Barbara "Elizabeth" Linington (March 11, 1921–April 5, 1988) was a prolific American novelist. She was awarded runner-up scrolls for best first mystery novel from the Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....

 for her 1960 novel, Case Pending, which introduced her most popular series character, LAPD

Los Angeles Police Department

The Los Angeles Police Department is the police department of the city of Los Angeles, California. With just under 10,000 officers and more than 3,000 civilian staff, covering an area of with a population of more than 4.1 million people, it is the third largest local law enforcement agency in...

 Homicide

Homicide

Homicide refers to the act of a human killing another human. Murder, for example, is a type of homicide. It can also describe a person who has committed such an act, though this use is rare in modern English...

 Lieutenant

Lieutenant

A lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer in many nations' armed forces. Typically, the rank of lieutenant in naval usage, while still a junior officer rank, is senior to the army rank...

 Luis Mendoza. Her 1961 tome, Nightmare, and her 1962 novel, Knave of Hearts, another entry in the Mendoza series, were both nominated for Edgars in the Best Novel category. Regarded as the "Queen of the Procedurals," she was one of the first women to write police procedural

Police procedural

The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...

s — a male-dominated genre of police-story writing.

She was born in Aurora

Aurora, Illinois

Aurora is the second most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and the 112th largest city in the United States. A suburb of Chicago, located west of the Loop, its population in 2010 was 197,899. Originally founded within Kane County, Aurora's city limits have expanded greatly over the past...

, Kane County

Kane County, Illinois

Kane County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2010 census, it has a population of 515,269, which is an increase of 27.5% from 404,119 in 2000. Its county seat is Geneva, and its largest city is Aurora.- Geography :...

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

; and died on April 5, 1988 in Arroyo Grande, San Luis Obispo County

San Luis Obispo County, California

San Luis Obispo County is a county located along the Pacific Ocean in the Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2010 census its population was 269,637, up from 246,681 at the 2000 census...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. During much of her career she was represented by literary agent Barthold Fles

Barthold Fles

Barthold Fles was a Dutch-American literary agent, author, translator, editor and publisher. Among his many clients were Raymond Loewy, Heinrich Mann, Joseph Roth, Felix Salten, Ignazio Silone, Bruno Walter and Arnold Zweig.-Life and career:Barthold "Bart" Fles was born in Amsterdam into an...

.

Besides crime, Linington also took interest in archaeology

Archaeology

Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...

, the occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

, gemstones

Gemstones

Gemstones is the third solo album by Adam Green, released in 2005. The album is characterised by the heavy presence of Wurlitzer piano, whereas its predecessor relied on a string section in its instrumentation.-Track listing:#Gemstones – 2:24...

, antique weapons and languages.

Elizabeth Linington

• The Proud Man (1955)
• The Long Watch (1956)
• Greenmask! (1964)
• No Evil Angel (1964)
• Date with Death (1966)
• Something Wrong (1967)
• Policeman's Lot (1968)
• Practice to Deceive (1971)
• Crime by Chance (1973)
• Perchance of Death (1977)
• No Villain Need Be (1979)
• Consequence of Crime (1980)
• Skeletons in the Closet (1982)
• Felony Report (1984)
• Strange Felony (1986)
• Alter Ego (1988)

Moniker employed: Lesley Egan

• A Case for Appeal (1961)
• The Borrowed Alibi (1962)
• Against the Evidence (1962)
• Run to Evil (1963)
• My Name Is Death (1964)
• Detective's Due (1965)
• Some Avenger, Rise! (1966)
• The Nameless Ones (1967)
• A Serious Investigation (1968)
• The Wine of Violence (1969)
• In the Death of a Man (1970)
• Malicious Mischief (1971)
• Paper Chase (1972)
• Scenes of Crime (1976)
• The Blind Search (1977)
• A Dream Apart (1978)
• Look Back on Death (1978)
• The Hunters and the Hunted (1979)
• Motive in Shadow (1980)
• A Choice of Crimes (1980)
• The Miser (1981)
• Random Death (1982)
• Little Boy Lost (1983)
• Crime for Christmas (1983)
• Chain of Violence (1985)
• The Wine of Life (1985)

Moniker employed: Dell Shannon

• Case Pending (1960)
• The Ace of Spades (1961)
• Extra Kill (1962)
• Knave of Hearts (1962)
• Death of a Busybody (1963)
• Double Bluff (1963)
• Mark of Murder (1964)
• Root of All Evil (1964)
• The Death-Bringers (1965)
• Death by Inches (1965)
• Coffin Corner (1966)
• With a Vengeance (1966)
• Chance to Kill (1967)
• Rain with Violence (1967)
• Kill with Kindness (1968)
• Schooled to Kill (1969)
• Crime on their Hands (1969)
• Unexpected Death (1970)
• Whim to Kill (1971)
• The Ringer (1971)
• Murder with Love (1972)
• With Intent to Kill (1972)
• No Holiday for Crime (1973)
• Spring of Violence (1973)
• Crime File (1974)
• Deuces Wild (1975)
• Streets of Death (1976)
• Appearances of Death (1977)
• Cold Trail (1978)
• Felony at Random (1979)
• Felony File (1980)
• Murder Most Strange (1981)
• The Motive on Record (1982)
• Exploit of Death (1983)
• Destiny of Death (1984)
• Chaos of Crime (1985)
• Blood Count (1986)
• Murder by the Tale (short stories) (1987)
• The Dispossessed (1988)
• The Manson Curse (1990)
• Sorrow in the Grave (1992)

Fan publications

The Linington Lineup is a quarterly newsletter dedicated to Elizabeth Linington (in all her pen names) and similar authors. Source:

• Rinehart S. Potts
  1223 Glenn Terrace
  Glassboro, New Jersey 08028