Hoch, Edward D.

Edward D. Hoch (1930 2008) was a master of the mystery short story. Born in Rochester, New York, he sold his first story, The Village of the Dead, to "Famous Detective Stories", then one of the last remaining old-time pulps. The tale introduced Simon Ark, a two-thousand-year-old Coptic priest who became one of Hoch s many series characters. Others included small-town doctor Sam Hawthorne, police detective Captain Leopold, and Revolutionary War secret agent Alexander Swift. By rotating through his stable of characters, most of whom aged with time, Hoch was able to achieve extreme productivity,