Frederick C. Davis was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, and graduated from Dartmouth College. In a career that covered more than forty years, he produced an astonishing one thousand short stories, and more than fifty novels, under his own name and under such pseudonyms as Murdo Coombs, Stephen Ransome, and Curtis Steele. Under his own name, he created a number of long-running series characters for Dime Detective. As Stephen Ransome, he wrote more than twenty semi-hard-boiled novels that many regard as his best work. A Ransome novel, Hearses Don't Hurry (1941), was filmed as Who Is Hope Schuyler? (1942). A Davis short story, 'The Devil Is Yellow,' was filmed as Double Alibi (1940), and another, 'Meet the Executioner,' was filmed as Lady in the Death House (1944).
