Paul Halter
Encyclopedia
Paul HalterPaul Halter (born 1956 in Hagenau, Alsace
, France
) is a writer of crime fiction known for his locked room mysteries
. Halter pursued technical studies in his youth before joining the French Marines in the hope of seeing the world. Disappointed with the lack of travel, he left the military and, for a while, sold life insurance
while augmenting his income playing the guitar
in the local dance orchestra. He gave up life insurance for a job in the state-owned telecommunications company, where he works in what is presently known as France Télécom
. Halter has been described as the natural successor to the late John Dickson Carr
, generally considered the 20th century master of the locked room genre. Throughout his nearly thirty novels his genre has been almost locked room mystery, and as a critic has said "Although strongly influenced by Carr and Christie, his style is his own and he can stand comparison with anyone for the originality of his plots and puzzles and his atmospheric writing."
His first published novel, La Quatrieme Porte (The Fourth Door) was published in 1988 and won the Prix de Cognac, given for detective literature. The following year, his novel Le Brouillard Rouge (The Red Fog) won "one of the highest accolades in French mystery literature", the Prix du Roman d'Aventures. He has now published more than thirty novels. Several of his short stories have been translated into English; by June 2010 six will have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
; ten were collected and published by Wildside Press
as The Night of the Wolf.
Owen Burns and Achilles Stock novels:
Other novels:
Short story collections:
Alsace
Alsace is the fifth-smallest of the 27 regions of France in land area , and the smallest in metropolitan France. It is also the seventh-most densely populated region in France and third most densely populated region in metropolitan France, with ca. 220 inhabitants per km²...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) is a writer of crime fiction known for his locked room mysteries
Locked room mystery
The locked room mystery is a sub-genre of detective fiction in which a crime—almost always murder—is committed under apparently impossible circumstances. The crime in question typically involves a crime scene that no intruder could have entered or left, e.g., a locked room...
. Halter pursued technical studies in his youth before joining the French Marines in the hope of seeing the world. Disappointed with the lack of travel, he left the military and, for a while, sold life insurance
Life insurance
Life insurance is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death of the insured person. Depending on the contract, other events such as terminal illness or critical illness may also trigger...
while augmenting his income playing the guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
in the local dance orchestra. He gave up life insurance for a job in the state-owned telecommunications company, where he works in what is presently known as France Télécom
France Télécom
France Telecom S.A. is the main telecommunications company in France, the third-largest in Europe and one of the largest in the world. It currently employs about 180,000 people and has 192.7 million customers worldwide . In 2010 the group had revenue of €45.5 billion...
. Halter has been described as the natural successor to the late John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr
John Dickson Carr was an American author of detective stories, who also published under the pen names Carter Dickson, Carr Dickson and Roger Fairbairn....
, generally considered the 20th century master of the locked room genre. Throughout his nearly thirty novels his genre has been almost locked room mystery, and as a critic has said "Although strongly influenced by Carr and Christie, his style is his own and he can stand comparison with anyone for the originality of his plots and puzzles and his atmospheric writing."
His first published novel, La Quatrieme Porte (The Fourth Door) was published in 1988 and won the Prix de Cognac, given for detective literature. The following year, his novel Le Brouillard Rouge (The Red Fog) won "one of the highest accolades in French mystery literature", the Prix du Roman d'Aventures. He has now published more than thirty novels. Several of his short stories have been translated into English; by June 2010 six will have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
; ten were collected and published by Wildside Press
Wildside Press
Wildside Press is an independent publishing company located in Maryland, USA. It was founded in 1989 by John Gregory and Kim Betancourt. While the press was originally conceived as a publisher of speculative fiction in both trade and limited editions, it has broadened out somewhat since then, both...
as The Night of the Wolf.
Novels
Dr. Twist and Chief Inspector Hurst novels:- La Quatrieme Porte (The Fourth Door) 1987
- La Mort Vous Invite (Death Invites You) 1988
- La Mort Derrière le Rideau (Death Behind the Curtain) 1989
- La Chambre du Fou (The Madman's Room) 1990
- La Tete du Tigre (The Tiger's Head) 1991
- La Septieme Hypothese (The Seventh Hypothesis) 1991
- Le Diable de Dartmoor (The Devil of Dartmoor) 1993
- A 139 Pas de la Mort (139 Steps from Death) 1994
- La Malediction de Barberousse (The Curse of Barbarossa) 1995
- L'Image Trouble (The Blurred Image) 1995
- L'Arbre aux Doigts Tordus (The Tree with Twisted Branches) 1996
- Le Cri de la Sirene (The Siren's Song) 1998
- Meutre dans un Manoir Anglais (Murder in an English Manor) 1998
- L'Homme Qui Aimait les Nuages (The Man Who Loved Clouds) 1999
- L'Allumette Sanglante (The Bloody Match) 2001
- Le Toile de Penelope (Penelope's Web) 2001
- Les Larmes de Sibyl (Sibyl's Tears) 2005
- Les Meurtres de la Salamandre (The Salamander Murders) 2009
- La Corde d'Argent (The Silver Thread) 2010 (planned)
Owen Burns and Achilles Stock novels:
- Le Roi du Desordre (The Lord of Misrule) 1994
- Les Sept Merveilles du Crime (The Seven Wonders of Crime) 1997
- Les Douze Crimes de Hercules (The Twelve Crimes of Hercules) 2001
- La Ruelle Fantome (The Phantom Passage) 2005
- La Chambre d'Horus (The Chamber of Horus) 2007
Other novels:
- Le Brouillard Rouge (Red Mist) 1988
- Le Cercle Invisible (The Invisible Circle) 1996
- Le Crime de Dedale (The Crime of Daedalus) 1997
- La Lettre Qui Tue (The Deadly Letter) 1997
- Le Geant de Pierre (The Stone Giant) 1998
- Le Mystere de l'Allee des Anges (The Mystery of Angel Lane) 1999
- Le Chemin de la Lumiere (The Path of Light) 2000
- Les Fleurs de Satan (Satan's Flowers) 2002
- Le Tigre Borgne (The One-Eyed Tiger) 2004
- Les Lunes Assassines (The Killers' Moon) 2006
- La Nuit du Minotaure (The Night of the Minotaur) 2008
- Le Testament de Silas Lydecker (The Last Testament of Silas Lydecker) 2009
Short story collections:
- La Nuit du Loup (The Night of the Wolf) 2000