Augustus Muir

Augustus Muir (full name Charles Augustus Carlow Muir [1892-1982]) graduated from the University of Edinburgh and followed a career in letters, working as a novelist, historian, biographer, journalist, and editor. Following World War I, he became the editor of the World newspaper. He wrote a biography of Charles White, the anecdotal Scotland's Road of Romance: Travels in the Footsteps of Prince Charlie (1934), and several histories of industrial firms. In 1953, he edited How to Choose and Enjoy Wine. Muir had a brief try at screen-writing and was the coauthor with Joseph Krumgold of The Phantom Submarine (1940), which starred Bruce Bennett and Anita Louise.

He had a burst of popularity in the 1920s and 1930s (his entire mystery-writing career spanned only 1925-1940, with fifteen books published). Virtually all of Muir's mystery thrillers were set in Scotland. He also wrote two thrillers under the pseudonym Austin Moore: Birds of the Night (1930) and The House of Lies (1932), both of which were reissued as by Augustus Muir.

[From The Black Lizard Big Book of Locked-Room Mysteries, by Otto Penzler (2014)]