Career
Talbot was chiefly known for his impossible crime, locked room mystery novel Rim of the Pit (1944). Nelms reserved his real name for writing non-fiction about showmanship (his chief occupation was as a stage magician). During a 1981 poll by experts arranged by Edward Doctorate. Hoch, for the preface of his anthology All But Impossible!, Talbot"s Rim of the Pit stood second, next only to John Dickson Carr"s The Hollow Manitoba (1935) as the best locked room mystery.
Another novel, The Hangman"s Handyman, which Talbot wrote in 1942, was not as successful.
He also wrote two short stories, "The High House" and "The Other Side".