Julia Clara Catharine Dolores Birk Olsen Hitchens (1907–1973), better known as Dolores Hitchens, was an American mystery novelist who wrote prolifically from 1938 until her death. She also wrote under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

s D. B. Olsen, Dolan Birkley and Noel Burke.

Hitchens collaborated on five railroad mysteries with her second husband, Bert Hitchens, a railroad detective

Railroad police

Railroad police are different from one country to another. Their roles in some countries are not different from that of any other police agency in others they are more related to a type of security police. They are all commonly responsible for the protection of railroad vast networks of...

, and also branched out into other genres in her writing, including Western

Western (genre)

The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...

 stories. Many of her mystery novels centered around a spinster

Spinster

A spinster, or old maid, is an older, childless woman who has never been married.For a woman to be identified as a spinster, age is critical...

 character named Rachel Murdock.

Hitchens wrote Fool's Gold, the 1958 novel adapted by Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard

Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....

 for his film Bande à part (Band of Outsiders, 1964).

as Dolores Hitchens

Jim Sader Mystery

1. Sleep with Strangers, Doubleday (publisher) 1/1955, new edition: Simon & Schuster
   Simon & Schuster
   Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
   
    2/1989, ISBN 0-671-65286-9
2. Sleep with Slander, Doubleday 1960, new edition: Simon Schuster 2/1989, ISBN 0-671-65285-2

Together with Bert Hitchens

• F.O.B. Murder, Doubleday 1/1955
• One-Way Ticket, Doubleday 1/1956
• End of Line, Doubleday 1/1957
• Man Who Followed Women, Doubleday 1959
• The Grudge, Doubleday 1/1963

Standalones

• Stairway to an Empty Room, Doubleday 1/1951
• Nets to Catch the Wind aka Widows Won't Wait, Doubleday 1/1952
• Terror Lurks in Darkness, Doubleday 1953
• Beat Back the Tide aka Fatal Flirt, Doubleday 1954
• Fool's Gold, Boardman Books
  Boardman Books
  Founded by Thomas Volney Boardman in the 1930s, T.V. Boardman, Ltd. , was but one of many London publishing houses turning out both paperback and hardcover books, pulp magazines, and comics. Boardman Books is best known for publishing the long-running monthly series of hardcover Bloodhound...
  
   1/1958
• The Watcher, Doubleday 1/1959
• Footsteps in the Night, American Bloodhound Mystery 1/1961
• The Abductor, Simon & Schuster 1962
• Bank with the Bamboo Door, Simon & Schuster 1965
• Man Who Cried All the Way Home, Simon & Schuster 1966
• Postscript to Nightmare aka Cabin of Fear, G. P. Putnam's Sons
  G. P. Putnam's Sons
  G. P. Putnam's Sons was a major United States book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group.-History:...
  
   1/1967, ISBN 0-399-10647-7
• Collection of Strangers, Putnam 1/1969, ISBN 2-720-10046-8
• Baxter Letters, Putnam 8/1971, ISBN 0-399-10073-4
• In a House Unknown, Doubleday 1973, ISBN 0-385-03265-0

Plays

• Cookie for Henry (One-Act Play for Six Women), S. French 1941

as D. B. Olsen

Rachel Murdock Mystery

1. Cat Saw Murder, Doubleday 1/1939
2. Alarm of Black Cat, Doubleday 1/1942
3. Catspaw for Murder aka Cat's Claw, Doubleday 1/1943
4. The Cat Wears a Noose, Doubleday 1944
5. Cats Don't Smile, Doubleday 1945
6. Cats Don't Need Coffins, Doubleday 1/1946
7. Cats Have Tall Shadows, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company 1/1948
8. The Cat Wears a Mask, Doubleday 1/1949
9. Death Wears Cat's Eyes, Doubleday 1/1950
10. Cat and Capricorn, Doubleday 1951
11. The Cat Walk, Doubleday 1953
12. Death Walks on Cat Feet, Doubleday 1956

Prof. A. Pennyfeather Mystery

1. Shroud for the Bride aka Bring the Bride a Shroud, Doubleday 1/1945
2. Gallows for the Groom, Doubleday 1947
3. Devious Design, Doubleday 1948
4. Something About Midnight, Doubleday 1950
5. Love Me in Death, Doubleday 1/1951
6. Enrollment Cancelled aka Dead Babes in the Wood, Doubleday 1/1952

Lt. Stephen Mayhew Mystery

1. Clue in the Clay, Phoenix Press 1938
2. Death Cuts a Silhouette, Doubleday 1/1939

Weblinks

• http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/dolores-hitchens/
• http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/o/d-b-olsen/