James Douglas Rutherford McConnell (1915-10-14)14 October 1915 Kilkenny, Ireland
Died
29 April 1988(1988-04-29) (aged 72) Monxton near Andover, Hampshire
Pen name
Douglas Rutherford
Language
English
Genre
Detective novels
Years active
1950–1987
James Douglas Rutherford McConnell (14 October 1915 – 29 April 1988) who used the pen-name Douglas Rutherford was a language teacher and an author.
Biography
Born in Kilkenny, Ireland (1915-10-14)14 October 1915. He went to school in Yorkshire, studied at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating in 1937, and received his MA from the University of Reading. During the Second World War, he served in the British Army Intelligence Corps in North Africa and Italy. After demobilisation, he became a modern languages teacher at Eton College from 1946 until his retirement in 1973.[1]
Writing on weekends and holidays, he published his first novel, Comes the Blind Fury, in 1950. Many of his works centered on race-tracks or sports cars. With Francis Durbridge, he co-authored two novels in the Paul Temple series: The Tyler Mystery in 1957 and East of Algiers in 1959. Under the name James McConnell, he published books on learning foreign languages and on Eton.
He married, in 1939, Margaret Worsley 'Peggy' Gandy (1910–1952) - daughter of Surg.-Cdr. Eric Worsley Gandy OBE; and secondly in 1953, Laura Margaret Goodwin (1922–2001).
He died on (1988-04-29)29 April 1988 in Monxton, Hampshire.
Works
Novels
Series: Paddy Regan
Comes the Blind Fury, 1950
Meet a Body, 1951
Telling of Murder, 1952 (alternative title Flight into Peril)
Series: Paul Temple (with Francis Durbridge)
The Tyler Mystery, 1957
East of Algiers, 1959
Other novels
The Chequered Flag, 1956
Grand Prix Murder, 1955
The Perilous Sky, 1956
The Long Echo, 1957
A Shriek of Tyres, 1958 (US title On the Track of Death, 1959)
Murder Is Incidental, 1961
The Creeping Flesh, 1963
Best Motor Racing Stories, 1965 (ed.)
The Black Leather Murders, 1966
Skin for Skin, 1968
The Gilt-edged Cockpit, 1969
Clear the Fast Lane, 1971
Kick Start, 1973
Killer on the Track, 1973
The Gunshot Grand Prix, 1972
Rally to the Death, 1974
Race Against the Sun, 1975
Mystery Tour, 1975
Return Load, 1977
Collision Course, 1978
Turbo, 1980
The Benedictine Commando, 1980
Porcupine Basin, 1981
Stop at Nothing, 1983
Battlefield Madonna, 1985
A Game of Sudden Death, 1987
Short story
The Last Bullet, 1951
Assignment in San Sebastian, (Pocket Book Weekly 23 Apr 1955)
End of an Epoch in 'Omnibus of Speed' (Putnam 1958)
Best Underworld Stories (ed) (Faber & Faber 1969)
Non-fiction Books
Written as James McConnell or J. D. R. McConnell
Learn Italian Quickly, 1960
Learn Spanish Quickly, 1961
Learn French Quickly, 1966
Eton: How It Works, 1967
Eton Repointed: The New Structures of an Ancient Foundation, 1970 with photographs by Ray Williams
Treasures of Eton, 1976 (ed.)
Early Learning Foundation, 1979
English Public Schools, 1985
Sources
Mesplède, Claude (1994), Les années "Série noire" : bibliographie critique d'une collection policière (in French), vol. 3 1966-1972, Amiens: Editions Encrage, ISBN978-2-906-38953-3.
Mesplède, Claude (1995), Les années "Série noire" : bibliographie critique d'une collection policière (in French), vol. 4 1972-1982, Amiens: Editions Encrage, ISBN978-2-906-38963-2.
Mesplède, Claude; Schleret, Jean-Jacques (1982), SN, voyage au bout de la Noire : inventaire de 732 auteurs et de leurs œuvres publiés en séries Noire et Blème : suivi d'une filmographie complète (in French), Paris: Futuropoli.