My Book Notes: The D’Arblay Mystery, 1926 (Dr Thorndyke Mysteries #13) by R. Austin Freeman

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House of Stratus, 2011. Book Format: Kindle Edition. File Size: 797 KB. Print Length: 219 pages. ASIN: B005MGRKEQ. ISBN: 9780755128211. First UK edition by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1926 and first US edition by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1926.

Description: When a man is found floating beneath the skin of a green-skimmed pond one morning, Dr Thorndyke becomes embroiled in an astonishing case. This wickedly entertaining detective fiction reveals that the victim was murdered through a lethal injection and someone out there is trying a cover-up.

My Take: The action unfolds twenty years ago and the story is narrated in the first person by Dr Stephen Gray himself. At that time he was a young medical doctor who just finished his studies and was about to start his professional practice. In fact the story begins on his last day off before his first job. For this reason, he decided to spend the day collecting specimens for his study. Consequently, he chose a pond in a woodland area near Wood Lane in Highgate to take samples. While being absorbed on this task, he saw the face of a dead man, submerged in the water, showing to the surface. Disconcerted, he tried to walk away when he came across with a beautiful young woman who, shortly before, had set him his attention. The young woman, Marion D’Arblay, was looking for her father who, contrary to his habit, had not returned home the night before. In this way, the corpse in the pond is soon identified as the girl’s father. At first glance, it looked like it could have been an accident or a suicide, but the autopsy demonstrated, with absolute certainty, that he had been murdered by a lethal injection. The case, however, was offering few leads to follow. D’Arblay had no known enemies, he lived alone with his only daughter and a housekeeper, and he led an orderly life. Dr Gray became determined to help Miss D’Arblay in any way he can and, therefore, he went to see Dr Thorndyke, who had teach him Medical Jurisprudence and was one of the greatest living authorities on the subject, for help and advice. Mr D’Arblay was a sculptor by profession, though lately he was working as a modeller for various trades –pottery manufacturers, picture-frame makers, and makers of high-class wax figures for shop windows.

Buoyed by Jim Noy’s reviews, I’ve read a couple of R. Austin Freeman’s books, though out of order. I chose to read The D’Arblay Mystery when I found out it was one of the best books in Dr Thorndyke mystery series, and it certainly lives up to the expectations generated. The story is quite solid and the plot is tightly crafted; the characters have seem to me truly convincing and appealing. And, to round it off, the investigation is carry out in a competent and professional manner. A book worth reading which I strongly recommend. 

As a side note, I would like to point out once again the resemblance that, in my view, bears with Dorothy L. Sayers’ Unnatural Death. 

The D’Arblay Mystery has been reviewed, among others, by Jim Noy at The Invisible Event, dfordoom at Vintage Pop Fictions, Nick Fuller at The Grandest Game in the World.

(Source: Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC. Hodder & Stoughton (UK), 1926)

(Source: Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC. Dodd, Mead & Company (USA), 1926)

About the Author: Richard Austin Freeman, (1862 – 1943), was a popular English author of novels and short stories featuring the fictional character John Thorndyke, a pathologist-detective. Educated as a physician and surgeon, Freeman practiced in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he caught a fever. Eventually forced by ill health to retire from practice (1904), he began to write fiction. The Red Thumb Mark (1907) was the first book in which he introduces Dr Thorndyke who will return to feature in a total of 21 novels ad 40 short stories. Within a few years he was a full-time writer. With the publication “The Case of Oscar Brodsky” (1910), a short story, he invented the inverted detective story. Thereafter he 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. A full list of novels and short stories can be found at Wikipedia.

Recommended Works: John Thorndyke’s Cases s.s. [US title Dr. Thorndyke’s Cases] (collected 1909); The Eye of Osiris [US title The Vanishing Man] (1911); The Singing Bone s.s. [US title The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke] (collected 1912); The Mystery of 31 New Inn (1912); A Silent Witness (1914); Dr Thorndyke’s Casebook s.s. [US title The Blue Scarab] (collected 1923); The Cat’s Eye (1923); The Puzzle Lock s.s. (collected 1925); The Shadow of the Wolf  (1925); The D’Arblay Mystery (1926); The Magic Casket s.s. (collected 1927); As a Thief in the Night (1928); Mr Pottermack’s Oversight (1930); When Rogues Fall Out aka Dr Thorndyke’s Discovery (1932); The Penrose Mystery (1936); Felo De Se? aka Death at the Inn (1937); The Stoneware Monkey (1938); and The Jacob Street Mystery aka The Unconscious Witness (1942).

There are in total some 42 short stories featuring Dr John Thorndyke. Thirty-eight were published in the five short story collections mentioned above (John Thorndyke’s Cases; The Singing Bone; Dr Thorndyke’s Casebook; The Puzzle Lock and The Magic Casket. Two other stories featuring John Thorndyke, “The Missing Mortgagee” and “Percival Bland’s Proxy”, were published in the collection, The Great Portrait Mystery and other Stories alongside five further stories. There are also two further Thorndyke short stories, neither of which was published during Freeman’s lifetime. “31, New Inn”, written about 1905, was later reworked into a full-length novel, The Mystery of 31 New Inn, but was published in short story form in the 1973 collection, The Best Dr Thorndyke Detective Mysteries (edited by E F Bleiler). The final Thorndyke short story, “The Dead Hand” (which Austin Freeman later reworked into the novel, The Shadow of the Wolf) was published in the collection The Dead Hand and Other Short Stories (edited by Douglas G Greene and Tony Medawar) in 1999 and in Detection By Gaslight, a collection of Victorian detective stories by various authors, in 1997.

The House of Stratus publicity page 

Meet Dr Thorndyke by R Austin Freeman

R. Austin Freeman by Mike Grost

R. Austin Freeman at Golden Age of Detection Wiki

The D’Arblay Mystery, de R. Austin Freeman

Descripción: Cuando una mañana un hombre aparece flotando bajo la superficie de un estanque de color verde desnatado, el Dr. Thorndyke se ve envuelto en un caso asombroso. Esta investigación policial diabólicamente entretenida desvela que la víctima fue asesinada mediante una inyección letal y que alguien allí afuera está tratando de encubrirlo.

Mi opinión: La acción se desarrolla hace veinte años y la historia está narrada en primera persona por el propio Dr. Stephen Gray. En ese momento era un joven médico que acababa de terminar sus estudios y estaba a punto de iniciar su práctica profesional. De hecho, la historia comienza en su último día libre antes de su primer trabajo. Por esta razón, decidió pasar el día recolectando especímenes para su estudio. En consecuencia, eligió un estanque en un área boscosa cerca de Wood Lane en Highgate para tomar muestras. Mientras estaba absorto en esta tarea, vio el rostro de un hombre muerto, sumergido en el agua, que asomaba a la superficie. Desconcertado, trató de alejarse cuando se cruzó con una hermosa joven que, poco antes, le había llamado la atención. La joven, Marion D’Arblay, buscaba a su padre que, contrariamente a su costumbre, no había vuelto a casa la noche anterior. De esta forma, el cadáver en el estanque pronto es identificado como el padre de la muchacha. A primera vista, parecía que podría haber sido un accidente o un suicidio, pero la autopsia demostró, con absoluta certeza, que había sido asesinado mediante una inyección letal. El caso, sin embargo, ofrecía pocas pistas a seguir. D’Arblay no tenía enemigos conocidos, vivía solo con su única hija y un ama de llaves, y llevaba una vida ordenada. El Dr. Gray se decidió a ayudar a la Srta. D’Arblay en todo lo que pudiera y, por lo tanto, fue a ver al Dr. Thorndyke, quien le había enseñado Jurisprudencia Médica y era una de las mayores autoridades vivas en el tema, en busca de ayuda y consejo. El Sr. D’Arblay era escultor de profesión, aunque últimamente trabajaba como modelista para varios oficios: fabricantes de cerámica, fabricantes de marcos y fabricantes de figuras de cera de alta calidad para escaparates.

Animado por las reseñas de Jim Noy, he leído un par de libros de R. Austin Freeman, aunque desordenados. Elegí leer The D’Arblay Mystery cuando descubrí que era uno de los mejores libros de la serie de misterio del Dr. Thorndyke, y ciertamente está a la altura de las expectativas generadas. La historia es bastante sólida y la trama está bien elaborada; los personajes me han parecido realmente convincentes y atractivos. Y, para rematar, la investigación se lleva a cabo de manera competente y profesional. Un libro que vale la pena leer y que recomiendo encarecidamente.

Como nota al margen, me gustaría señalar una vez más el parecido que, en mi opinión, guarda con Unnatural Death de Dorothy L. Sayers.

Acerca del autor: Richard Austin Freeman, (1862 – 1943), fue un popular autor inglés de novelas y relatos protagonizados por el personaje de ficción John Thorndyke, un patólogo-detective. Educado como médico y cirujano, Freeman ejerció en Costa de Oro (ahora Ghana), donde cogió unas fiebres. Finalmente, obligado por problemas de salud a retirarse de la práctica médica (1904), comenzó a escribir novelas y relatos de ficción. The Red Thumb Mark (1907) fue el primer libro en el que presenta al Dr. Thorndyke, quien volverá a aparecer en un total de 21 novelas y 40 relatos breves. A los pocos años se dedicó a escribir a tiempo completo. Con la publicación de “El caso de Oscar Brodsky” (1910), un relato breve, inventó la historia de detectives invertida. A partir de entonces utilizó algunas de sus experiencias iniciales como cirujano colonial en sus novelas. Una gran proporción de las historias del Dr. Thorndyke comportan aspectos genuinos de conocimientos científicos, pero a menudo bastante desfasados, sobre especialidades tales como medicina tropical, metalurgia y toxicología. En Wikipedia se encuentra un listado completo de sus novelas y relatos.

Obras recomendadas: John Thorndyke’s Cases (1909), en USA Dr. Thorndyke’s Cases; El ojo de Osiris (The Eye of Osiris, 1911; en USA The Vanishing Man); El caso de Oskar Brodski (The Singing Bone, 1912; en USA The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke); The Mystery of 31 New Inn (1912); Un testigo silencioso (A Silent Witness, 1914); Dr. Thorndyke’s Casebook (1923), en USA  The Blue Scarab; El secreto del colgante (The Cat’s Eye, 1923); The Puzzle Lock (1925); The Shadow of the Wolf (1925); The D’Arblay Mystery (1926); The Magic Casket (1927); As a Thief in the Night (1928); El cuento del Dr. Thorndyke (Mr. Pottermack’s Oversight, 1930); When Rogues Fall Out (1932), en USA Dr. Thorndyke’s Discovery; El enigma de Penrose (The Penrose Mystery, 1936); ¿Suicidio? (Felo de Se, 1937; en  USA Death At The Inn); El mono de barro (The Stoneware Monkey, 1938); The Jacob Street Mystery (1942), en USA The Unconscious Witness.

Richard Austin Freeman

My Book Notes: The Singing Bone, s.s. collected 1912 (Dr Thorndyke) by R. Austin Freeman

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MysteriousPress.com/Open Road, 2014. Book Format: Kindle Edition. File Size: 2312 KB. Print Length: 153 pages. ASIN: B00QR7HVDE. ISBN: 9781504001458.  A collection of five stories, including four inverted detective stories, originally published in the UK by Hodder & Stoughton, London 1912, and then in the US by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1923. Reprinted by The Popular Library, New York, as The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke (1947).

Product Description: Dr John Evelyn Thorndyke is a fictional detective in a long series of 21 novels and 40 short stories by British author R. Austin Freeman (1862–1943). Thorndyke was described by his author as a ‘medical jurispractitioner’: originally a medical doctor, he turned to the bar and became one of the first — in modern parlance — forensic scientists. His solutions were based on his method of collecting all possible data (including dust and pond weed) and making inferences from them before looking at any of the protagonists and motives in the crimes. Freeman ensured that his methods were practical by conducting all experiments mentioned in the stories himself. It is this method which gave rise to one of Freeman’s most ingenious inventions, the inverted detective story, in which we first see the criminal commit the crime, then watch Dr Thorndyke solve the case. Four of the stories collected in The Singing Bone (1912) are in the inverted form, all of them except the earliest chronologically, “The Old Lag” (1909). (Source: Wikipedia and others)

“In The Singing Bone (1912) Freeman invented what had been called the inverted story. In these stories we see a crime committed, and then watch Thorndyke discover and follow clues that lead to the criminal. There is no mystery, and not much surprise, but the interest of watching Thorndyke at work is enhanced by our own prior knowledge.” – Julian Symons, Bloody Murder (Penguin Books, 1974).

However Julian Symons didn’t seem to have Freeman in great esteem. On the one hand, he considered his novels clearly inferior to his short stories whit few exceptions, on the other, he wrote that “reading a Freeman book is very much like chewing dry straw.”

The Singing Bone, Freeman’s Preface is available here.

Each story has a similar pattern, they are divided in two chapters. The first chapter centres around the commission of a crime and the second one, narrated  by Christopher Jarvis, M.D., Dr Thorndyke’s sidekick, recounts how Dr Thorndyke, through a scientific analysis and his sense for detail, makes inferences that will lead him to find out how the crime was committed. To help him, Dr Thorndyke always carry, when travelling, a portable laboratory in miniature containing a fairly complete outfit for a preliminary investigation. Besides, as Martin Edwards points out, Freeman was less interested in whodunit than ‘how was the discovery achieved?’

“The Case of Oscar Brodski” (1910). The historical significance of this story is based on the fact that it is considered Freeman’s first inverted story. A London diamond dealer, Oscar Brodski, travels to Amsterdam with a stash of rough diamonds to have then cut. Upon arriving at Silas Hickler’s house he asks him how to get to the train station. Hickler, despite his cheerful and friendly appearance, is an unscrupulous burglar who gives in to the temptation to kill Brodski to get hold of the diamonds he presumably carries with him. He then attempts to cover up the crime by making it look like suicide. What he does not count on is the presence of Dr Thorndyke. The passage from the first chapter to the second is very well achieved, through the simple repetition of a conversation overheard at the train station.

“A Case of Premeditation” (1910). Pratt, a former warder, with a knack for remembering faces, recognises an ex-con called Francis Dobb in a respectable businessman he comes across with. As Francis Dobb, he escaped from prison twelve years ago and made fortune in South America to return to England under a new identity, now on the straight and narrow track. The former warder sees this as an opportunity to blackmail him, and Dobb, aware of what this means, devises a meticulous plan to get rid of him based on the information Pratt himself has provided. When the evidence points to a certain Jack Ellis, now employed at the Baysford Police Station, as the perpetrator of the crime, Jack Ellis is arrested. And Dr Thorndyke is willing to act for the defence as it seems to him that the case against Ellis is in some respects rather inconclusive.

“The Echo of a Mutiny” aka “Death on the Girder” (1911). There were only two men at the lighthouse. One of them named Barnett, had broken his leg and asked to be sent ashore. The local dinghy was not available. A pleasure boat carried a letter to the lighthouse, telling him he could only be relieved the next day. Another letter was sent to a newly hired man, James Brown, ordering him to go to the lighthouse the following day in the Coast Guard boat. Finally, a third letter was sent to the Coast Guard asking them to take Brown to the lighthouse the next morning without further delay and bring Barnett back ashore. The Coast Guard had neither a boat nor a man to spare and borrowed a fishing boat. Brown set out alone on it, expecting Barnett could get back in the boat, despite his broken leg. Meanwhile, Barnett managed to get on board a coal ship that picked him up to take him ashore. The other lighthouse keeper, Thomas Jeffreys, stood alone waiting for Brown, but Brown never arrived. The Coast Guard saw him out to sea and Thomas Jeffreys spotted a boat with a man in it making for the lighthouse before a dense fog spread out and hid the boat. When the fog cleared, the man and the boat had vanished. The Coast Guard thought she might have capsized in the storm. But the weather had been fairly calm that day.

“A Wastrel’s Romance” aka “The Willowdale Mystery” (1910). At a gala ball, a former officer who has ceased to be a gentleman and has become a run-of-the-mill burglar slipped through uninvited. On  impulse, he committed a crime that he immediately regretted. In panic he fled the scene of the crime believing that he had killed a lady he has fallen in love with to steal her jewellery. But the woman was not dead, she had just fainted, although the man horrified by what he thought he had done didn’t realise it. Now the woman is determined to find out who attacked her. In the eyes of the police, the case is like looking for a needle in a haystack and without a single clue there’s nothing to be done, but Dr Thorndyke thinks differently.

“The Old Lag” (1909): The last story in this collection is not an inverted mystery. I do not know to what extent it can be considered a condensed version of The Red Thumb Mark (1907). It seems strange to me that it was published after the novel, in 1909, but it could have been written earlier. In any case, in the first part Dr Thorndyke helps an ex-con to demonstrate his innocence establishing that the fingerprints found at the scene of a crime are, in fact, forgeries, executed with rubber or gelatine stamps. In doing so, he helps a man, whom he send to prison once, to prove his innocence now that he had rebuilt his life after having paid for what he did. But now that the fingerprints have failed, the police is clueless about the identity of the murderer, and the second part addresses Dr Thorndyke’s intervention.

My Take: By far my favourite story has been “The Echo of a Mutiny” aka “Death on the Girder”, and “A Case of Premeditation” the weakest of the collection for the abuse the author makes of the most insignificant details.

It is worth to remind what Martin Edwards wrote at The Golden Age of Murder (Collins Crime Club, 2016). “At first, inverted stories received scant attention. Freeman abandoned the form before the start of the First Wold War, which  Sayers found regrettable. Berkeley’s approach in Malice Aforethought was different, as he presented the whole story from the murderer’s point of view …. Encouraged by Sayers, both the Coles and Freeman Wills Crofts wrote inverted detective novels, while Roy Vickers wrote excellent short stories … The appeal of the form has endured, and in the television age, the inverted stories of Columbo, achieved enormous popularity.”

The Singing Bone has been reviewed, among others, by Patrick Ohl At the Scene of the Crime, Rich Westwood at Past Offences,  Aidan Brack at ‘Mysteries Ahoy!’, Jim Noy at The Invisible Event, thegreencapsule at The Green Capsule. 

(Source: Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC. Dodd, Mead & Company (USA), 1923)

About the Author: Richard Austin Freeman, (1862 – 1943), was a popular English author of novels and short stories featuring the fictional character John Thorndyke, a pathologist-detective. Educated as a physician and surgeon, Freeman practiced in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he caught a fever. Eventually forced by ill health to retire from practice (1904), he began to write fiction. The Red Thumb Mark (1907) was the first of many works featuring Dr Thorndyke. Within a few years he was devoting his time to full-time writing. With the publication “The Case of Oscar Brodsky” (1910), a short story, he invented the inverted detective story. Thereafter he 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. A full list of novels and short stories can be found at Wikipedia.

Recommended Works: The Red Thumb Mark (1907); John Thorndyke’s Cases [US title Dr. Thorndyke’s Cases] (collected 1909)The Eye of Osiris [US title The Vanishing Man] (1911);The Singing Bone s.s. [US title The Adventures of Dr Thorndyke] (collected 1912); The Mystery of 31 New Inn (1912); Dr Thorndyke’s Casebook s.s. [US title The Blue Scarab](collected 1923); The Mystery of Angelina Frood (1924); The Puzzle Lock s.s. (collected 1925); The D’Arblay Mystery (1926); The Magic Casket s.s. (collected 1927); As a Thief in the Night (1928); Mr Pottermack’s Oversight (1930); When Rogues Fall Out aka Dr Thorndyke’s Discovery (1932); For the Defence: Dr Thorndyke (1934); Felo De Se? aka Death At the Inn (1937); The Stoneware Monkey (1938); The Jacob Street Mystery aka The Unconscious Witness (1942).

Mysterious Press publicity page

Open Road publicity page

R. Austin Freeman at Golden Age of Detection Wiki

In GAD We Trust – Episode 20: The Dr. Thorndyke Stories of R. Austin Freeman [w’ Dolores Gordon-Smith]

The Singing Bone or The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke public domain audiobook at LibriVox

The Singing Bone, colección de relatos de R. Austin Freeman

Descripción del producto: El Dr. John Evelyn Thorndyke es un detective de ficción en una larga serie de 21 novelas y 40 reltos del autor británico R. Austin Freeman (1862-1943). Thorndyke fue descrito por su autor como un “jurista médico”: originalmente médico, se volvió hacia la abogacía y se convirtió en uno de los primeros científicos forenses, en el lenguaje moderno. Sus soluciones se basaron en su método de recopilar todos los datos posibles (incluido el polvo y la maleza del estanque) y hacer inferencias a partir de estos datos más que en concentrarse en cualquiera de los protagonistas y en los motivos de los crímenes. Freeman se aseguró de que sus métodos fueran prácticos al realizar todos los experimentos mencionados en sus historias él mismo. Es este método el que dio lugar a uno de los inventos más ingeniosos de Freeman, la historia de detectives invertida, en la que primero vemos al criminal cometer el crimen y luego vemos al Dr. Thorndyke resolver el caso. Cuatro de las historias recopiladas en The Singing Bone (1912) pertenecen a este formato, todas excepto la más antigua cronológicamente, “The Old Lag” (1909). (Fuente: Wikipedia y otros)

“En The Singing Bone (1912) Freeman inventó lo que se ha denominado historia invertida. En estas historias vemos un crimen cometido y luego vemos a Thorndyke descubrir y seguir las pistas que conducen al criminal. No hay misterio ni mucha sorpresa , pero el interés de ver a Thorndyke en acción se ve reforzado por nuestro propio conocimiento previo “. – Julian Symons, Bloody Murder (Penguin Books, 1974).

Sin embargo, Julian Symons no parecía tener a Freeman en gran estima. Por un lado, consideraba sus novelas claramente inferiores a sus relatos breves con pocas excepciones, por otro, escribió que “leer un libro de Freeman es muy parecido a masticar paja seca“.

El prefacio de Freeman en The Singing Bone, está disponible aquí.

Cada relato tiene un patrón similar, se dividen en dos capítulos. El primer capítulo se centra en la comisión de un crimen y el segundo, narrado por Christopher Jarvis, MD, compañero del Dr. Thorndyke, relata cómo el Dr. Thorndyke, a través de un análisis científico y su sentido del detalle, hace inferencias que lo llevarán a averiguar cómo se cometió el crimen. Para ayudarlo, el Dr. Thorndyke siempre lleva, cuando viaja, un laboratorio portátil en miniatura que contiene un equipo bastante completo para una investigación preliminar. Además, como señala Martin Edwards, Freeman estaba menos interesado en ¿quién lo hizo? que en “¿cómo   descubrirlo?”

“The Case of Oscar Brodski” (1910). El significado histórico de este relato se basa en el hecho de que se considera la primera historia invertida de Freeman. Un comerciante de diamantes de Londres, Oscar Brodski, viaja a Ámsterdam con un alijo de diamantes en bruto para cortarlos. Al llegar a la casa de Silas Hickler le pregunta cómo llegar a la estación de tren. Hickler, a pesar de su aspecto alegre y amistoso, es un ladrón sin escrúpulos que cede a la tentación de matar a Brodski para hacerse con los diamantes que presumiblemente lleva consigo. Luego intenta encubrir el crimen haciéndolo parecer un suicidio. Con lo que no cuenta es con la presencia del Dr. Thorndyke. El paso del primer capítulo al segundo está muy bien logrado, a través de la simple repetición de una conversación escuchada en la estación de tren.

“A Case of Premeditation” (1910). Pratt, un antiguo carcelero, con un don para recordar caras, reconoce a un ex convicto llamado Francis Dobb en un respetable hombre de negocios con el que se cruza. Como Francis Dobb, escapó de prisión hace doce años e hizo fortuna en Sudamérica para regresar a Inglaterra bajo una nueva identidad, ahora por el buen camino. El antiguo carcelero ve esto como una oportunidad para chantajearlo, y Dobb, consciente de lo que esto significa, diseña un plan meticuloso para deshacerse de él basándose en la información que el propio Pratt le ha proporcionado. Cuando la evidencia apunta a un tal Jack Ellis, ahora empleado en la comisaría de policía de Baysford, como autor del crimen, Jack Ellis es arrestado. Y el Dr. Thorndyke está dispuesto a actuar en nombre de la defensa, ya que le parece que el caso contra Ellis no es del todo concluyente en algunos aspectos.

“The Echo of a Mutiny” también conocido como “Death on the Girder” (1911). Solo había dos hombres en el faro. Uno de eloos, llamado Barnett, se había roto una pierna y pidió ser enviado de regreso a tierra. La embarcación auxiliar no estaba disponible. Una embarcación de recreo llevó una carta al faro, diciéndole que solo podría ser relevado al día siguiente. Se envió otra carta a un hombre recién contratado, James Brown, ordenándole que fuera al faro al día siguiente en el bote de la Guadia Costera. Finalmente, se envió una tercera carta a la Guardia Costera pidiéndoles que llevaran a Brown al faro a la mañana siguiente sin más demora y trajeran a Barnett de regreso a tierra. La Guardia Costera no tenía ni un barco ni un hombre de sobra y pidió prestado un barco de pesca. Brown partió solo en él, esperando que Barnett pudiera regresar en el bote, a pesar de su pierna rota. Mientras tanto, Barnett logró subir a bordo de un barco de carbón que lo recogió para llevarlo a tierra. El otro farero, Thomas Jeffreys, estaba solo esperando a Brown, pero Brown nunca llegó. La Guardia Costera lo vió mar adentro y Thomas Jeffreys vio un bote con un hombre en él que se dirigía al faro antes de que una densa niebla se extendiera y ocultara el bote. Cuando la niebla se despejó, el hombre y el bote se habían desvanecido. La Guardia Costera pensó que podría haberse volcado en la tormenta. Pero el tiempo había estado bastante tranquilo ese día.

“A Wastrel’s Romance” también conocido como “The Willowdale Mystery” (1910). En un baile de gala, un antiguo oficial que habia dejado de ser un caballero y que se ha convertido en un ladrón común y corriente se coló sin estar invitado. Por impulso, cometió un crimen del que se arrepintió de inmediato. Presa del pánico, huyó de la escena del crimen creyendo que había matado a una dama de la que se había enamorado para robarle sus joyas. Pero la mujer no estaba muerta, solo se había desmayado, aunque el hombre horrorizado por lo que creía haber hecho no se dio cuenta. Ahora la mujer está decidida a descubrir quién la atacó. A los ojos de la policía, el caso es como buscar una aguja en un pajar y sin una sola pista no hay nada que hacer, pero el Dr. Thorndyke piensa de otra manera.

“The Old Lag” (1909): El último relato de esta colección no es un misterio invertido. No sé hasta qué punto se puede considerar una versión condensada de The Red Thumb Mark (1907). Me parece extraño que se haya publicado después de la novela, en 1909, pero podría haber sido escrito antes. En cualquier caso, en la primera parte el Dr. Thorndyke ayuda a un ex convicto a demostrar su inocencia estableciendo que las huellas dactilares encontradas en la escena de un crimen son, en realidad, falsificaciones, ejecutadas con sellos de goma o gelatina. Al hacerlo, ayuda a un hombre, a quien envió a prisión una vez, a demostrar su inocencia ahora que había reconstruido su vida después de haber pagado por lo que hizo. Pero ahora que las huellas dactilares han fallado, la policía no tiene ni idea de la identidad del asesino, y la segunda parte aborda la intervención del Dr. Thorndyke.

Mi opinión: De lejos, mi relato favorito ha sido “The Echo of a Mutiny”, también conocido como “Death on the Girder”, y “A Case of Premeditation”, el mas flojo de la colección por el abuso que el autor hace de los detalles más insignificantes.

Vale la pena recordar lo que escribió Martin Edwards en The Golden Age of Murder (Collins Crime Club, 2016). “Al principio, las historias invertidas recibieron escasa atención. Freeman abandonó la forma antes del inicio de la Primera Guerra Mundial, lo que a Sayers le pareció lamentable. El enfoque de Berkeley en Malice Aforethought fue diferente, al presentar toda la historia desde el punto de vista del asesino. .. Alentados por Sayers, tanto los Coles como Freeman Wills Crofts escribieron novelas de detectives invertidas, mientras que Roy Vickers escribió excelentes relatos … El atractivo de la forma ha perdurado, y en la era de la televisión, las historias invertidas de Columbo lograron enorme popularidad.”

Acerca del autor: Richard Austin Freeman, (1862 – 1943) fue un popular autor inglés de novelas y relatos protagonizados por el personaje de ficción John Thorndyke, un patólogo-detective. Educado como médico y cirujano, Freeman ejerció en la Costa de Oro (ahora Ghana), donde cogió unas fiebres. Finalmente, obligado por su mala salud a retirarse de la práctica médica (1904), comenzó a escribir novelas y relatos de ficción. The Red Thumb Mark (1907) fue la primera de muchas obras protagonizadas por el Dr. Thorndyke. Al cabo de unos años se dedicó a escribir a tiempo completo. Con la publicación de “El caso de Oscar Brodsky” (1910), un relato breve, inventó la historia de detectives invertida. A partir de entonces utilizó algunas de sus primeras experiencias como cirujano colonial en sus novelas. Una gran proporción de las historias del Dr. Thorndyke comportan aspectos genuinos de conocimientos científicos, pero a menudo bastante desfasados, sobre especialidades tales como medicina tropical, metalurgia y toxicología.  En Wikipedia se encuentra una lista completa de sus novelas y relatos.

My Book Notes: The Eye of Osiris, 1911 (Dr Thorndyke Mysteries #3) by R. Austin Freeman

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MysteriousPress.com/Open Road, 2014. Format: Kindle Edition. File Size: 3182 KB. Print Length: 386 pages. ASIN: B00QR7HWBA. ISBN: 9780755103560. First UK edition by Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1911 and first US edition by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1911. Reprinted by Dodd, Mead & Company, New York, 1912, as The Vanishing Man.

To find a missing archaeologist, Dr Thorndyke digs for a body

Book Description: After the great success of his latest expedition, the brilliant archaeologist John Bellingham returns from the sandy tombs of Egypt with enough ancient treasures to fill a wing at the British Museum. He visits a friend for dinner and is told to wait in the study. When the friend arrives, he finds the study empty; Bellingham has vanished into thin air. When Bellingham does not reappear, the police assume he has met with some fatal accident. Because his will cannot be discharged until the time and place of his death are known, Bellingham’s family calls on the eminent Dr Thorndyke, whose mastery of the medical arts is second only to his brilliance for crime solving. As he searches for the true reason for Bellingham’s disappearance, Thorndyke discovers a mystery as deep as any pharaoh’s tomb.

My Take: At a lecture on Medical Jurisprudence, and Forensic Medicine, Dr John Thorndyke, a learned man of great reputation, talks on survivorship. The problem of survivorship, he says, is what’s the latest moment in which one can be sure a person is alive? To illustrate this he refers to an article in the morning papers. A gentleman has mysteriously disappeared. He was last seen by the maid of a relative at whose house he had gone to visit him. The circumstances of the case are very curious; indeed, they are highly mysterious; and if any legal issue arises it is likely to have some very remarkable complications. The gentleman in question is none other than the well-known archaeologist John Bellingham who recently returned from Egypt with a fine collection of antiquities, some of which he has donated to the British Museum and are now on display there. A mummy in excellent condition and a complete set of funerary objects.

However, the mummy had not yet arrived from Egypt when Bellingham left to Paris for business, and his legacy was turned over to the British Museum by his solicitor on the fourteenth of October. Mr Bellingham returned from Paris on the twenty-third of November and went directly to visit his cousin Mr Hurst who was not yet at home and Mr Bellingham was left waiting for him in the study. When Hurst returned, Mr Billingham was no longer there, he had vanished without a trace never to be seen again. Mr Hurst called then the office of Mr Billingham’s solicitor, Mr Jellicoe, informing him of what  had happened and together went to visit Mr Billingham’s brother, Godfrey. Mr Godfrey and his daughter listened carefully what Mr Hurst had to say and they assured him they have not seen or heard from John. Upon leaving Mr Godfrey’s house, Mr Jellicoe took notice of something lying on the lawn and, picking it up, recognized a fine lapis lazuli scarab that John Bellingham used to wear attached to his watch-chain. If the missing man does not return to be seen, or his body is never found, the question is: ‘When and where can be ascertained that he was alive for the last time?

Dr John Thorndyke didn’t know at that time that, a couple of years later, he will be directly involved in this matter, as requested by one of the assistants to that conference, the young physician Paul Berkeley, who will be the narrator of the story. Besides, the question won’t be at all trivial given the strange conditions included on Mr John Bellingham’s will. Berkeley, on his side, becomes personally involved when falling in love with Ruth Bellingham, John’s niece, who is living in poverty with her father Godfrey.

This book has been on my radar for a long time, in fact I became interested when I found it included in Martin Edwards’ The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books, but it has not been until I read Jim Noy’s excellent review at The Invisible Event what provided me the necessary boost to start reading it. All in all, I found it a highly clever story, nicely told and very entertaining that, no doubt, has sparked my interest to read more  books in Dr Thorndyke series. A true scientific crime classic that deserves to be more widely recognised. If you are decided to read it, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Eye of Osiris has been reviewed, among others, by Patrick At the Scene of the Crime, dfordoom at Vintage Pop Fictions, Nick Fuller at The Grandest Game in the World, Marvin Lachman at Mystery File, Bev Hankins at My Reader’s Block, Les Blatt at Classic Mysteries, Fiction Fan’s Book Reviews, Laurie at Bedford Bookshelf, and Jim Noy at The Invisible Event. 

(Source: Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC.Hodder & Stoughton (UK) (1911) pre-publication)

(Source: Facsimile Dust Jackets LLC. Dodd, Mead & Company (USA) (1911) 1929 reprint)

About the Author: Richard Austin Freeman, (born 1862, London—died Sept. 30, 1943, Gravesend, Kent, Eng.), popular English author of novels and short stories featuring the fictional character John Thorndyke, a pathologist-detective. Educated as a physician and surgeon, Freeman practiced in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), where he caught a fever. Eventually forced by ill health to retire from practice (1904), he began to write fiction. The Red Thumb Mark (1907) was the first of many works featuring Thorndyke. His first published crime novel was The Adventures of Romney Pringle (1902) and was written in collaboration with Dr John James Pitcairn (1860–1936), medical officer at Holloway Prison and published under the nom de plume Clifford Ashdown. Within a few years he was devoting his time to full-time writing. With the publication of The Singing Bone (1912) he invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective’s attempt to solve the mystery). Thereafter he 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.

Selected Works: John Thorndyke’s Cases s. s. [US title Dr Thorndyke’s Cases] (1909); The Eye of Osiris [US title The Vanishing Man] (1911); The Singing Bone s.s. (1912); Dr Thorndyke’s Casebook s.s. [US title The Blue Scarab] (1923); The Cat’s Eye (1923); The Puzzle Lock s.s. (1925); The Shadow of the Wolf (1925); The D’Arblay Mystery (1926); The Magic Casket s.s. (1927); As a Thief in the Night (1928); Mr Pottermack’s Oversight (1930); The Penrose Mystery (1936); The Stoneware Monkey (1938).                

I think it is worthwhile to bring up here the excellent article by Curtis Evans Blast from the Past I: The British Golden Age of Detection’s Deposed Crime Kings.

Mysterious Press publicity page

Open Road Media publicity page

R. Austin Freeman by Mike Grost

R. Austin Freeman at Golden Age of Detection Wiki

El ojo de Osiris, de R. Austin Freeman

Descripción del libro: Después del gran éxito de su última expedición, el brillante arqueólogo John Bellingham regresa de las tumbas arenosas de Egipto con suficientes tesoros antiguos para llenar un ala en el Museo Británico. Visita a un amigo para cenar y le dicen que espere en el estudio. Cuando llega el amigo, encuentra el estudio vacío; Bellingham se ha esfumado.
Cuando Bellingham no vuelve a aparecer, la policía asume que ha tenido algún accidente fatal. Debido a que su testamento no puede cumplirse hasta que se conozca la hora y el lugar de su muerte, la familia de Bellingham recurre al eminente Dr. Thorndyke, cuyo dominio de las artes médicas es solo superado por su brillantez para resolver delitos. Mientras busca la verdadera razón de la desaparición de Bellingham, Thorndyke descubre un misterio tan profundo como la tumba de cualquier faraón.

Mi opinión: En una conferencia sobre jurisprudencia médica y medicina forense, el Dr. John Thorndyke, un hombre culto de gran reputación, habla sobre supervivencia. El problema de la supervivencia, dice, es ¿cuál es el último momento en el que uno puede estar seguro de que una persona está viva? Para ilustrar esto, se refiere a un artículo de los periódicos matutinos. Un caballero ha desaparecido misteriosamente. Fue visto por última vez por la criada de un familiar a cuya casa había ido a visitarlo. Las circunstancias del caso son muy curiosas; de hecho, son muy misteriosas; y si surge algún problema legal, es probable que tenga algunas complicaciones muy interesantes. El caballero en cuestión no es otro que el conocido arqueólogo John Bellingham, quien recientemente regresó de Egipto con una excelente colección de antigüedades, algunas de las cuales ha donado al Museo Británico y ahora se exhiben allí. Una momia en excelente estado y un juego completo de objetos funerarios.

Sin embargo, la momia aún no había llegado de Egipto cuando Bellingham se fue a París por negocios, y su abogado entregó su legado al Museo Británico el 14 de octubre. El señor Bellingham regresó de París el veintitrés de noviembre y fue directamente a visitar a su primo el señor Hurst que aún no estaba en casa y el señor Bellingham se quedó esperándolo en el estudio. Cuando Hurst regresó, el señor Billingham ya no estaba allí, había desaparecido sin dejar rastro para no ser visto nunca más. El Sr. Hurst llamó entonces a la oficina del abogado del Sr. Billingham, el Sr. Jellicoe, para informarle de lo que había sucedido y juntos fueron a visitar al hermano del Sr. Billingham, Godfrey. El Sr. Godfrey y su hija escucharon atentamente lo que el Sr. Hurst tenía que decir y le aseguraron que no habían visto ni tenido noticias de John. Al salir de la casa del señor Godfrey, el señor Jellicoe se dio cuenta de que había algo en el césped y, al recogerlo, reconoció un fino escarabajo en lapislázuli que John Bellingham solía llevar sujeto a la cadena de su reloj. Si el hombre desaparecido no vuelve a ser visto, o su cuerpo nunca se encuentra, la pregunta es: ‘¿Cuándo y dónde es posible determinar que estuvo vivo por última vez?

El Dr. John Thorndyke no sabía en ese momento que, un par de años más tarde, estará directamente involucrado en este asunto, según lo solicitado por uno de los asistentes a esa conferencia, el joven médico Paul Berkeley, quien será el narrador de la historia. Además, la pregunta no será en absoluto irrelevante dadas las extrañas condiciones incluidas en el testamento de Mr. John Bellingham. Berkeley, por su parte, se involucra personalmente al enamorarse de Ruth Bellingham, la sobrina de John, que vive en la pobreza con su padre Godfrey.

Este libro ha estado en mi radar durante mucho tiempo, de hecho, me interesé cuando lo encontré incluido en The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books de Martin Edwards, pero no fue hasta que leí la excelente reseña de Jim Noy en The Invisible Event lo que me proporcionó el impulso necesario para empezar a leerlo. Con todo, me pareció una historia muy inteligente, bien contada y muy entretenida que, sin duda, ha despertado mi interés por leer más libros de la serie del Dr Thorndyke. Un verdadero clásico del crimen científico que merece ser más reconocido. Si está decidido a leerlo, espero que lo disfrute tanto como yo.

Acerca del autor: Richard Austin Freeman, (nacido en 1862, Londres; fallecido el 30 de septiembre de 1943, Gravesend, Kent, Inglaterra), popular autor inglés de novelas y cuentos con el personaje de ficción John Thorndyke, un investiagador patólogo. Educado como médico y cirujano, Freeman ejerció en Costa de Oro (ahora Ghana), donde cogió unas fiebres. Finalmente, obligado por su mala salud a retirarse de la práctica (1904), comenzó a escribir novelas.La marca del pulgar rojo (1907) fue la primera de muchas obras con Thorndyke. Su primera novela policiaca publicada fue Las aventuras de Romney Pringle (1902) escrita en colaboración con el Dr. John James Pitcairn (1860-1936), médico de la prisión de Holloway y publicada con el seudónimo de Clifford Ashdown. A los pocos años se dedicó a escribir a tiempo completo. Con la publicación de El hueso que canta (1912) inventó la historia de detectives invertida (una novela policiaca en la que la comisión del crimen se describe al principio, generalmente incluyendo la identidad del autor, con la historia describiendo después el intento del detective de resolver el misterio). A partir de entonces utilizó algunas de sus experiencias iniciales como cirujano colonial en sus novelas. Una gran proporción de las historias del Dr. Thorndyke comportan aspectos de auténticos conocimiento científico, aunque a menudo bastante arcaicos, en áreas tales como la medicina tropical, la metalurgia y la toxicología.

Obra seleccionada: Casos de John Thorndyke relatos [Casos del Dr. Thorndyke en EE. UU.] (1909); El ojo de Osiris [El hombre desaparecido en EE. UU.] (1911); El hueso que canta relatos  (1912); Libro de casos del Dr. Thorndyke relatos [El escarabajo azul en los EE. UU.] (1923); El ojo de gato (1923); El bloqueo del rompecabezas relatos (1925); La sombra del lobo (1925); El misterio de D’Arblay (1926); El ataúd mágico relatos (1927); Como un ladrón en la noche (1928); Supervisión del Sr. Pottermack (1930); El misterio de Penrose (1936); El mono de gres (1938).

R. Austin Freeman (1862 – 1943)

Richard Austin Freeman (11 April 1862 – 28 September 1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. He claimed to have invented the inverted detective story (a crime fiction in which the commission of the crime is described at the beginning, usually including the identity of the perpetrator, with the story then describing the detective’s attempt to solve the mystery). Freeman used some of his early experiences as a colonial surgeon in his novels.

Austin Freeman was the youngest of the five children of tailor Richard Freeman and Ann Maria Dunn. He first trained as an apothecary and then studied medicine at Middlesex Hospital, qualifying in 1887. The same year he married Annie Elizabeth, with whom he had two sons. He entered the Colonial Service and was sent to Accra on the Gold Coast. In 1891 he returned to London after suffering from blackwater fever but was unable to find a permanent medical position, and so decided to settle down in Gravesend and earn money from writing fiction, while continuing to practise medicine. His first stories were written in collaboration with 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. During the First World War he served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps and afterwards produced a Thorndyke novel almost every year until his death in 1943. The Dr. Thorndyke Mysteries series is comprised of of 21 novels and 40 short stories, which were released between the years 1907 and 1942. The house where he died, 94 Windmill Street in Gravesend, is now Thorndyke’s Nursing Home.

Dr Thorndyke Novels:
The Red Thumb Mark (1907); The Eye of Osiris aka The Vanishing Man (1911); The Mystery of 31 New Inn (1912); A Silent Witness (1914); Helen Vardon’s Confession (1922); The Cat’s Eye (1923); The Mystery of Angelina Frood (1924); The Shadow of the Wolf (1925); The D’Arblay Mystery (1926); A Certain Dr Thorndyke (1927); As a Thief in the Night (1928); Mr Pottermack’s Oversight (1930); Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke (1931); When Rogues Fall Out aka Dr. Thorndyke’s Discovery (1932); Dr Thorndyke Intervenes (1933); For the Defence: Dr Thorndyke (1934); The Penrose Mystery (1936); Felo De Se? aka Death At the Inn (1937); The Stoneware Monkey (1938); Mr Polton Explains (1940); and The Jacob Street Mystery aka The Unconscious Witness (1942).

Dr Thorndyke Short stories:  John Thorndyke’s Cases aka Dr. Thorndyke’s Cases (1909); The Singing Bone aka The Adventures of Dr. Thorndyke (1912); Dr. Thorndyke’s Casebook aka The Blue Scarab (1923); The Puzzle Lock (1925); and The Magic Casket (1927).

Note: All the short stories from the above five collections are also available in The Dr. Thorndyke Short Story Omnibus.

(Facsimile Dust Jacket Hodder & Stoughton (UK) (1911)

Raymond Chandler, author of detective novels of a very different type, described him [R. Austin Freeman] in a letter as ‘a wonderful performer . . . he is also a much better writer than you might think, if you were superficially inclined, because in site of the immense leisure of his writing, he accomplishes an even suspense which is quite unexpected.’ (Source: Martin Edwards’ The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books).