Dorothy Salisbury Davis (1916- ) is an American author of novels and short stories. She was born in Chicago and grew up in rural Illinois. She worked in advertising and as a librarian before beginning to write fiction in the late 1940s. She married Harry Davis, an actor, in 1946 and is a past President of the MWA.

Davis's books often depict the underdog; people experiencing poverty, or crises of religious faith. Her book A Gentle Murderer was chosen as one of the Haycraft-Queen cornerstones of detective fiction.

Bibliography

Mrs Norris & Jasper Tully

Death of an Old Sinner (1957)

A Gentleman Called (1958)

Old Sinners Never Die (1959)

Julie Hayes

A Death in the Life (1976)

Scarlet Night (1980)

Lullaby of Murder (1984)

The Habit of Fear (1987)

Others

The Judas Cat (1949)

The Clay Hand (1950)

A Gentle Murderer (1951)

A Town of Masks (1952)

Black Sheep, White Lamb (1963)

The Pale Betrayer (1965)

Enemy and Brother (1967)

God Speed the Night (1968) (with Jerome Ross)

Where the Dark Streets Go (1969)

Crime without Murder (1972)

Shock Wave (1972)

Little Brothers (1973)

Collections

Tales for a Stormy Night (1984)

In the Still of the Night (2001)

Selected titles of Short stories (list is not complete)

Spring Fever (1952)

A Matter of Public Notice (1957)

The Muted Horn (1957)

Mrs Norris Visits the Library (1959)

By the Scruff of the Soul (1963)

Old Friends (1975)

The Last Party (1980)

The Devil and His Due (1981)

Natural Causes (1983)

Justina (1989)

A Silver Thimble (1990)

The Puppet (1991)

To Forget Mary Ellen (1992)

Now Is Forever (1994)

Miles to Go (1996)

The Scream (1998)

Hank's Tale (2000)

The Letter (2002)