Lawrence Arthur Goldstone (1903–1998), better known by his pen name, Lawrence Treat, was an American mystery writer, a pioneer of the genre of novels that became known as

police procedurals The police procedural, police show, or police crime drama is a subgenre of procedural drama and detective fiction that emphasises the investigative procedure of police officers, police detectives, or law enforcement agency, law enforcement agencies ...

. Treat began his professional life as a lawyer, having attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

and

Columbia Law School Columbia Law School (CLS) is the Law school in the United States, law school of Columbia University, a Private university, private Ivy League university in New York City. The school was founded in 1858 as the Columbia College Law School. The un ...

. When his law firm broke up in 1928, shortly after he had begun to work there, he traveled to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. A friend living in

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

provided him with free room and board, and Goldstone decided to settle down and teach himself to write. His knowledge of law led him to try his hand at crime writing. He sold his very first novel and returned to the United States to write full-time. In a career that would span over seventy years, Treat wrote several hundred short stories for mystery magazines and other publications. He was a founding member of the

Mystery Writers of America Mystery Writers of America (MWA) is a professional organization of mystery and crime writers, based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday. It presents the E ...

and a two-time winner of the MWA's

Edgar Award The Edgar Allan Poe Awards, popularly called the Edgars, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America which is based in New York City. Named after American writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849), a pioneer in the genre, the awards hon ...

. His first award came in 1965, for the short story "H as in Homicide"; his second was a Special Edgar Award in 1978 for editing a new edition of the ''Mystery Writer's Handbook'', the MWA's guide for aspiring mystery writers, first published in 1956. As a member of the League of American Writers, he served on its ''Keep America Out of War Committee'' in January 1940 during the period of the Hitler-Stalin pact. He died on January 7, 1998, in his hometown of

Martha's Vineyard Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

at the age of 94.

Selected works

*''Run Far, Run Fast'' (1937) *''B as in Banshee'' (1940) *''D as in Dead'' (1941) *''H as in Hangman'' (1942) *''O as in Omen'' (1943) *''Wail for the Corpses'' (1943) *''Leather Man'' (1944) *''V as in Victim'' (1945) *''H as in Hunted'' (1946) *''Q as in Quicksand'' (1947) *''T as in Trapped'' (1947) *''F as in Flight'' (1948) *''Over the Edge'' (1948) *''Trial and Terror'' (1949) *''Big Shot'' (1951) *''Lady, Drop Dead'' (1960) *''Venus Unarmed'' (1961) *''P as in Police'' (edited by

Ellery Queen Ellery Queen is a pseudonym created in 1928 by the American detective fiction writers Frederic Dannay (1905–1982) and Manfred Bennington Lee (1905–1971). It is also the name of their main fictional detective, a mystery writer in New York City ...

) (1970) *''Crime and Puzzlement'' (1981) *''Crime and Puzzlement 2'' (1982) *''The Clue Armchair Detective'' (1983) *''Crime and Puzzlement 3'' (1988) *''Crime and Puzzlement 4: My Cousin Phoebe'' (1991) *''Crime and Puzzlement 5: On Martha's Vineyard, Mostly'' (1993)

References

1903 births 1998 deaths American male novelists American mystery writers Edgar Award winners 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers Dartmouth College alumni Columbia Law School alumni {{US-novelist-1900s-stub