Freeman Crofts

Freeman Wills Crofts was an Irish author, born in Dublin to English parents. He is best known for his "Inspector French" series of novels. Crofts was educated in Belfast, where he attended Campbell and Methodist Colleges. At the age of seventeen, he began an apprenticeship with his uncle, Berkeley D Wise, who was the chief engineer of the Belfast and Northern Counties Railway. Crofts' career in railway engineering progressed rapidly, and by 1899, he had become a fully fledged railway engineer. He continued to advance in the field, becoming a district engineer and then a chief assistant engineer before leaving the service.

Crofts' writing career began while he was recovering from a severe illness, during which he had to take an extended leave of absence from work. It was during this time that he wrote "The Cask," his debut novel, which was published by the London publishers Messrs. Collins. The novel was a success, selling more than 100,000 copies within two decades. Crofts continued to write in his spare time, producing a book a year until 1929 when he was forced to stop working due to poor health.

After moving to Guildford, England, Crofts began writing full-time. Many of his plots revolved around travel and transport, particularly transport timetables, and were set in Guildford. In addition to his mystery novels, Crofts wrote about 50 short stories, 30 radio plays for the BBC, a number of true crime works, a play, "Sudden Death," a juvenile mystery, "Young Robin Brand, Detective," and a religious work, "The Four Gospels in One Story." Crofts' best-known character is Inspector Joseph French, who appeared in 30 detective novels between 1924 and 1957. Renowned author Raymond Chandler praised Crofts' plotting abilities, calling him "the soundest builder of them all."