- A president of the Mystery Writers of America.
- One of the pioneers of the "police procedural" subgenre of detective fiction and creator of the characters Sheridan Wesley, Fred Fellows (chief of police), David Halliday, Frank Sessions (homicide detective), and Simon Kaye (ex-cop private investigator).
- Spent most of his life in Connecticut, except for some time in New York and Europe.
- He graduated from Yale in 1942.
- He was an aviator in the US Navy during World War II.
- His hobbies included boxing, badminton, song writing, and drawing newspaper cartoons.
- He used his native Connecticut as a setting for many of his novels, changing the names of real towns slightly.
- His 1952 book, "Last Seen Wearing," is regarded as a classic in the police procedural genre. It is considered to be one of the 100 best mystery novels ever written by many, including the London Sunday Times (1957), the Mystery Writers of America (1995), and the Crime Writers' Association (1990), who ranked it 12th, midway between Dashiell Hammett's "The Long Goodbye" (#10) and Raymond Chandler's "The Maltese Falcon" (#15).
- Was awarded the Mystery Writers of America's "Grand Master" award in 1989, given for lifetime achievement, consistent quality, and contributions to the mystery genre.
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