Patricia McGerr (December 26, 1917 – May 11, 1985) was an American crime writer, primarily known for her puzzle mystery novels.
She won an Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine/MWA prize for her 1968 story Match Point in Berlin and was awarded the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière in 1952 for her 1951 novel Follow, As the Night (adapted as the 1954 film Bonnes à tuer, aka One Step to Eternity).
Her first novel, Pick Your Victim (1946), was selected as one of the Fifty Classics of Crime Fiction, 1900-1950.
Her best-known novel, Pick Your Victim (1946),[3] tells the story of a small group of American soldiers in an isolated Arctic base who are desperate for reading material and diversion.
Near the end of her writing career, McGerr created a continuing character, Selena Mead, who became involved in espionage-based plots in and around Washington, D.C. A television series based on McGerr's Selena Mead short stories was announced by CBS in November 1964.