William Edward Vickers

in 1921 by Bassano Ltd. National Portrait Gallery

William Edward Vickers (1889 - 1965) was an English mystery writer better known under his pen name Roy Vickers, but used also the pseudonyms Roy C. Vickers, David Durham, Sefton Kyle, and John Spencer. He is the author of over 60 crime novels and 80 short stories.[1] Vickers is now remembered mostly for his attribution to Scotland Yard of a Department of Dead Ends, specialized in solving old, sometimes long-forgotten cases, mostly by chance encounters of odd bits of strange and apparently disconnected evidence.[2]

He was educated at Charterhouse School, and left Brasenose College, Oxford without a degree. For some time he studied law at the Middle Temple, but never practiced. He married Mary Van Rossem and they had one son. He worked as a journalist, as a court reporter and as a magazine editor; he also wrote a large number of nonfiction articles and sold hundreds of them to newspapers and magazines. Between November 1913 and February 1917, twenty short stories by Vickers were published in the Novel Magazine. About this time he published his first book, a biography of Field Marshal Frederick, Earl Roberts. In September 1934, The Rubber Trumpet, the first of thirty-eight stories featuring the fictitious Department of Dead Ends, appeared in Pearson's Magazine. In 1960 he edited the Crime Writers' Association's anthology of short stories Some Like Them Dead. The Manchester Evening News called one of his collections, "one of the half-dozen successful books of detective short stories published since the days of Sherlock Holmes." [3]

Vickers's work has been adapted for film and TV, including Girl in the News (1940), Violent Moment (1959) and three episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents (Season 3: 1957-58).[4]

As Roy Vickers

  • Lord Roberts: the Story of His Life (1914)

As Roy Vickers

  • Bonnie Mary Myles or The Mystery of Old Monkland (1919). Serialised, Dundee People's Journal, 1919
  • The Woman without a Soul (1920)
  • The Lady of Lombard Street (1920)
  • The Thief of Love (1921). Serialised, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1921
  • The Mystery of the Scented Death (1921)
  • The Gay Adventure (1922). Serialised, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1922
  • The Woman Accused (1923). Serialised, Dundee Evening Telegraph, 1923
  • Ishmael's Wife (1924)
  • Murder for a Million (1924)
  • Four Past Four (1925)
  • The Unforbidden Sin (1926). Expanded from the novella qv
  • His Other Wife (1926)
  • The White Raven (1927)
  • The Radingham Mystery (1928)
  • A Girl of These Days (1929)
  • Hidden Gold (1929). Serialised, Derby Evening Telegraph, 1929
  • The Rose in the Dark (1930)
  • The Victim (1930). Serialised, Topical Times, 1930
  • The Gold Game (1930)
  • The Wasp (1931). Serialised, Daily Herald, 1931
  • Deputy for Cain (1931). Serialised, Melbourne Herald, 1931, as The Deputy for Cain
  • The Mystery of the Scented Death (1931)
  • The Girl in His Way (1932). Serialised, (Dundee) Sunday Post, 1932
  • The Marriage for the Defence (1932)
  • Bardelow's Heir (1933)
  • Money Buys Everything (1934)
  • Kidnap Island (1934). Serialised, Tit-Bits, 1934
  • Hide Those Diamonds (1935)
  • Four Past Four (1935)
  • Too Dangerous to Live (1937). Serialised, Topical Times, 1937
  • I'll Never Tell (1937)
  • The Girl in the News (1937)
  • The Life Between (1938)
  • The Enemy Within (1938)
  • Fate Calls the Tune (1939). Serialised, Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, 1939
  • She Walked in Fear (1940)
  • Playgirl Wanted (1940)
  • Brenda Gets Married (1941)
  • War Bride (1941)
  • Six came to Dinner (1942)
  • A Date with Danger (1942)
  • The Department of Dead Ends (1949) - short story collection
  • Murder of a Snob (1949)
  • Murdering Mr Velfrage (1950)
  • Gold and Wine (1950)
  • They Can't Hang Caroline (1950)
  • Murder Will Out (1950) - short story collection
  • The Sole Survivor and The Kynsard Affair (1952)
  • Eight Murders in the Suburbs (1950) - short story collection
  • Double Image (1955) - short story collection
  • Seven Chose Murder (1959) - short story collection
  • Find the Innocent (1959)
  • Best Detective Stories (1965) - short story collection

Short Stories

  • The Stolen Melody. Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, 21 June 1913
  • Harwood's Discovery. Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, 11 October 1913
  • The House that Didn't Exist. Sheffield Weekly Telegraph, 22 November 1913
  • The Unforbidden Sin. Detective Story Magazine, 23 and 30 October 1917
  • Blackmail. Detective Story Magazine, 11 December 1917
  • A Champion of Poverty. Detective Story Magazine, 25 December 1917
  • Instinct vs Logic. Detective Story Magazine, 1 January 1918
  • A Dicker in Art. Detective Story Magazine, 15 January 1918
  • On the Giant's Head. Detective Story Magazine, 28 October 1919
  • The Man from Dartmoor. Serialised, Topical Times, Vol 1 No 1 (18 October 1919) - DATE OF ISSUE UNKNOWN
  • TITLE UNKNOWN. Ideas Magazine, Christmas 1924
  • TITLE UNKNOWN. Pearson's Weekly, October 1927
  • The Rubber Trumpet. Pearson's Magazine, September 1934
  • TITLE UNKNOWN. Pearson's Magazine, October 1934
  • The Three-Foot Grave. Pearson's Magazine, November 1934
  • TITLE UNKNOWN. Pearson's Magazine, March 1935
  • According to Plan. The Thriller, 26 October 1935
  • The Notorious Miss Walters. Radio Review No 1, October - November 1935
  • The Man Who Murdered in Public. Fiction Parade, 1935
  • The Case of Poor Gertrude. Fiction Parade, 1935
  • Murder in Mayfair.
  • The Yellow Jumper
  • The Hen-Pecked Murderer
  • A Toy for Jiffy
  • The Case of the Social Climber
  • A Man and His Mother-in-Law
  • The House-in-Your-Hand
  • Little Things Like That
  • Kill Me, kill My Dog
  • The Nine-Pound Murder
  • Marion, Come Back
  • The parrot's beak
  • A fool and her money
  • The lady who laughed
  • The snob's murder
  • The Cowboy of Oxford Street
  • The Clue of the Red Carnations
  • Blind Man's Buff
  • The Meanest Man in Europe
  • The Case of the Merry Andrew
  • Mean Man's Murder
  • The Man Who Was Murdered by a Bed
  • The Case of the Honest Murderer
  • The Eight Pieces of Tortoiseshell
  • Dinner for Two
  • The Crocodile Case
  • Wit's End
  • The Patchwork Murder
  • The Man with the Sneer
  • The Hair Shirt
  • The Man Who Could Not Hold Women
  • Miss Paisley's Cat
  • Little Things Like That
  • The Frame-Up
  • The Man Who Punished Himself
  • Double Image
  • The Color of Truth
  • Double Image

As Sefton Kyle

  • The Man in the Shadow (1924)
  • Dead Man's Dower (1925)
  • Guilty - But (1927)
  • The Hawk (1930
  • The Bloomsbury Treasure (1930)
  • Red Hair (1933)
  • The Life He Stole (1933)
  • The Man without a Name (1935)
  • Silence (1935)
  • Number 73 (1936)
  • The Durand Case (1936)
  • The Notorious Miss Walters (1937)
  • The Body in the Safe (1937)
  • During Her Majesty's Pleasure (1938)
  • Missing (1938)
  • Miss X (1939)
  • The Judge's Dilemma (1939)
  • The Shadow over Fairholme (1940)
  • The Girl Known as D13 (1940)
  • Sweet Adversity (1941)
  • The Price of Silence (1942)
  • Love was Married (1943)

As David Durham

  • The Pearl-Headed Pin (1925)

As John Spencer

  • The Whispering Death (1932)
  • Swell Garrick (1933)

References

  1. ↑ "Roy Vickers". panmacmillan.com.
  2. ↑ "Authors". Detective Book Club.
  3. ↑ "The Department of Dead Ends". panmacmillan.com.
  4. ↑ http://explore.bfi.org.uk/4ce2baaf05afe
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