| Margaret Scherf (1908-1979) was an American mystery writer. She was born in West Virgina and attended public schools in New Jersey, Wyoming, and Montana before graduating from Antioch College in 1928. Scherf then moved to New York, working as a secretary to the editor at Robert McBride & Company for a year. After leaving McBride, she worked for a few years for the Camp Fire Girls national magazine, and as a secretary and copywriter for Wise Book Company. From 1939, Scherf was a self-employed writer except for serving as Secretary to the Naval Inspector at the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Brooklyn during WWII. Her first novel, The Corpse Grows a Beard, was published by Putnam in 1940 and she continued to publish regularly for the next 30 years. She served a year (1965) as a member of the Montana House of Representatives. Also in 1965, Scherf married Perry E. Beeby. Margaret Scherf died on May 12, 1979. Her manuscripts are housed in the University of Oregon Library in Eugene, Oregon. |
Margaret Scherf published 27 novels, 26 of them mysteries, as well as three juvenile mystery novels. In addition, she penned a volume in the Nancy Drew series, The Secret of the Wooden Lady. Scherf writes "soft" mysteries, "mystery imbued with wisecracking and even slapstick humor." She described her own writing goals this way - "My idea was to write amusing books, without too much gore but with sufficient suspense to carry the reader on." She has three series detectives: Martin Buell, a slow-moving clergyman; Henry and Emily Bryce, a furniture-painting couple; and Dr Grace Severance, a retiered pathologist.
Two of Scherf's books have been reissued by Rue Morgue Press.
Bibliography
The Corpse Grows a Beard (1946)
The Case of the Kippered Corpse (1941)
They Came to Kill (1942)
The Owl in the Cellar (1947)
Always Murder a Friend (1949)
Murder Makes Me Nervous (1952)
Gilbert's Last Toothache (1949) aka For the Love of Murder
The Gun in Daniel Webster's Bust (1949)
The Curious Custard Pie (1950) aka Divine and Deadly
The Green Plaid Pants (1951) aka The Corpse With One Shoe
The Elk and the Evidence (1952)
Dead - Senate Office Building (1953) aka The Case of the Hated Senator
Glass on the Stairs (1955)
The Cautious Overshoes (1956)
Judicial Body (1957)
Never Turn Your Back (1959)
Death and the Diplomat (1964) aka The Diplomat and the Gold Piano
Corpse in the Flannel Nightgown (1966)
The Banker's Bones (1969)
The Beautiful Birthday Cake (1971)
To Cache a Millionaire (1972)
If You Want Murder Well Done (1974)
Don't Wake Me Up While I'm Driving (1978)
The Beaded Banana (1979)
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