But self-described in later years as “a little old lady with white hair and a raincoat,” Davis was perhaps best known for the complicated and conflicted protagonists of her who-done-its. In a recent interview for the Boston Globe, Davisʼs close friend and best-selling mystery writer Sara Paretsky called Davis “a deep explorer of the dark side of the human mind.”

Born in Chicago, Davis grew up on farms in Illinois and Wisconsin. At 17 she learned she was adopted. That discovery and her Catholic upbringing colored the plots of several books; characters search for their roots and wrestle with questions of religion and morality. In 1938, she graduated from Barat College in Lake Forest, Ill. She worked as a magicianʼs assistant during the Depression, a job she didnʼt much like - magicians often appear in her books and are seldom sympathetic characters. She went on to work in public relations for a meatpacking company.

In 1946 she met and married Harry Davis, a stage manager for a touring production of The Glass Menagerie. He encouraged Davis to write, and after many rejections, her first novel, The Judas Cat, was published in 1949.

During her five-decade career Davis wrote 20 novels including the 1951 bestseller A Gentle Murderer. In 1987 she published The Habit of Fear, the fourth and final book in a series featuring Julie Hayes, actress turned fortuneteller turned New York City tabloid reporter with an affinity for the street people of the city. Hayes is one of Davisʼ most popular heroines and epitomizes Davisʼ knack for writing vulnerable characters at the center of violent events.

Davis garnered six Edgar Award nominations from the Mystery Writers of America and in 1985 was named a grand master of that society for lifetime achievement. In 1986 she helped found Sisters in Crime, a group of female mystery writers dedicated to promoting the work of women writers.

According to friend and executor Laurie Ferguson, Davis was enthusiastic when, in 2013, digital publisher Open Road Media made 22 of Davisʼs books, many out of print, available as e-books although Davis then asked, “Whatʼs an e-book?”

At a memorial service in September at the Palisades Presbyterian Church, just across the street from the small grey house where Davis and her husband lived for several decades, friends Bill McGivney, Bigelow Green, Peggy Fox and Sara Paretsky spoke, remembering Davis fondly and celebrating her many achievements. Davis was 98.