Anne Hocking was a British crime novelist. She began her career in the ‘Golden Age’ of crime fiction, and was best known for her detective stories featuring Chief Superintendent William Austen. She was born Naomi Annie Hocking Messer and nicknamed Mona, the daughter of Joseph Hocking, niece of Silas Hocking and Salome Hocking, and sister of Elizabeth Nisot and Joan Shill, all of whom were also writers. She married Frederick William Dunlop in 1910; he died in 1914. In 1918 she married Henry R. Messer. Anne Hocking died at Battle Hospital in Reading, Berkshire in 1966.

Hocking was a prolific writer and produced over 50 novels between 1930 and her death. Beginning with A Castle for Sale, her works over that decade alternated between those authored as Mona Messer and others as Anne

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Citation: Turner, Nick. "Anne Hocking". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 November 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=14668, accessed 23 April 2024.]

14668 Anne Hocking 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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