Born Julia Clara Catherine Dolores Robbins on December 25, 1907, in San Antonio, Texas. Daughter of W. H. Robbins and Myrtle Statham, who married in Caldwell County, Texas, in 1901. Father died and mother remarried to a Mr. Norton. Moved with mother to Kern County, California, by 1920. Mother divorced and married a third time, to Oscar Carl “Arthur” Birk, in 1922. Took stepfather’s surname; family moved to Long Beach, California, by 1930. Published poems while completing graduate studies at the University of California; enrolled in a nursing school. She worked as a nurse at Hollywood Hospital, and later became a teacher before pursuing a professional writing career. In 1934 married Beverley Olsen, a radio operator on a merchant vessel whom she later divorced. Married Hubert Allen “Bert” Hitchens, a railroad investigating officer, who had a son, Gordon (later founder of Film Comment and contributor to Variety). Together they had a son, Michael, and a daughter, Patricia. As D. B. Olsen, published two novels featuring Lt. Stephen Mayhew, The Clue in the Clay (1938) and Death Cuts a Silhouette (1939); twelve novels featuring elderly amateur sleuth Rachel Murdock: The Cat Saw Murder (1939), The Alarm of the Black Cat (1942), Catspaw for Murder (1943), The Cat Wears a Noose (1944), Cats Don’t Smile (1945), Cats Don’t Need Coffins (1946), Cats Have Tall Shadows (1948), The Cat Wears a Mask (1949), Death Wears Cat’s Eyes (1950), Cat and Capricorn (1951), The Cat Walk (1953), and Death Walks on Cat Feet (1956); and six novels featuring Professor A. Pennyfeather: Shroud for the Bride (1945), Gallows for the Groom (1947), Devious Design (1948), Something About Midnight (1950), Love Me in Death (1951), and Enrollment Cancelled (1952). Published play A Cookie for Henry (1941) as Dolores Birk Hitchens; novel Shivering Bough (1942) as Noel Burke; and novels Blue Geranium (1944) and The Unloved (1965) as Dolan Birkley. Co-wrote five railroad detective novels with Bert Hitchens: F . O.B. Murder (1955), One - Way Ticket (1956), End of Line (1957), The Man Who Followed Women (1959), and The Grudge (1963). As Dolores Hitchens, published two private detective novels featuring California private eye Jim Sader: Sleep With Strangers (1955) and Sleep With Slander (1960); as well as stand-alone suspense novels Stairway to an Empty Room (1951), Nets to Catch the Wind (1952), Terror Lurks in Darkness (1953), Beat Back the Tide (1954), Fools’ Gold (1958), The Watcher (1959, adapted for the television series Thriller in 1960), Footsteps in the Night (1961), The Abductor (1962), The Bank with the Bamboo Door (1965), The Man Who Cried All the Way Home (1966), Postscript to Nightmare (1967), A Collection of Strangers (1969), The Baxter Letters (1971), and In a House Unknown (1973). Jean-Luc Godard adapted Fools’ Gold into the 1964 film Band of Outsiders. Died on August 1, 1973, in Orange County, California.

Notes

NOTES

In the notes below, the reference numbers denote page and line of the print edition. No note is made for material included in standard desk-reference books.

16.14–15 You ain’t got . . . that swing.”] From “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing),” a 1931 jazz standard by Duke Ellington (1899–1974) and Irving Mills (1894–1985).

16.20 Sousa] American composer John Philip Sousa (1854–1932), whose marches included “The Liberty Bell” (1893) and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” (1897).