they had no details. [1] The family contacted the publisher after seeing the reprint in a branch of Waterstones. [1] [3] Five of his novels featuring Mordecai Tremaine, a former tobacconist and lover of romance novels who dabbles in amateur detective work, have now been reprinted. [4] [5] [6]
Peter Justice series
- The Hand of Justice (1936)
- The League of Justice (1937)
- The Sword of Justice (1937)
- Justice Returns (1940)
- Justice Limited (1941) [5]
Mordecai Tremaine series
- They'll Never Find Out (1944)
- Murder Has a Motive (1947)
- Murderer's Bluff (1948)
- Murder for Christmas (1949)
- So Pretty a Problem (1950)
- In at the Death (1952)
- Behold a Fair Woman (1954) [5]
Standalone novels
- Tigers Fight Alone (1938)
- Dangerous Mr. X (1939)
- Murder in Man (1940)
- Night Without End (1943)
- Fear Holds the Key (1945)
- Ministers Too Are Mortal (1951)
- Murder But Gently (1953)
- A Question of Time (1959) [5]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g Thorpe, Vanessa (3 January 2016). "Solved: mystery of Christmas whodunnit that was a hit 66 years after publication". The Observer.
- ^ a b c d "Letter: How I killed off mystery writer". The Observer. 10 January 2016.
- ^ a b c d Cowdrey, Katherine (20 May 2016). "Vintage to publish Francis Duncan murder mystery series". The Bookseller.
- ^ a b "Biography: Francis Duncan". Penguin Books. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d "Francis Duncan". Fantastic Fiction. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
- ^ "Francis Duncan". Classic Crime Fiction. Retrieved 17 January 2021.
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