Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916–2014)
Author of A Gentle Murderer
About the Author
Dorothy Salisbury Davis was born on April 25, 1916. She received a degree in literature from Barat College in 1938. In the depths of the Depression, she got a job as a magician's assistant. She later worked in public relations for a meatpacking company before becoming an author. During her show more lifetime, she wrote 17 crime novels, three historical novels, and many short stories. Her works included A Gentle Murderer, the Julie Hayes Mysteries series, and Black Sheep, White Lamb. She received a lifetime achievement award from The Mystery Writers of America. In 1986, she helped found Sisters in Crime. She died on August 3, 2014 at the age of 98. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Dorothy Salisbury Davis
A Choice of Murders: 23 Stories by Members of the Mystery Writers of America (1958) — Editor — 5 copies
The Purple is Everything 1 copy
A Matter of Public Notice 1 copy
Backward, Turn Backward 1 copy
Spring Fever [short story] 1 copy
Associated Works
Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense (2013) — Contributor — 185 copies, 11 reviews
Ladies of Fantasy: Two Centuries of Sinister Stories by the Gentle Sex (1975) — Contributor — 53 copies, 1 review
The Crime of My Life: Favorite Stories by Presidents of the Mystery Writers of America (1984) — Contributor — 13 copies
Killers of the Mind: A Collection of Stories by the Mystery Writers of America (1974) — Contributor — 5 copies
The Case of the Screaming Woman | The Late Miss Trimming | Death of an Old Sinner (1957) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Davis, Dorothy Margaret Salisbury
- Birthdate
- 1916-04-25
- Date of death
- 2014-08-03
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Barat College (1938)
- Occupations
- novelist
short story writer
crime writer
mystery writer - Organizations
- Mystery Writers of America (President, 1955)
- Awards and honors
- MWA Grand Master(1985)
Bouchercon Lifetime Achievement Award (1989) - Relationships
- Davis, Harry (husband)
- Short biography
- Dorothy Salisbury Davis was born in Chicago and adopted as a toddler by a farm family in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. In 1938, at the height of the Great Depression, she graduated from Barat College in Lake Forest, Illinois, and worked as a magician's assistant, as a research librarian for a Chicago advertising firm, and in public relations. She also was an editor of The Merchandiser, a weekly publication. In 1946, she married Harry Davis, an actor and stage manager who encouraged her to write. She achieved her first big success in 1951 with her third novel, A Gentle Murderer. Over her more than 50-year career, she came to be known as a grande dame of crime writers. She published 17 crime novels, three historical novels, and numerous short stories, many of which portrayed women as strong, complex characters rather than as the usual damsels in distress. She served as president of the Mystery Writers of America in 1956 and was declared an MWA Grand Master for lifetime achievement in 1985.
In 1986, she helped found Sisters in Crime, an organization of female mystery writers. - Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Places of residence
- Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA
- Place of death
- Palisades, New York, USA
- Burial location
- Rockland Cemetery, Sparkill, New York, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
Between 1949 and 2002, Davis published about 20 each of mystery novels and short stories. She served as President of the Mystery Writers of America in the mid-1950s, and was named an MWA Grand Master 30 years later. She served on the steering committee that formed the Sisters in Crime organization in 1986, and her grande dame status gave that group more legitimacy in the eyes of many.
Most of her books were stand-alones, but this 1957 novel is the first of three featuring the housekeeper Mrs. show more Annie Norris. Mrs. Norris is about sixty and has worked for the Jarvis family for more than forty years. As we open, the family consists of retired Major General Ransom Jarvis, ten years older than Mrs. Norris, and his unmarried son, James, who is preparing to run for governor.
The General is supposed to be writing his memoirs, but doesn't have much enthusiasm for the project; he's more intrigued by the idea of faking a salacious, scandal-filled diary for his great-uncle, a former US president, which he thinks will be more lucrative than his own life story. (Davis never specifically identifies the uncle/president, but since we've had only one bachelor president, it's not hard to figure out that the General is related to James Buchanan.)
Could that fake diary have anything to do with the sudden death of the General in a Manhattan hotel room? James is on the case, with the assistance of a former colleague from the New York District Attorney's office, and more help than he might have expected from Mrs. Norris.
I like Mrs. Norris, who is not all the cuddly ball of warmth we often get from crime-solving housekeepers. She's a cranky, judgmental woman, utterly devoted to "Master Jamie," but not terribly fond of the General, who she sees as a womanizing and financially irresponsible scoundrel. (She's not wrong.)
And Davis's prose is often delightful. I loved this bit, from our introduction to Mrs. Norris:
"She had come over from Scotland at twenty, Mrs. Norris had, already a childless widow, and the truth was that over the years, adding a bit now and then to her husband's stature from what she took off that of other men, she probably loved him better now than ever she did in their brief marriage."
That's a sharp, precise bit of description that tells us a lot about her crabbed view of the world.
If there had been even one other character in the book who was as interesting, or as vividly drawn, I might be able to offer at least a mild recommendation for the novel. But alas, the supporting characters -- the women in particular -- blur together rather badly, and the plot is convoluted and hard to follow, entanging the General's mistress with New York gangsters and somehow dragging Mrs. Norris's brother-in-law into the mix.
A few nice details here, but they're not enough to inspire me to explore Davis any further. show less
Most of her books were stand-alones, but this 1957 novel is the first of three featuring the housekeeper Mrs. show more Annie Norris. Mrs. Norris is about sixty and has worked for the Jarvis family for more than forty years. As we open, the family consists of retired Major General Ransom Jarvis, ten years older than Mrs. Norris, and his unmarried son, James, who is preparing to run for governor.
The General is supposed to be writing his memoirs, but doesn't have much enthusiasm for the project; he's more intrigued by the idea of faking a salacious, scandal-filled diary for his great-uncle, a former US president, which he thinks will be more lucrative than his own life story. (Davis never specifically identifies the uncle/president, but since we've had only one bachelor president, it's not hard to figure out that the General is related to James Buchanan.)
Could that fake diary have anything to do with the sudden death of the General in a Manhattan hotel room? James is on the case, with the assistance of a former colleague from the New York District Attorney's office, and more help than he might have expected from Mrs. Norris.
I like Mrs. Norris, who is not all the cuddly ball of warmth we often get from crime-solving housekeepers. She's a cranky, judgmental woman, utterly devoted to "Master Jamie," but not terribly fond of the General, who she sees as a womanizing and financially irresponsible scoundrel. (She's not wrong.)
And Davis's prose is often delightful. I loved this bit, from our introduction to Mrs. Norris:
"She had come over from Scotland at twenty, Mrs. Norris had, already a childless widow, and the truth was that over the years, adding a bit now and then to her husband's stature from what she took off that of other men, she probably loved him better now than ever she did in their brief marriage."
That's a sharp, precise bit of description that tells us a lot about her crabbed view of the world.
If there had been even one other character in the book who was as interesting, or as vividly drawn, I might be able to offer at least a mild recommendation for the novel. But alas, the supporting characters -- the women in particular -- blur together rather badly, and the plot is convoluted and hard to follow, entanging the General's mistress with New York gangsters and somehow dragging Mrs. Norris's brother-in-law into the mix.
A few nice details here, but they're not enough to inspire me to explore Davis any further. show less
I’ve been reading Dorothy Salisbury Davis’ novels, and I’m struck by how different they are from one another. The Judas Cat reminds me of a grown-up version of a Penny Parker mystery; A Death in the Life resembles an old-fashioned cozy; Scarlet Night is a heist tale the equal of Ocean’s Eleven, while Lullaby of Murder seems like something penned by Sidney Sheldon.
With God Speed the Night, Davis, in collaboration with Jerome Ross, veers in yet another direction: a World War II French show more Resistance novel. Sister Gabrielle, a novice at the Convent of Sainte Geneviève in St. Hilaire in Nazi-Occupied southern France, comes to the rescue of two Jews escaping from Paris, Marc and Rachel Daridan. With the help of the convent’s infirmarian, Sister Agathe; the Reverend Mother St. Charles, the convent’s mother superior; and René Labière, a photographer with the French Resistance, Sister Gabrielle manages to fool the cowardly Vichy prefect of police, Thèophile Moissac, and the Germans and carry out a daring rescue.
God Speed the Night ranks as my favorite of Davis’ novels so far. I couldn’t put it down, as cliché as that sounds. The suspense as to how this naïve, quiet nun would fare in a cat-and-mouse game with the despicable, self-deluding Moissac kept me glued to this excellent novel. show less
With God Speed the Night, Davis, in collaboration with Jerome Ross, veers in yet another direction: a World War II French show more Resistance novel. Sister Gabrielle, a novice at the Convent of Sainte Geneviève in St. Hilaire in Nazi-Occupied southern France, comes to the rescue of two Jews escaping from Paris, Marc and Rachel Daridan. With the help of the convent’s infirmarian, Sister Agathe; the Reverend Mother St. Charles, the convent’s mother superior; and René Labière, a photographer with the French Resistance, Sister Gabrielle manages to fool the cowardly Vichy prefect of police, Thèophile Moissac, and the Germans and carry out a daring rescue.
God Speed the Night ranks as my favorite of Davis’ novels so far. I couldn’t put it down, as cliché as that sounds. The suspense as to how this naïve, quiet nun would fare in a cat-and-mouse game with the despicable, self-deluding Moissac kept me glued to this excellent novel. show less
If you like your novels neat, tidy, and linear, then Dorothy Salisbury Davis’ Julie Hayes series is not for you. This novel begins with a brutal rape, which sends Julie, now a gossip columnist, into an understandable tailspin and provides her the impetus to go searching for her father, who has reached an almost mythical status with her. Julie has wondered all of her life about her Irish diplomat father — about whom she knows nothing but his name, Thomas Francis Mooney — who left the show more family before she was even born.
With her mother dead, where does one begin? But Julie is able to pick up the thread, which leads her from New York City to Ireland. As luck would have it, the two West Side hooligans who raped and sodomized her have fled to Ireland, as well.
The Habit of Fear provides no easy answers — for either Julie or ourselves. What is the nature of family? What takes precedence: justice or mercy? Who are your real friends — or your real family?
I have really enjoyed all of the Julie Hayes novels, but this is — by far — my very favorite, although I almost didn’t continue past the horrifying rape scene, which occurs nearly at the start of the book. I will be thinking about this novel for a long time to come and regretting that Davis ended the series in 1987 with this final volume. Too bad!I really wanted to see how Julie and her new love, “bucolic Irish playwright” Seamus McNally, in their new life in New York City. show less
With her mother dead, where does one begin? But Julie is able to pick up the thread, which leads her from New York City to Ireland. As luck would have it, the two West Side hooligans who raped and sodomized her have fled to Ireland, as well.
The Habit of Fear provides no easy answers — for either Julie or ourselves. What is the nature of family? What takes precedence: justice or mercy? Who are your real friends — or your real family?
I have really enjoyed all of the Julie Hayes novels, but this is — by far — my very favorite, although I almost didn’t continue past the horrifying rape scene, which occurs nearly at the start of the book. I will be thinking about this novel for a long time to come and regretting that Davis ended the series in 1987 with this final volume. Too bad!
Having devoured the four-book mystery series by Dorothy Salisbury Davis featuring the neurotic young writer Julie Hayes, I turned to Davis’ other mystery series, which debuts the redoubtable Annie Norris in the mystery novel Death of an Old Sinner. The eponymous sinner in question is one Major General Ransom Jarvis, a retired military man whose career — in his own words — can be summed up as “Five continents. Three wars.” As with so many military men before him, the 72-year-old show more General Jarvis is penning his memoirs as the novel opens; with his finances in disarray due to his spendthrift ways, Jarvis certainly needs the money.
The Jarvis family is related to an undistinguished, prim president and ambassador to the Court of St. James from the early days of the American Republic, described by General Jarvis as “sitting there [in his portrait] like a hand-painted burp, an apt subject for neither gossip nor historian, your back to the wall, not a decade between you and oblivion.” Think an earlier James Buchanan with a particularly unbecoming cravat and scowl. Too bad, thinks Jarvis; a scandal or two in his great-uncle’s history would certainly help sell books! That’s when General Jarvis — a completely profligate reprobate — decides to spice up his ancestor’s letters and journals — and reputation — with a spot of forgery. Never mind how it will hurt his son’s chances in the governor’s race!
However, before long, the poor old boy is dead; the circumstances suggest murder. Jarvis’ employee for the past 40 years, the Scottish and Calvinist-Presbyterian housekeeper Mrs. Norris, teams up with Jasper Tully, chief investigator for the District Attorney's Office, and Jarvis’ son, Jimmie Jarvis, to solve the mystery.
To use a term familiar to Mrs. Norris, she and Julie Hayes are as alike as chalk and cheese — a British expression meaning, “not at all alike.” Whereas Julie is indecisive and clinging, Mrs. Norris makes sure that General Ransom knows his place, doesn’t endanger the family homestead in Nyack, N.Y., with his profligacy, and does no harm to her beloved Master James, Ransom’s delightful son Jimmie Jarvis, who is running for governor of New York. Death of an Old Sinner resembles a Golden Age cozy from the 1930s by Agatha Christie or Stuart Palmer than Davis’ noir-like Julie Hayes series, although it has a sensibility all its own. And I loved it just as much: Highly recommended for those looking for something different. show less
The Jarvis family is related to an undistinguished, prim president and ambassador to the Court of St. James from the early days of the American Republic, described by General Jarvis as “sitting there [in his portrait] like a hand-painted burp, an apt subject for neither gossip nor historian, your back to the wall, not a decade between you and oblivion.” Think an earlier James Buchanan with a particularly unbecoming cravat and scowl. Too bad, thinks Jarvis; a scandal or two in his great-uncle’s history would certainly help sell books! That’s when General Jarvis — a completely profligate reprobate — decides to spice up his ancestor’s letters and journals — and reputation — with a spot of forgery. Never mind how it will hurt his son’s chances in the governor’s race!
However, before long, the poor old boy is dead; the circumstances suggest murder. Jarvis’ employee for the past 40 years, the Scottish and Calvinist-Presbyterian housekeeper Mrs. Norris, teams up with Jasper Tully, chief investigator for the District Attorney's Office, and Jarvis’ son, Jimmie Jarvis, to solve the mystery.
To use a term familiar to Mrs. Norris, she and Julie Hayes are as alike as chalk and cheese — a British expression meaning, “not at all alike.” Whereas Julie is indecisive and clinging, Mrs. Norris makes sure that General Ransom knows his place, doesn’t endanger the family homestead in Nyack, N.Y., with his profligacy, and does no harm to her beloved Master James, Ransom’s delightful son Jimmie Jarvis, who is running for governor of New York. Death of an Old Sinner resembles a Golden Age cozy from the 1930s by Agatha Christie or Stuart Palmer than Davis’ noir-like Julie Hayes series, although it has a sensibility all its own. And I loved it just as much: Highly recommended for those looking for something different. show less
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- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 48
- Members
- 635
- Popularity
- #39,693
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 19
- ISBNs
- 118
- Languages
- 2