Richard Dowling (3 June 1846 – 28 July 1898) was an Irish novelist.
Dowling was born in southern Ireland in 1846. He worked with a group of Irish writers producing a paper called Zolius. He moved to England and then wrote short stories for London Illustrated News. Building upon the success of his short stories, he wrote his first novel The Mystery of Killard. Many of the stories are set in locations he would have known. The subject matter is a mixture of detective, crime and mystery.
He lived in Clapham in West London with his wife and three children, Margret, Sarah and David. He died at the age of 52, just as he was becoming known as a popular writer. His books were still published for a number of years after his death.
Copies of the books are kept in the National Library in London and are available on line now they have been digitised.