Dorothy Preece Simpson, born 20 June 1933,

Blaenavon Blaenavon ( cy, Blaenafon) is a town and community in Torfaen county borough, Wales, high on a hillside on the source of the Afon Lwyd. It is within the boundaries of the historic county of Monmouthshire and the preserved county of Gwent. Th ...

, Monmouthshire (now in Wales) is an English-language writer of mystery novels, and a winner of a Silver Dagger Award from the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain.page 233–235, ''Great Women Mystery Writers'', 2nd ed. by Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, 2007, published by Greenwood Press,

Biography

Simpson was brought up in South Wales, went to Bridgend Grammar School and then to Bristol University, where she read modern languages. After university she moved to

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

(the background of the Thanet novels) to teach French at Dartford and Erith grammar schools from 1955 to 1962. She married in 1961 and worked as a marriage guidance counsellor from 1969 to 1982. She began writing in 1975. She and her husband and three children live in

Maidstone Maidstone is the largest town in Kent, England, of which it is the county town. Maidstone is historically important and lies 32 miles (51 km) east-south-east of London. The River Medway runs through the centre of the town, linking it wi ...

Writing

Her first novel was published in 1977, but her next three manuscripts were rejected. She was determined to "devote her next efforts to creating an intriguing murder mystery staged around an engaging sleuth," and came up with her mainstay characters Inspector Luke Thanet and his colleague Sergeant Michael Lineham in ''The Night She Died'', the first of a series of 15 novels. Severe

repetitive stress injury A repetitive strain injury (RSI) is an injury to part of the musculoskeletal or nervous system caused by repetitive use, vibrations, compression or long periods in a fixed position. Other common names include repetitive stress disorders, cumula ...

forced her to stop writing in 2000.

Bibliography

Inspector Thanet series

*''The Night She Died'' (1981) *''Six Feet Under'' (1982) *''Puppet for a Corpse'' (1983) *''Close Her Eyes'' (1984) *''Last Seen Alive'' (1985) - winner of a Silver Dagger *''Dead On Arrival'' (1986) *''Element of Doubt'' (1987) *''Suspicious Death'' (1988) *''Dead By Morning'' (1989) *''Doomed to Die'' (1991) *''Wake the Dead'' (1992) *''No Laughing Matter'' (1993) *''A Day for Dying'' (1995) *''Once Too Often'' (1998) *''Dead and Gone'' (1999)

Other novels

*''Harbingers of Fear'' (1977)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Dorothy 1933 births Living people 20th-century Welsh educators 20th-century women educators 20th-century Welsh novelists 20th-century Welsh women writers 21st-century Welsh people 21st-century Welsh women People from Blaenavon Welsh crime novelists People from Maidstone Welsh mystery writers Alumni of the University of Bristol Women mystery writers Welsh women novelists