江户川乱步（1894—1965），原名平井太郎，生于日本三重县名张町。一九二三年在日本杂志《新青年》上发表备受好评的处女作《两分铜币》，从此开展推理小说创作。江户川乱步掌握了推理小说的本质，通晓推理小说是一种从逻辑上解开谜团的理智文学。他是日本推理小说界当之无愧的开拓者，是日本本格派推理小说的创始人。

Tarō Hirai (平井 太郎 Hirai Tarō, October 21, 1894 – July 28, 1965), better known by the pseudonym Edogawa Ranpo (江戸川 乱歩), also romanized as Edogawa Rampo, was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the leader of a group of boy detectives known as the "Boy Detectives Club" (少年探偵団 Shōnen tantei dan).

Ranpo was an admirer of Western mystery writers, and especially of Edgar Allan Poe. His pen name is a rendering of Poe's name. Other authors who were special influences on him were Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, whom he attempted to translate into Japanese during his days as a student at Waseda University, and the Japanese mystery writer Ruikō Kuroiwa.

-- Wikipedia