# Lynn Brock

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{{Short description|Irish writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name         = Lynn Brock
| image        =
| image_size   = 
| caption      = 
| birth_name   = Alexander Patrick McAllister
| birth_date   = {{birth date|1877|7|4|df=yes}}
| birth_place  = [Dublin](/source/Dublin), [Ireland](/source/Ireland), [United Kingdom](/source/United_Kingdom)
| death_date   = {{death date and age|df=yes|1943|4|6|1877|7|4}}
| death_place  = [Dorchester, Dorset](/source/Dorchester%2C_Dorset), [England](/source/England), United Kingdom
| pseudonym    = 
| other_names  = Lynn Brock,<br>Alister McAllister,<br>Anthony Wharton
| occupation   = Novelist
| years_active =  
}}

'''Alexander Patrick McAllister''' (4 July 1877 – 6 April 1943) was an Irish-English writer, best known for a series of [mystery novel](/source/mystery_novel)s written under the [pen name](/source/pen_name) '''Lynn Brock'''. He also used pen name '''Alister McAllister''' and wrote several plays as '''Anthony Wharton'''.

He was educated at the [National University of Ireland](/source/National_University_of_Ireland) (NUI), where he served as librarian/clerk/chief clerk between 1903 and 1914. After his first success with the play 'Irene Wycherly' in London in 1906 he wrote a series of plays though remained based in Dublin.

During the [First World War](/source/First_World_War) he served with the [British Army](/source/British_Army) in [British Intelligence](/source/British_Intelligence)<ref>Great War Theatre https://www.greatwartheatre.org.uk/db/person/364/</ref> and in the [Machine Gun Corps](/source/Machine_Gun_Corps) being wounded twice in France.<ref>Reilly p.197</ref>

After retiring from the NUI he moved to London and later to [Ferndown](/source/Ferndown) in Dorset. He continued writing and turned his hand to fiction, producing short stories, serious fiction and the series of Colonel Gore detective novels under the name Lynn Brock,<ref>Dictionary of Irish Biography https://www.dib.ie/biography/mcallister-alexander-patrick-anthony-wharton-a5546</ref> which enjoyed popularity in the 1920s and 1930s during the [Golden Age of Detective Fiction](/source/Golden_Age_of_Detective_Fiction). His novels employ a complexity of style and are generally set in rural locations.<ref>Reilly p.198</ref>

He died aged 65 in Dorchester, Dorset and was buried in the Dorchester (Weymouth Road) Cemetery.<ref>FindaGrave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/269243069/alexander_patrick-mcallister</ref>

==Main works==

===Plays===
* Irene Wycherley (1906/7)
* A Nocturne (1908)
* At The Barn (1912)
* 13 Simon Street (1913) 
* A Guardian Angel (1915 - one act play)
* The Riddle (1916 - with Morley Roberts)
* Needles and pins (1929)
* The Mendip mystery (pub. 1929, staged 1931)
* The O'Cuddy (staged 1943)

===Colonel Wyckham Gore novels===
* ''[The Deductions of Colonel Gore](/source/The_Deductions_of_Colonel_Gore)'' (1924)
* ''[Colonel Gore’s Second Case](/source/Colonel_Gore%E2%80%99s_Second_Case)'' (1925)
* ''[The Kink](/source/The_Kink_(novel))'' (1927)
* ''[The Slip-Carriage Mystery](/source/The_Slip-Carriage_Mystery)'' (1928)
* ''[The Mendip Mystery](/source/The_Mendip_Mystery)'' (1929)
* ''[Q.E.D.](/source/Q.E.D._(novel))''  (1930)
* ''[The Stoat](/source/The_Stoat)'' (1940)

===Other novels===
* ''The Two Of Diamonds'' (1926)
* ''[The Dagwort Coombe Murder](/source/The_Dagwort_Coombe_Murder)'' (1929)
* ''[Nightmare](/source/Nightmare_(Brock_novel))'' (1932)
* ''[The Silver Sickle Case](/source/The_Silver_Sickle_Case)'' (1938)
* ''[Fourfingers](/source/Fourfingers)'' (1939)
* ''[The Riddle of the Roost](/source/The_Riddle_of_the_Roost)'' (1939)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* Keating, Henry Reymond Fitzwalter. ''Whodunit?: A Guide to Crime, Suspense, and Spy Fiction''. Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, 1982.
* Reilly, John M. ''Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers''. Springer, 2015.

==External links==
* {{FadedPage|id=McAllister, Alister|name=Lynn Brock|author=yes}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brock, Lynn}}
Category:1877 births
Category:1943 deaths
Category:British writers
Category:Irish crime fiction writers
Category:Irish mystery writers
Category:Writers from Dublin (city)
Category:Writers of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction
Category:British Army personnel of World War I

{{Ireland-writer-stub}}

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Lynn Brock](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Brock) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lynn_Brock?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.