author
George Dilnot
1883–1951
A former police officer turned journalist, he built a lively career writing crime fiction and books about real detectives. His stories and nonfiction both drew on a clear fascination with how crime was investigated in early 20th-century Britain.
2 Audiobooks
The lazy detective
by George Dilnot
About the author
Born on November 14, 1883, George Dilnot was an English writer and novelist who specialized in crime fiction and nonfiction criminology. Before becoming known as an author, he worked first as a police officer and then as a journalist, a background that helped shape the practical, investigative feel of his writing.
His early novels included collaborations with retired Metropolitan Police detective Frank Froest, and he later published many books under his own name. Across his fiction he created recurring characters such as Inspector Strickland, Val Emery, Horace Augustus Elver, and Jim Strang, and he also edited entries in the long-running Sexton Blake series.
From the mid-1920s onward, he wrote extensively about Scotland Yard, detective methods, and famous criminal cases. He also edited the Famous Trials series and wrote two volumes for it himself. Dilnot died on February 23, 1951, in East Molesey.