author
Virgil Markham
1899–1973
A Golden Age mystery writer with a flair for eerie country-house settings, he wrote a small but memorable run of crime novels that later readers have rediscovered. He was also the son of poet Edwin Markham, a family connection that shaped much of his literary life.
1 Audiobook
Death in the dusk
by Virgil Markham
About the author
Born in Oakland, California, in 1899, he grew up in a literary household as the son of poet Edwin Markham. After the family moved east in his childhood, he spent much of his life connected to his father's world and later helped preserve his father's literary legacy.
His own fiction career was brief but distinctive. Writing mainly between the late 1920s and mid-1930s, he became known for detective and crime novels with strong atmosphere, unusual plots, and a taste for Gothic unease. Death in the Dusk is the book most often remembered today, and modern crime readers have helped bring attention back to his work.
He died in 1973. Though never one of the biggest names of the genre, he remains an appealing discovery for readers who enjoy overlooked Golden Age mysteries and elegant, slightly uncanny suspense.