Paul Halter

Paul Halter was born in Hagenau, Alsace, in 1956. Alsace is now part of France (and host to the Parliament of Europe in Strasbourg) but has been the subject of bitter territorial disputes with Germany over the ages; indeed, the local gastronomical speciality bears a German name:  sauerkraut . 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 still works in what has since become France Telecom. Upon discovering the writings of John Dickson Carr, he gave up the guitar for the pen.

His first locked room novel, La Malediction de Barberousse (Redbeard's Curse) was self-published in 1986 and met with some success, including a local writers' award. However, in the following year, he won the coveted Prix du Roman Policier at the Festival de Cognac, awarded for the best work of detective fiction, for La Quatrieme Porte (The Fourth Door).  And in 1988 he won possibly the most prestigious prize in French mystery fiction: Le Prix du Roman d'Aventures for Le Brouillard Rouge (The Red Fog).  He has gone on to write more than thirty novels and ten short stories, all in Golden Age style and almost all 'locked room.' For a complete list, please go to the Bibliography section.

Like Carr, the prolific Monsieur Halter has created two series detectives: Dr. Alan Twist, whose cases are set in England in the 1930's through 1950's; and Owen Burns, who solves mysteries set in early 20th century London. Both make their considerable talents available to Scotland Yard: Twist advises the irascible Inspector Hurst and Burns is frequently called in by the stoical Inspector Wedekind. Burns benefits from the added assistance of his biographer Achilles Stock.                            

Despite his success and having been translated in Italian, Rumanian, Chinese and Japanese, Halter's appearance in the English language has so far been confined to his short stories, four of which have appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Three of those four have also appeared in a collection of ten short stories under the title The Night of the Wolf, published in 2006, details of which may be found in the section of that name. One of the stories in that collection, The Flower Girl, was nominated in 2007 for the Barry Award for Best Short Story.

Paul Halter lists as his hobbies: travel, ancient history, nature walks, handicrafts, and mystery in all its forms, including magic

For more articles on Paul Halter, please consult:
http://www.mysteryfile.com/Halter/Locked_Rooms.html
http://www.mystericale.com/index.php?issue=053&body=file&file=fuller_column_Fall_05.htm