Mystery
Monday: Who was Milton Propper?
I’m always intrigued when I discover an author who has
written multiple books (in this case fourteen), and yet I’ve never heard of
him.
A native of Philadelphia, Milton Morris Propper was
born in 1906, yet almost nothing is known of his upbringing. He attended the
University of Pennsylvania where he obtain a law degree, and upon graduation in
1929, he was admitted to the Bar.
That same year, his first novel, The Strange Disappearance of Mary Young was published. A police
procedural, the book features Tommy Rankin, a specialist detective in the
Philadelphia Homicide Bureau. Scholars and critics often compare Milton’s books
to those of Freeman Wills Crofts, an Irish writer whose career spanned nearly
forty years. Not surprising as Milton admitted he was a great fan of Crofts’s
work.
There are conflicting reports as to whether Milton
practiced law, but it is certain that by the mid-1930s he worked for the Social
Security Administration and wrote his mysteries on the side, all of which take
place in Philadelphia. 
Most of his novels are formulaic: the discovery of a
body under unusual circumstances, suspicion scattered among lots of characters
with lots to hide, the police are above the law, and the rich and powerful can
do now wrong. Estate issues and legal questions are an integral part of many of
his stories which speaks to his Law degree. Toward the end of each book,
Detective Rankin puts together some piece of the puzzle not formerly revealed
to the reader and determines the killer is part of the victim’s life and avenging
something from the past. A chase entails in order to catch the murderer.
Despite his literary success, Milton’s personal life
was difficult and “messy,” as one scholar put it. He was estranged from his
family, had run-ins with the police, and mismanaged his funds to the point he
was living in poverty. Sadly, he lost his writing markets and deciding that
life was no longer worth living, killed himself in 1962.
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