Moray Dalton

Moray Dalton was the pen name of Katherine Dalton Renoir, an English author and poet born in Hammersmith, London, in 1881. Sources agree that she began with two early novels, Olive in Italy (1909) and The Sword of Love (1920), before turning to crime fiction in the 1920s.

That later phase became the heart of her reputation. She published twenty-nine mysteries, with her last appearing in 1951, and many of them feature recurring sleuths including Scotland Yard inspector Hugh Collier and private inquiry agent Hermann Glide. Her books sit comfortably beside other Golden Age detective stories, but often carry an extra sense of menace and adventure.

She married Louis Jean Renoir in 1921, had a son the following year, and spent much of her later life on the south coast of England. Moray Dalton died in 1963, and her work has since attracted renewed interest from readers drawn to overlooked classic crime.