John Thorndyke's Cases (Illustrated Edition) (Dodo Press) [Paperback]

R. Austin Freeman (Author), H. M. Brock (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 29, 2008

Richard Austin Freeman (1862-1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medicolegal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. He invented the inverted detective story and used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels. A large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge, from areas such as tropical medicine, metallurgy and toxicology. His first stories were written in collaboration with Dr John James Pitcairn (1860-1936), medical officer at Holloway Prison and published under the nom de plume "Clifford Ashdown". His first Thorndyke story, The Red Thumb Mark, was published in 1907 and shortly afterwards he pioneered the inverted detective story, in which the identity of the criminal is shown from the beginning: some short stories with this feature were collected in The Singing Bone in 1912. His other works include John Thorndyke's Cases (1909), The Eye of Osiris (1911), The Vanishing Man (1911), The Mystery of 31 New Inn (1912), The Uttermost Farthing: A Savant's Vendetta (1913) and The Cat's Eye (1923).

Editorial Reviews

Review

This man Austin Freeman is a wonderful performer -- Raymond Chandler --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

R. Austin Freeman is the doyen of the scientific division of detective writing, is best known for his character Dr John Thorndyke. A close and careful investigator and the outstanding medical authority in the field of detective fiction, R. Austin Freeman not only tested the wits of the reader but also inspired many modern detective forensic methods. Much of his long life was spent as a physician and surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, London. He also held posts in West Africa and later was a medical officer at Holloway Prison. The most famous of the Edwardian detective writers, he rescued the detective story from "thrillerdom" and made it acceptable to a more discerning class of reader. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Dodo Press; Ill edition (February 29, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1406596264
• ISBN-13: 978-1406596267
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,793,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A contemporary of Sherlock Holmes: better., January 21, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: John Thorndyke's Cases (Hardcover)

This is from memory of reading it about 50 years ago. Austin Freeman created a better detective than Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. His "Dr. Thorndyke" is Holmes with TV's Quincy added: a more logical detective who explains things better to the reader. Indeed, some of the stories are "inverted", i.e. you know who did it and how, but you follow the good doctor as he unravels the case. I wanna new copy of his cases!