Lawrence Treat Biography and List of Works

American writer frequently called the "father" of the modern police procedural novel, although Treat himself did not accept the honour. Treat's early novels paved the way for the radio and television police series Dragnet, John Creasey's Gideon stories, and Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novels. (See also Chester Himes and his series of Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones.)

But as a pioneer in the mystery genre, Treat developed a narrative framework, which differed from the traditional detective story, where the story centres on a single person, like Sherlock Holmes or Inspector Maigret. In Treat's novels there is a group of police detectives with family problems. They have conflicts inside departments, and work under-staffed and for long hours. The formula, which he started in the 1940s, has since been used repeatedly in books, movies, and television series.

Lawrence Treat was a New Yorker, who graduated from Darthmouth in 1924 and attained a law degree from Columbia in 1927. He worked as a lawyer, but then moved to Paris in 1928, and started to write mystery stories. Treat's earliest contributions to mystery fiction were picture puzzles, some of which were collected in BRINGING SHERLOCK HOME (1930).

After returning to the United States, Treat devoted himself to writing and produced 17 novels and over 300 short stories. His first novel, RUN FAR, RUN FAST (1937) was published under the name Goldstone. Treat was one of the founders of Mystery Writers of America. He twice won the Edgar Allan Poe Award: in 1965 for the short story 'H as in Homicide,' which first appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazie, and in 1978 for MYSTERY WRITERS' HANDBOOK.

Among Treat's best-known characters are Commander Bill Decker, Carl Wayard, a professor of psychology, and Mitch Taylor, a veteran police officer, and his sidekick Jub Freeman, an easygoing forensic expert. B AS IN BANSHEE (1940), D AS IN DEAD (1941), and O AS IN OMEN (1943) featured Carl Wayward, an intuitive criminologist. Taylor's greed leads to his involvement in graft and he is removed from the NYPD in THE BIG SHOT (1951).

Freeman appeared alone in H AS IN HUNTED (1946) and Decker was introduced in F AS IN FLIGHT (1948). With V AS IN VICTIM Treat created the police procedural as we know it and established his place in crime-fiction history. In the story Mitch Taylor bemoans the policeman's lot, tries to find ways to improve his chances of promotion, and investigates a hit-and-run accident. For the young detectives he wrote such exercises in observation, creativity and logic as CRIME AND PUZZLEMENT (1981-82) and YOU'RE THE DETECTIVE! (1983), in which the reader is asked to solve mysteries using clues found in the brief story and accompanying illustrations. - Treat died on January 7, 1998, in Oak Bluffs, Massachussetts.

Note: Sue Crafton titled her mystery novels with alphabetics in Treat's footsteps - Note: Treat lived in Martha's Vineyard, where one of his puzzle books, CRIME AND PUZZLEMENT: ON MARTHA'S VINEYARD, MOSTLY: 24 SOLVE-THEM-YOURSELF PICTURE MYSTERIES (1993), was also set. - For further reading: The Police Procedural by George Dove (1982); St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers, ed. by Jay P. Pederson (1996); "The Police Procedural" by Jon L. Breen (in Mystery and Suspense Writers, vol. 2, ed. by Robin W. Winks, 1998)

BRINGING SHERLOCK HOME, (1930)