John George Reitci (February 26, 1922 – April 25, 1983) was an American writer, primarily known for his vast output of crime fiction short stories under the pen name Jack Ritchie.

After attending Boys Technical High School, Ritchie enrolled at the Milwaukee State Teachers College for two years.

[1]: 222  During the Second World War, he enlisted or was drafted into the United States Army in 1942 and was stationed in the Central Pacific for two years, serving for much of that period on the island of Kwajalein.

[a][5] According to Ritchie, to gauge his talent, he decided to spend a year writing fifty stories, submitting one per week, and if none of them sold, he would give up on being an author.

[b] The couple made their living from the combined income of their freelance writing, though Jack Ritchie stated that they never collaborated on any of their stories.

[5] When asked about influences on his work, Ritchie stated that he admired the writings of Agatha Christie, John D. MacDonald, Raymond Chandler, and Donald E.

[3] Shortly after completing his only novel, Tiger Island, Jack Ritchie died of a heart attack at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Milwaukee.

[14] For Boys' Life, Ritchie regularly wrote stories about comic interactions with exchange students from Liechtenstein, set at fictional Robert Louis Stevenson High School in Wisconsin.

There are four anthology monographs in English, three of which were published posthumously: A New Leaf and other stories (1971),[25] The Adventures of Henry Turnbuckle (1987),[22] Little Boxes of Bewilderment (1989),[10] and The Best of Manhunt 4 (2022).

[26] After his death, new stories continued to be published posthumously, the most recent being "The Fabricator", which appeared in the May, 2009 issue of the Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.

Several prominent editors and authors in the mystery field who have praised Ritchie include Alfred Hitchcock, Donald E. Westlake, Anthony Boucher, Francis M. Nevins, Jr., and Edward D.