Frances Crane

Frances Kirkwood Crane (October 27, 1890 – November 6, 1981) was an American mystery author, who introduced private investigator Pat Abbott and his future wife Jean in her first novel, The Turquoise Shop. The Abbotts investigated crimes in a total of 26 volumes, each with a color in the title.

Life and career The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. M. Kirkwood, Crane was born in Lawrenceville, Illinois, and hailed from a wealthy, well-educated family; most of her male relatives were doctors, and her aunt Nancy may have earned a master's degree, highly unusual for a woman of that time. Some biographies mistakenly list her birth year as 1896. Crane herself graduated from Lawrenceville High School and was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Illinois, and she did graduate study at the University of Chicago. She had a brother.

Radio From 1945 to 1947, the radio series, Abbott Mysteries, was based on Crane's characters. Between 1954 and 1955, the radio program Adventures of the Abbotts starred Claudia Morgan and Don Briggs (followed by Les Damon and Mandel Kramer) as the husband-and-wife crimefighters.