{{Short description|English crime writer (1889–1966)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2015}} {{Use British English|date=January 2015}} {{Infobox writer | name = Anne Hocking | image = | caption = | birth_name=Naomi Annie Hocking<ref>''England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915''</ref> | birth_date = <!-- Q4 --> 1889 | birth_place =Thornton Heath, Surrey, England<ref>1891 England Census</ref> | death_date = 17 March 1966 | death_place = Reading, Berkshire, England | occupation = Novelist | genre = Murder mystery, Crime fiction | movement = | notableworks = | influences = | signature = }} '''Naomi Annie Hocking Messer''' (1889 – 17 March 1966), known as '''Anne Hocking''' and nicknamed "Mona", was an English crime writer, best remembered for her detective stories featuring Chief Superintendent William Austen, starting with ''Old Mrs. Fitzgerald'' (1939).

== Life and career == The daughter of Joseph Hocking, niece of Silas Hocking and Salome Hocking and sister of Elizabeth Nisot and Joan Shill, all writers, Anne Hocking was a prolific mystery writer, author of more than 40 genre novels between 1930 and 1962. One of them (1940's ''The Wicked Flee'') was made into a British crime film in 1957.

She was married first, in 1910, to Frederick William Dunlop, who died in August 1914 in Buckinghamshire.<ref name="probate">''England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995''</ref> She married secondly, in 1918, to Henry R Messer.<ref>''England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915''</ref> She died at Battle Hospital in Reading, Berkshire in 1966.<ref name="probate"/>

== Bibliography ==

=== ''Chief Superintendent William Austen'' series ===

* ''Old Mrs. Fitzgerald'' (1939). Serialised Weekly, Sunday Post (1939) <ref name=ABE>{{cite web |url= https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL2075679A/Anne_Hocking |title= Anne Hocking |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= Open Library |publisher= |access-date= December 16, 2025 |quote=}}</ref> * ''The Wicked Flee'' (1940) * ''Miss Milverton'' (1941) AKA ''Poison is a Bitter Brew'' (Doubleday 1942) * ''One Shall Be Taken'' (1942) * ''Nile Green'' AKA ''Death Loves a Shining Mark'' (1943) * ''Six Green Bottles'' (1943) * ''The Vultures Gather'' (1945) * ''Death at the Wedding'' (1946) <ref name=ABE /> * ''Prussian Blue'' (1947) AKA ''The Finishing Touch'' (Doubleday 1947) <ref name=ABETWO>{{cite web |url= https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/author/messer-mona-naomi-anne-anne-hocking/ |title= Anne Hocking |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website= ABE Books |publisher= |access-date= December 16, 2025 |quote=}}</ref> * ''At "The Cedars"'' (1949) * ''Death Disturbs Mr. Jefferson'' (1950) <ref name=ABE /> * ''Mediterranean Murder'' AKA ''Killing Kin'' (1951) <ref name=ABE /> * ''The Best Laid Plans'' (1952) (Doubleday 1950) * ''There's Death in the Cup'' (1952) <ref name=ABE /> * ''Death Among The Tulips'' (1953) * ''The Evil That Men Do'' (1953) * ''And No One Wept'' (1954) * ''Poison in Paradise'' (1955) <ref name=ABE /> * ''A Reason for Murder'' (1955) * ''Murder at Mid-Day'' (1956) * ''Relative Murder'' (1957) <ref name=ABE /> * ''The Simple Way of Poison'' (1957) * ''Epitaph for a Nurse'' AKA ''A Victim Must Be Found'' (1958) <ref name=ABE /> * ''Poisoned Chalice'' (1959) * ''To Cease Upon the Midnight'' (1959) * ''The Thin-Spun Life'' (1960) * ''Candidates for Murder'' (1961) * ''He Had to Die'' (1962) * ''Murder Cries Out'' (1968) (Finished by Evelyn Healey)

=== Other crime novels ===

* ''Cat's Paw'' (1933) * ''Death Duel'' (1933) * ''Walk Into My Parlour'' (1934) * ''The Hunt is Up'' (1934) * ''Without the Option'' (1935) * ''Stranglehold'' (1936) * ''The House of En-dor'' (1936) * ''As I Was Going to St. Ives'' (1937) * ''What a Tangled Web'' (1937) * ''Ill Deeds Done'' (1938) * ''The Little Victims Play'' (1938) * ''So Many Doors'' (1939) * ''Deadly is the Evil Tongue'' (1940) * ''Night's Candles'' (1941)

=== Crime novels, signed by "Mona Messer" ===

* ''A Castle for Sale'' (1930) * ''Mouse Trap'' (1931) <ref name=ABETWO />

=== Non-crime novels, signed by "Mona Messer" ===

* ''Eternal Compromise'' (1932) * ''A Dinner of Herbs'' (1933) * ''The End of the Lane'' (1933) * ''Playing Providence'' (1934) * ''Wife of Richard'' (1934) * ''Cuckoo’s Brood'' (1935) * ''Life Owes Me Something'' (1936) * ''Tomorrow Also'' (1937) * ''Marriage is Like That'' (1938) * ''Stranger’s Vineyard'' (1939) * ''The Gift of a Daughter'' (1940)

==References== * John M. Reilly, ''Twentieth Century Crime and Mystery Writers'', 2<sup>e</sup> édition, New York, St. Martin’s Press, 2007, p.&nbsp;460-461. * Jacques Baudou et Jean-Jacques Schleret, ''Le Vrai Visage du Masque'', Volume 1, Paris, Futuropolis, 1984, p.&nbsp;243. * Anne Martinetti, ''Le Masque. Histoire d'une collection'', Paris, Éditions Encrage, 1997, p.&nbsp;77. * Alan M. Kent, ''Pulp Methodism: The Lives & Literature of Silas, Joseph & Salome Hocking'', Cornwall, Cornish Hillside Publications, 2002, chapter 6.

==Notes== {{reflist}}

== External links == * {{IMDb title|qid=Q7767523|title=The Surgeon's Knife}} * [http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/anne-hocking.htm Classic Crime Fiction website] * [http://www.stopyourekillingme.com/H_Authors/Hocking_Anne.html Stop You're Killing Me website]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hocking, Anne}} Category:1889 births Category:Date of birth missing Category:1966 deaths Category:20th-century English novelists Category:English crime fiction writers Category:English mystery writers Category:English women mystery writers Category:Writers from the London Borough of Croydon Category:Writers from Thornton Heath Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction Category:20th-century English women novelists Category:English people of Cornish descent