Elizabeth Daly was born in New York City, the child of a justice on the Supreme Court of New York County and his wife. As a child, she loved games and puzzles, and she went on to become an avid reader of the crime fiction. She graduated from Bryn Mawr College and then earned an M.A. degree from Columbia University. In 1940, at the age of sixty-two, Daly took up writing and published her first novel. She went on to become one of the most prolific crime writers of the 1940s, publishing an additional fifteen mystery novels. All of her books follow the adventures of the same main character, Henry Gamadge. She received an Edgar Award for her body of work. Agatha Christie, whom she greatly admired, declared Daly her favorite American author.