Writing about blind detectives - part two

Today, Christina Koning continues her discussion of blind detectives:

'Thestories collected in Clinton H Stagg’s The Problemist (1915), about NewYork detective Thornley Colton, are no less entertaining than Bramah’s Carradostales — and no less improbable, as regards their protagonist’s extraordinarypowers of perception. Although blind from birth, Colton has an uncanny abilityto describe someone he has never met from seemingly inconsequential details — thecolour of a woman’s dress is correctly guessed, on the principle that ‘allstout women who breathe asthmatically wear purple’ and so on.

JohnFergusons’s The Man in the Dark (1928) offers a more plausible accountof blindness, as its central character, blinded war veteran Sandy Kinloch,finds himself an unwitting witness to the murder of a campaigning journalist. Iliked the fact that the novel begins in a London pea-souper (as mine does) —sothat the reader isn’t at first made aware that Kinloch is blind. The emphasison what he can hear, touch and smell adds realism to the portrayal too.

Thenthere is Bruce Alexander’s Blind Justice (1994) about the eighteenthcentury magistrate (and brother of Henry Fielding), Sir John Fielding, whoseblindness — in this story at least — does not prevent him from solving acomplicated locked room murder mystery. In this, he is assisted by JeremyProctor, an orphaned boy who acts as his ‘eyes’. The wonderful historicaldetail in this book, the first of a series about Fielding, makes it well worthreading — as does its convincing portrayal of the central character’sblindness.  

Therehave been blind detectives in cinema and television, too.  In the 1971 TV series, Longstreet, setin New Orleans, the eponymous detective, played by James Franciscus, solvescrimes — including the murder of his wife — with the assistance of a whiteGerman Shepherd called Pax. More recently, Blind Detective (2013),described as a ‘Hong-Kong Chinese action crime/ romantic comedy film’, starringAndy Lau as a blind detective who makes a living solving cold cases, shows thatstories about differently-abled detectives still continue to intrigue.'

Christina's new book, Murderat Bletchley Park, the eighth book in the Blind Detectiveseries, is published by Allison and Busby. I'd also like to take this opportunity to mention the books of Vicki Goldie, the Secretary of the CWA, which include Blind Witness and Blind Pool.