Patricia McGerr Papers

Patricia McGerr (1917-1985) was born December 26, 1917, in Fall City, Nebraska. In 1936 she received her B.A. from the University of Nebraska and in 1937 she received her M.S. from Columbia University. In 1948 McGerr became a self-employed writer. She started working as a lecturer and consultant for the Georgetown University Writers Conference in 1960.

McGerr's inverted whodunit writing style differs from other mystery writers of the time. Many of her novels would start by identifying the murderer at the beginning and seek out the identity of the victim throughout the novel. McGerr was a member of the Mystery Writers of America; she served as a member of the board of directors for several terms. She was also a member of the Catholic Interracial Council of Washington and the Northwest Washington Fair Housing Association. She obtained many awards, among them are: first prize, Catholic Press Association short story contest, 1950; Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, France, 1952; and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, short story contest, second prize, 1962, and first prize, 1967.

Patricia McGerr's book, Follow, As the Night, was filmed in 1954 under the title One Step to Eternity. The Missing Years was dramatized on radio and television. Fatal in My Fashion was televised. Catch Me If You Can was presented on the radio. A film based on her short story "Johnny Lingo" has won two national awards and has been dubbed in fourteen languages. All of her books have been published in England, and some of them are published in as many as twelve foreign countries. In her 13th novel, Stranger with My Face, she was able to reclaim her full name Patricia, over the more masculine name Pat, as up until that point her publisher feared readers would be put off by a female mystery writer.

Patricia McGerr died May 11, 1985 in Bethesda, Maryland.