Thursday, October 4, 2012

Before There Was Pooh Bear, There Was Murder

Did you know these famous people more well known for other things also wrote crime fiction?

A.A. Milne 

Yes, before there was Pooh Bear, there was murder. Alan Alexander Milne's mystery novel, THE RED HOUSE MYSTERY, received critical acclaim. Rumor has it that he decided to delve into the world of children's fiction because it was a better market.  He also wrote a parody on Sherlock Holmes, "The Rape of the Sherlock" that appeared in Vanity Fair.

A.A. Milne, Christopher Robin and Pooh.

Steve Allen 

He was the host of the Tonight Show before Jay Leno and Johnny Carson.  Allen played the piano, loved one-liners and off the cuff routines. He published ten mystery novels.

William Faulkner 

Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949, but before than he was one of a team of writers that worked on the screen adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s THE BIG SLEEP, staring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall.  He also wrote other screenplays.

His thriller novel, SANCTUARY, hit the best seller list and was also made into a movie.

Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain 

Twain, best known for creating Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, but did you know Huck and Tom solved a murder and collected $2000 in TOM SAWYER, DETECTIVE? Twain was the first writer use fingerprints in his short story, The Thumbprint and What Became of It. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald 

Most well known for writing THE GREAT GATSBY, Fitzgerald's first published work was a murder mystery, “The Mystery of the Raymond Mortage. It was written when Fitzgerald was 13 years old and published in the publication of the St. Paul Academy.

Dave Barry 

Humorist Dave Barry, who also co-writes the Peter and the Star Catchers children's books for Disney with Ridley Pearson wrote the novel BIG TROUBLE (also made into a movie starring Tim Allen.) He's also written several other novels for adults in addition to his nonfiction humor tomes. 

Marcia C. Clark 

Best known as the head prosecutor in the O.J. Simpson case, Clark has now published two mystery novels: GUILT BY ASSOCIATION and GUILT BY DEGREES.

And one writer famous for crime fiction who wrote another famous story but not as famous as his spy novels... Ian Fleming, creator and writer of international super-spy, James Bond wrote the children's novel, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (later made into a movie starring Dick Van Dyke). The only thing it has in common with the James Bond stories is a pretty girl and a cool, yet technically advanced car. 


  1. I didn't know he wrote Chitty. That is so cool!

  2. @Sleuthsisters - it is cool. I loved Chitty when I was a kid. It's a great story.