Dolores Hitchens
Born Julia Clara Catherine Dolores Robbins on December 25, 1907, in San Antonio, Texas. Daughter of W. H. Robbins and Myrtle Statham, who married in Caldwell County, Texas, in 1901. Father died and mother remarried to a Mr. Norton. Moved to Kern County, California, by 1920. Mother divorced and married a third time, to Oscar Carl “Arthur” Birk, in 1922. Took stepfather’s surname; family moved to Long Beach, California, by 1930.
Published poems while completing graduate studies at the University of California; enrolled in a nursing school. She worked as a nurse at Hollywood Hospital, and later became a teacher before pursuing a professional writing career.
In 1934 married Beverley Olsen, a radio operator on a merchant vessel, whom she later divorced. Married Hubert Allen “Bert” Hitchens, a railroad investigating officer, who had a son, Gordon (later founder of Film Comment and contributor to Variety). Together they had a son, Michael, and a daughter, Patricia.
As D. B. Olsen, published two novels featuring Lt. Stephen Mayhew, The Clue in the Clay (1938) and Death Cuts a Silhouette (1939); twelve novels featuring elderly amateur sleuth Rachel Murdock: The Cat Saw Murder (1939), The Alarm of the Black Cat (1942), Catspaw for Murder (1943), The Cat Wears a Noose (1944), Cats Don’t Smile (1945), Cats Don’t Need Coffins (1946), Cats Have Tall Shadows (1948), The Cat Wears a Mask (1949), Death Wears Cat’s Eyes (1950), Cat and Capricorn (1951), The Cat Walk (1953), and Death Walks on Cat Feet (1956); and six novels featuring Professor A. Pennyfeather: Shroud for the Bride (1945), Gallows for the Groom (1947), Devious Design (1948), Something About Midnight (1950), Love Me in Death (1951), and Enrollment Cancelled (1952).
Published play A Cookie for Henry (1941) as Dolores Birk Hitchens; novel Shivering Bough (1942) as Noel Burke; and novels Blue Geranium (1944) and The Unloved (1965) as Dolan Birkley. Co-wrote five railroad detective novels with Bert Hitchens: F.O.B. Murder (1955), One-Way Ticket (1956), End of Line (1957), The Man Who Followed Women (1959), and The Grudge (1963).
As Dolores Hitchens, published two private detective novels featuring California private eye Jim Sader: Sleep With Strangers (1955) and Sleep With Slander (1960) as well as stand-alone suspense novels Stairway to an Empty Room (1951), Nets to Catch the Wind (1952), Terror Lurks in Darkness (1953), Beat Back the Tide (1954), Fools’ Gold (1958), The Watcher (1959, adapted for the television series Thriller in 1960), Footsteps in the Night (1961), The Abductor (1962), The Bank with the Bamboo Door (1965), The Man Who Cried All the Way Home (1966), Postscript to Nightmare (1967), A Collection of Strangers (1969), The Baxter Letters (1971), and In a House Unknown (1973). Jean-Luc Godard adapted Fool’s Gold into the 1964 film Band of Outsiders.
Died in August 1973 in San Antonio, Texas.
Books by Dolores Hitchens
The Clue in the Clay (1938)
Death Cuts a Silhouette (1939)
The Cat Saw Murder (1939)
The Alarm of the Black Cat (1942)
Shivering Bough (1942)
Catspaw for Murder (1943)
The Cat Wears a Noose (1944)
Blue Geranium (1944)
Cats Don’t Smile (1945)
Shroud for the Bride (1945)
Cats Don’t Need Coffins (1946)
Gallows for the Groom (1947)
Cats Have Tall Shadows (1948)
Devious Design (1948)
The Cat Wears a Mask (1949)
Death Wears Cat’s Eyes (1950)
Something About Midnight (1950)
Cat and Capricorn (1951)
Love Me in Death (1951)
Stairway to an Empty Room (1951)
Enrollment Cancelled (1952)
Nets to Catch the Wind (1952)
The Cat Walk (1953)
Terror Lurks in Darkness (1953)
Beat Back the Tide (1954)
F.O.B. Murder (1955)
Sleep With Strangers (1955)
Death Walks on Cat Feet (1956)
One-Way Ticket (1956)
End of Line (1957)
Fools’ Gold (1958)
The Man Who Followed Women (1959)
The Watcher (1959)
Sleep With Slander (1960)
Footsteps in the Night (1961)
The Abductor (1962)
The Grudge (1963)
The Unloved (1965)
The Bank with the Bamboo Door (1965)
The Man Who Cried All the Way Home (1966)
Postscript to Nightmare (1967)
A Collection of Strangers (1969)
The Baxter Letters (1971)
In a House Unknown (1973)
Sarah Weinman is widely recognized as a leading authority on crime fiction. She is the editor of Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives: Stories from the Trailblazers of Domestic Suspense, which the Los Angeles Review of Books called “simply one of the most significant anthologies of crime fiction, ever.” She is the news editor for Publishers Marketplace, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, the National Post, and The Washington Post, among other publications.