Charles J. (Charles Judson) Dutton

Born in Fall River, Massachusetts, in 1888, Charles J. Dutton was an American author best known for mystery and detective fiction. Sources also describe him as a clergyman, and note that he studied at Brown University, Albany Law School, and Defiance Theological Seminary before working for a time as a newspaper columnist.

That varied background seems to have fed directly into his writing. He published mysteries including Murder in a Library, The Vanishing Murderer, The House by the Road, and The Shadow on the Glass, and he also wrote nonfiction, including The Samaritans of Molokai, about Father Damien and Brother Dutton among the lepers of Hawaii.

Much of his life was connected with New England, and that regional atmosphere shows up in the reputation of his fiction as well. He died in 1964, leaving behind a body of work that still appeals to readers who enjoy older detective stories with a thoughtful, slightly uncommon author behind them.