Paul Halter


Paul Halter is a French writer of crime fiction known for his locked room mysteries.

Biography

Halter was born 19 June 1956 in Haguenau, Bas-Rhin France and 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 now known as France Télécom. Halter has been compared with the late John Dickson Carr, generally considered the 20th century master of the locked room genre. Throughout his more than forty books his genre has been almost entirely impossible crimes. 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 was published in 1988 and won the Prix de Cognac, given for detective literature. The following year, his novel Le Brouillard Rouge won "one of the highest accolades in French mystery literature", the Prix du Roman d'Aventures. He has published more than forty books. Several of his short stories have been translated into English; by June 2010 six had appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine; ten were collected and published by Wildside Press as The Night of the Wolf.

Novels

Dr. Twist and Chief Inspector Hurst novels:
  • La quatrième porte 1987
  • La mort vous invite 1988
  • La mort derrière les rideaux 1989
  • La chambre du fou 1990
  • La tête du tigre 1991
  • La septième hypothèse 1991
  • Le diable de Dartmoor 1993
  • A 139 pas de la mort 1994
  • L'image trouble 1995
  • La malédiction de Barberousse 1995
  • L'arbre aux doigts tordus 1996
  • Le cri de la sirène 1998
  • Meurtre dans un manoir anglais 1998
  • L'homme qui aimait les nuages 1999
  • L'allumette sanglante 2001
  • Le toile de Pénélope 2001
  • Les larmes de Sibyl 2005
  • Les meurtres de la salamandre 2009
  • La corde d'argent 2010
  • Le voyageur du passé 2012
  • La tombe indienne 2013
Dr. Twist and Chief Inspector Hurst short stories:
  • "Les morts dansent la nuit" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "L'appel de la Lorelei" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "Meurtre à Cognac" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "La balle de Nausicaa" in the collection La balle de Nausicaa 2011
  • "La tombe de David Jones" in the collection La balle de Nausicaa 2011
  • "Le gong hanté" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, June 2010
  • "L'echelle de Jacob" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, February 2014
  • "La vengeance de l'épouvantail" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May 2016
  • "Le livre juane" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July–August 2017
  • "Les fuex de l'Enfer" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, May–June 2018
  • "Les Sortilèges du Wendigo" in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, May–June 2023
Owen Burns and Achilles Stock novels:
  • Le roi du désordre 1994
  • Les sept merveilles du crime 1997
  • Les douze crimes d'Hercule 2001
  • La ruelle fantôme 2005
  • La chambre d'Horus 2007
  • Le masque du vampire 2014
  • La montre en or 2019
  • La mystére de la dame blanche 2020
Owen Burns and Achilles Stock short stories:
  • "La marchande de fleurs" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "La hache" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "L'homme au visage d'argile" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, July 2012
  • "Le loup de Fenrir" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March–April 2015
  • "Le casque d'Hades" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, March–April 2019
  • "Le Voleur d’étoiles" in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, September–October 2021
Other novels:
  • Le brouillard rouge 1988
  • La lettre qui tue 1992
  • Le cercle invisible 1996
  • Le crime de Dédale 1997
  • Le géant de pierre 1998
  • Le mystère de l'Allée des Anges 1999
  • Le chemin de la lumière 2000
  • Les fleurs de Satan 2002
  • Le tigre borgne 2004
  • Lunes assassines 2006
  • La nuit du Minotaure 2008
  • Le testament de Silas Lydecker 2009
  • Spiral 2012
  • Le Spectre d'Eurydice 2023
  • La Tour du passé 2024
Other short stories:
  • "L'escalier assassin" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "Un rendez-vous aussi saugrenu" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "Ripperomanie" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "La nuit du loup" in the collection La nuit du loup 2000
  • "Le spectre doré" in the collection La balle de Nausicaa 2011 and "The Night of the Wolf" 2006
  • "Le regard étrange" in the collection La balle de Nausicaa 2011
  • "L'abominable homme de neige" in the collection La balle de Nausicaa 2011 and The Night of the Wolf 2006
  • "Le clown de minuit" in the collection La balle de Nausicaa 2011
  • "La malle sanglante" in the collection La balle de Nausicaa 2011
Short story collections:
  • La nuit du loup 2000
  • La balle de Nausicaa 2011
  • The Helm of Hades 2019
  • Le livre juane 2022