Harold Q. Masur

This is the 15th post in our Author of the Week series.



Harold Q. Masur was born in 1909 in New York City. He graduated from the New York University School of Law in 1934 and went on to practice law from 1935 until 1942.

In 1944 he was drafted into the war and was sent to China.

Masur first started writing short stories for a number of different detective magazines that were starved for content. He would write under three different names and have as many as three stories all in the same issue. Even once he was drafted and sent to China, magazines were tracking him down in order to get him to submit content from China.

His first book was published in 1947 and is entitled Bury Me Deep. Masur's novels focused on Scott Jordan, a detective who is very intelligent, a bit tough and basically whatever he needs to be in order to get his job done.

Masur's novels have always been known as smart and strong mysteries with intricate details, good action and truly witty dialogue. Eventually the royalties from Bury Me Deep allowed him to pursue a full time writing career.

Masur took much of his inspiration from real cases in law journals but also from his own experience as he went back to working as a lawyer and writing after he returned from being drafted int to the war.

All in all he wrote nearly 500 short stories for magazines which he continued to do until his death because he loved to write short stories. He also wrote 14 novels.

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