Moray Dalton (1889–1963) was a British detective novelist who published numerous mystery works under the pen name Moray Dalton. Active in the first half of the twentieth century, during the golden age of British detective fiction, she belongs to that tradition, as her representative work Olive in Italy illustrates. Because public information is limited, details of her life, education, and writing career remain largely unknown; what can be confirmed is only her British nationality, her dates, and her use of a pen name. Judging from the surviving works, Dalton's mysteries emphasize plot development and puzzle construction, with careful attention to character relationships and settings, in a style close to classic fair-play detection that appealed to genre readers of the period. Though her output and influence were smaller than those of the leading writers of her day, her work still offers a glimpse of the vitality of golden-age detective fiction. The library currently holds one of her works, Olive in Italy.
