Margaret Wetherby Williams
{{Short description|British mystery writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox writer
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| name = Margaret Wetherby Williams
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| pseudonym = Margaret Erskine
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| birth_date = 2 May 1901
| birth_place = Kingston, Ontario, Canada
| death_date = {{death-date and age|9 July 1984|2 May 1901}}
| death_place = Westminster, London, England
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| occupation = Mystery writer
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| education = Privately educated
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| parents = Thomas and Elizabeth (Erskine) Williams
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Doris Margaret Wetherby Williams (2 May 1901 – 9 July 1984),{{cite web|title=Erskine, Margaret 1901–1984|publisher=WorldCat|url=https://www.worldcat.org/wcidentities/lccn-no2019084877|access-date=December 30, 2019}} who wrote under the pseudonym Margaret Erskine, was a British writer of mysteries. Her more than 20 novels featured the same leading character, Inspector Septimus Finch.{{cite book|last=Becker|first=Mary Helen| chapter=Erskine, Margaret|editor=John M. Reilly|title=Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers|publisher=MacMillan|year=1980|pages=533–35|isbn=0-333-30107-2}} Williams was a member of PEN International and the Crime Writers' Association.{{cite web|title=Margaret Wetherby Williams|work=Contemporary Authors Online|publisher=Gale|year=2011|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000106699/BIC?u=|url-access=subscription|access-date=December 28, 2019}}
Personal life
Born in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Williams grew up in Devon, England. Her parents were Thomas and Elizabeth (Erskine) Williams. She was privately educated. She died in 1984.
Critical reception
Mary Helen Becker, writing in Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers, says that the Septimus Finch novels often feature large eccentric families, old houses, secret rooms, psychic phenomena, and "familiar puzzles". She rates the novels as "not really in the first rank" but "nevertheless better than many... Horrible things happen, but they are packaged for polite society."
Bibliography
- And Being Dead (1938)
- The Limping Man (1939), also published as The Painted Mask (1972)
- The Voice of the House (1947), also published in England as Whispering House (1947)
- I Knew MacBean (1948)
- Give up the Ghost (1949)
- The Disappearing Bridegroom (1950)
- The Silver Ladies (1951)
- Look behind You, Lady (1952), also published in England as Death of Our Dear One (1952)
- Dead by Now (1953)
- Old Mrs. Ommanney Is Dead (1955), also published in England as Fatal Relations (1955)
- The Voice of Murder (1956)
- Sleep No More (1958)
- A Graveyard Plot (1959)
- The House of the Enchantress (1959)
- The Woman at Belguardo (1961)
- No. 9 Belmont Square (1963), also published in England as The House in Belmont Square (1963)
- Take a Dark Journey (1965)
- The Family at Tammerton (1966)
- Case with Three Husbands (1967)
- The Ewe Lamb (1968)
- The Case of Mary Fielding (1970)
- The Brood of Folly (1971)
- Don't Look behind You (1972)
- Caravan of Night (1972)
- Besides the Wench Is Dead (1973)
- Harriet, Farewell (1975)
- The House in Hook Street (1977)
References
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Category:20th-century British women writers
Category:English crime fiction writers
Category:English mystery writers
Category:British women mystery writers
Category:Writers from Kingston, Ontario