Cyril Hare, pseudonym of Alfred Alexander Gordon Clark Biography

British judge and Detective Fiction Writer, born in Mickleham, Surrey, educated at New College, Oxford; he was called to the Bar in 1924, where his practice was mainly in the criminal courts, joined the staff of the Director of Public Prosecutions in 1942, and in 1950 became a county court judge. A contributor to Punch, he wrote his first detective story, Tenant for Death, in 1937, and followed it with eight others and a number of short stories. His detectives, who usually appear together, are the policeman Inspector Mallett and the unsuccessful barrister Francis Petigrew. Well-written, civilized, and witty, Hare's books must be ranked high among classical detective stories. His masterpiece, and the author's favourite book, is Tragedy at Law (1942), one of the best of all detective stories with a legal background.