Customer Reviews

The Red Thumb Mark

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The Red Thumb Mark is the novel that introduces to the world one of the greatest "scientific" detectives in all literature: Dr. John Thorndyke. It is rightly regarded as one of the all-time classics in mystery fiction. Raymond Chandler, for example, who typically hated British detective fiction for its consistent implausibilities, found Austin Freeman's work and The Red Thumb Mark highly entertaining and readable.

The novel concerns Thorndyke's attempts to clear the name of a young man accused of stealing diamonds from a safe. A thumb mark (finger print) near the scene of the crime is the only evidence against the young man, but it is decidedly damning. Add a little romance, a sinister villian lurking in the background, and you have the ingredients that make up this story.

I found the work to be wonderfully exciting. Watching Thorndyke break down the evidence against the young man is a fascinating expereince. Though a person could argue that too much detail is given to the "science" aspect, you have to understand that these scenes are the backbone of this type of detective story.

In a day and age of corporate villiany, brutal crime bosses and hideous serial killers, The Red Thumb Mark might seem to some readers as painfully old-fashioned. Freeman's writing is similar (and often compared with) Conan Doyle, and there's little doubt that Freeman found inspiration from the Holmes canon. However, the novel's old-fashioned flavor is the very reason to recommend it. It's fun to walk the streets of Edwardian England, to see the sights, to hear the gentlemanly discussions, to share the thought processes of one of the great detective minds. This is the real magic of the novel.

Sadly, most of Freeman's work has long, long been out of print. I would recommend hunting among the used book stores for his other great mysteries, especially The Silent Partner, The Eye of Osiris, and my all-time favorite Mr. Pottermack's Oversight. These great novels are as highly recommended as The Red Thumb Mark. Someday, I hope the world rediscovers this highly talented writer and that he is placed along side with the other great names where he belongs.

Freeman's Dr. Thorndyke is frequently compared to Sherlock Holmes, and I like to think the two characters would appreciate each other. I personally have a slight preference for Thorndyke because he has more conscious respect for logic and the scientific method and is a warmer person.

In this tale, Dr. Thorndyke, who is primarily employed as a medical expert witness, is asked to mount the defense for a young man accused of the theft of diamonds from his uncle's safe. The evidence against Mr. Reuben Hornby--his bloody thumbprint inside the safe--is so compelling that even his own solicitor is convinced of his guilt. Thorndyke, however, is equally confident that the thumbprint is a forgery and, with the assistance of Dr. Jervis and Thorndyke's resourceful servant Polton, sets out to prove it. He makes quick progress, too, because he soon finds himself the target of several cleverly engineered assassination attempts.

While I was quite certain early in the book as to who was responsible for the theft, I liked how Freeman made the point that it is one matter to know who did or did not do a thing, but it is yet another matter entirley to prove your knowledge in a court that is not only not ready to believe you but is governed by policies in direct conflict with your methods.

Dr. Jervis played an interesting role in the case, at once keeping the reader apprised of key facts and insights and distancing the reader from Thorndyke's speculations. He also had an internal conflict regarding his interest in the lovely Miss Gibson that provided even more confusion for the reader. Freeman did an admirable job of making me wonder till the very end about Miss Gibson's level of involvement in the crime.

I had sought this book out after enjoying one of Freeman's short stories, and I was not disappointed. Freeman introduces interesting characters and an intriguing puzzle against the backdrop of turn-of-the-century London to great effect. I'd think any fan of Sherlock Holmes would be delighted to discover Dr. Thorndyke.

(adapted from a "Skullduggery" review)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002RKRE5U/ref=cm_cr_rev_prod_img

One of R. Austin Freeman's favorite topics is the use of fingerprint evidence in crime solving. His opinion is that it isn't worth much. I'm a fingerprint expert from way back (I was a CSI before it was fashionable), and I think it's worth a lot. But he's right in this: Fingerprints can be forged, and have been forged. The specific device he used in this fascinating book would no longer work because of DNA evidence, but during the entire time I was involved in fingerprint examination it could have worked. His method of proving that it did not prove what it purported to prove was very similar to what I would use to make the same discovery. It was this: If you have two fingerprints that are EXACT duplicates of one another, at least one of them was forged.

But when Freeman wrote this novel, nobody knew that axiom. So his originality is such that I was extremely impressed. In fact, after reading all of Freeman's works as I have done, I would say that he would have made an extremely good CSI himself, using no more scientific methods than those he used, up until the late 1970s. That puts him way ahead of the game, in the same way that Arthur Conan Doyle's late 19th century Sherlock Holmes novels were ahead of the game.

This is a very impressive novel, and I cannot imagine anyone with any interest in either crime fiction or criminalistics of any type who would not want to read everything s/he could find by this brilliant author.

This was my first exposure to Dr. Thorndyke mysteries.

The author really enjoyed writing about the technical part of criminology of his time. I have to admit, I did find that a bit tedious.

Still, I did enjoy that the author put his main character in much more danger than you would have normally seen.

I can certainly see the comparison of Thorndyke to Holmes.

Still, all and all, an enjoyable read. If you like mysteries, give the free version a shot.

At one point in my life I worked 'troubleshoting', solving problems that often were descrbied as 'unresolvable' - usually because people believed that when you eliminated the impossible you ended up with the necessary. But I was struck how easy it is to 'hypnotise' oneself into mistakes as to what is 'impossible'. The liklihood of error from mistakenly acceepting false equivalences seemed to me the root of almost all the problems that stumped or misled the really talented, often brilliant, and skilled people I helped. This is the first book I have read that made me feel the author had 'been' there or at least caught 'how it was' to be at the heart of solving such puzzles. I really feel the French expression, chapeau, is merited - in spades. I also found this book first published almost a century ago astonishingly undated in how it felt to me.

Edwardian London: a city of squalor, pea-soup fogs, and primitive detective work. Into this city, is introduced Dr John Thorndyke, a pathologist, who appears as an expert witness in court cases for both the defence and prosecution. He is also a detective who seeks to solve cases.

In this first Thorndyke story by R Austin Freeman (the first of many in the series), Thorndyke takes on a new assistant Dr. Jervis. Dr Jervis is the foil to Thorndyke, just as Dr Watson is to Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. Thorndyke also explores more than just the case, by having Jervis fall in love. Dr Jervis' love affair is an interesting diversion in how it reveals middle-class values at the turn of the century.

The basis of this story is interesting: can forensic science be wrong; can you fake fingerprints on evidence ? The book is not a 'who dun it' in the conventional sense. Most readers will identify the obvious villain early on. The challenge is to work out how the crime was done and then to prove that it was done that way. Of course, Thorndyke frees the innocent man in the end.

Thorndyke is a more scientific detective than Holmes and achieves surprising results, even within the primitive knowledge and techniques of his day.

Although repetitive at times and the culprit was obvious, this book gives CSI television serious competition despite 19th century forensics.

This is one of the badly written mystery. The plot is rather simple and the main characters are labelled "good" and "bad" in the very beginning, yet Dr. Freeman spared no pain to stretch a would-be short story to a novel with an ending which is so obvious in the very first few chapters. Besides, the incriminating thumb mark reminds everyone the Norwood builder of Holmes and the romance of the young doctor in no ways differs much from Dr. Watson's. It is really a waste of time for both the author and the readers.