John William Wainwright (25 February 1921 – 19 September 1995) was an English crime novelist and author of 83 books, four of which have been published under the pen name Jack Ripley. He also wrote some short stories (mostly uncollected in book format), seven radio plays, and an indefinite amount of magazine articles and newspaper columns.

Wainwright was born in Hunslet, an area of inner-city south Leeds, in 1921. He left school at fifteen and served as a rear gunner in Lancaster bombers during the Second World War. In 1947 he joined the West Riding Constabulary as a Police Constable. While serving as a policeman, he went back to studying in his spare time – earning himself a law degree in 1956 – and in 1965 he tried writing a crime novel, which was accepted by George Hardinge, the editor of Collins Crime Club, and published as Death in a Sleeping City. In 1966 Wainwright left the force and became a full-time novelist. In 1968 Hardinge became senior editor at Macmillan Publishers, taking Wainwright's contract with him. Wainwright died in Blackpool in 1995, a few months after the publication of his last novel, The Life and Times of Christmas Calvert... Assassin.

An extremely prolific author – from 1966 to 1984 he kept an average of three books a year – Wainwright published 78 crime novels, a short-story collection and four non-fiction works, including two autobiographical volumes, Tail-End Charlie and Wainwright's Beat; a career guide, Shall I Be a Policeman? (1967), and a home security handbook, Guard Your Castle (1973; new edition, 1983).

One of his most popular novels is Brainwash (1977), upon which the movies Garde à vue and Under Suspicion are based. Cul-de-sac (1984) was also very well received in its days, mainly thanks to a warm endorsement by fellow writer Georges Simenon, who defined it "an unforgettable novel".

Most of his novels fall into the police procedural category, but Wainwright also tried his hand at the suspense thriller (Square Dance, 1975; Portrait in Shadows, 1986), the serial killer novel (A Ripple of Murders, 1978), the spy novel (The Crystallized Carbon Pig, 1966; Cause for a Killing, 1974), and the legal thriller (The Jury People, 1978; Man of Law, 1980), with a couple of forays into the classical whodunit and the locked room mystery (High-Class Kill, 1973). His novel All on a Summer's Day (1981), which chronicles twenty-four hours in the life of a police station in the north of England, is quite similar in conception to Ed McBain's 87th Precinct novel Hail, Hail the Gang's All Here (1971). Wainwright was also a passionate traditional jazz and swing music fan, and some of his novels have a strong jazz background, particularly the black comedy Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me (1977).

In an interview given to the Italian periodical Il Giallo Mondadori in 1975, Wainwright cited Raymond Chandler, Ed McBain and Ian Fleming as his favourite authors. ...

Source: Article "John Wainwright (author)" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

John Wainwright (25 février 1921 - septembre 1995) est un écrivain britannique de roman policier. Il a également publié quatre titres sous le pseudonyme Jack Ripley.

Les films Garde à vue et Suspicion sont adaptés de Brainwash (1979).

Wainwright naît à Hunslet, dans le sud de Leeds, Yorkshire de l'Ouest, Angleterre le 25 février 1921. Il quitte l'école à quinze ans et devint canonnier dans la tourelle arrière des bombardiers Lancaster de la Royal Air Force pendant la Seconde Guerre mondiale. En 1947, il rejoint le West Riding Constabulary en tant que connétable (Police Constable). Pendant ce temps, il prend les études sur son temps libre, et en 1956, il obtient un Law degree.

En 1965, il écrit un roman policier, accepté par George Hardinge, éditeur au Collins Crime Club, et publié sous le titre Death in a Sleeping City. En 1966, Wainwright quitte la police pour écrire à plein temps. En 1968, Hardinge devint senior editor chez Macmillan Publishers où il amène Wainwright. À partir de 1969, ce dernier est également éditorialiste du journal Northern Echo de Darlington dans le comté de Durham.

Auteur de quatre-vingt-trois ouvrages, il a également écrit des nouvelles (publiées en recueil, pour la plupart), sept dramatiques radiophoniques et de nombreux articles de presse. Sa production dans le domaine de la littérature policière touche tous les genres: whodunit, thriller, roman noir et surtout les romans de procédure policière. Wainwright a en effet créé au cours de sa carrière plusieurs séries ayant pour héros récurrents un policier professionnel d'âge moyen qui enquête de façon scrupuleuse dans le cadre de ses fonctions. La forte production de l'écrivain donne parfois des récits bien ficelés, mais aux intrigues standards et aux personnages interchangeables.

Wainwright meurt en septembre 1995, quelques mois après la parution de son dernier roman, The Life and Times of Christmas Calvert... Assassin.

Source: Article "John Wainwright" de Wikipédia en français, soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA 3.0.