Walter S. (Walter Sidney) Masterman

Born in 1876 and dead in 1946, Walter S. Masterman is generally identified as a British novelist who wrote detective fiction, supernatural tales, and science fiction. Reference sources consistently place him among the more versatile popular genre writers of the early 20th century.

Accounts of his life describe a background that reached beyond writing alone, including study at Cambridge and military service connected with the Boer War. That mix of education, public life, and dramatic historical experience may help explain the confident, wide-ranging feel of his fiction.

Masterman is especially associated with thrillers and uncanny novels from the 1910s through the 1930s. Readers who enjoy classic mystery blended with strange atmosphere often find him an interesting rediscovery today.