Agent Nine Solves His First Case

Agent Nine #1

by Graham M. Dean

Bob Houston and Tully Ross work as clerks in the archive division of the War Department. Their uncles, Merritt Hughes and Condon Adams are federal agents in the Department of Justice, under Waldo Edgar who is head of the department. Director Edgar calls Bob and Tully into his office, with their uncles. Foreign spies are after new secrets concerning radio that are stored in the War Department, and the Director wants inside men acting as agents of his office. He makes the young men special agents and they are to help Hughes and Adams catch the spies before secret material can be compromised.

Genres: Mystery

251 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1935

Reviews

[Bill Potter · Rating 3 out of 5]

A detective book form the 1930’s. A quick fun read. Nothing deep or astounding. It was innocent. The hero didn’t have any major personality flaws so there wasn’t a lot of inner turmoil, still there seemed to be a good bit of supense.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

For all that

it shows its age / date, lack of subtlety, its target audience … still, enjoyable. (Still $0.99- when I acquired it, it was free, I believe.)

[Tom Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Agent Nine #1: “Agent Nine Solves His First Case” by Graham M. Dean. In this first story of the series, Bob Houston and Tully Ross work as clerks in the archive division of the War Department. Their uncles, Merritt Hughes and Condon Adams are federal agents in the Department of Justice, under Waldo Edgar who is head of the department. Director Edgar calls Bob and Tully into his office, with their uncles. Foreign spies are after new secrets concerning radio that are stored in the War Department, and the Director wants inside men acting as agents of his office. He makes the young men special agents and they are to help Hughes and Adams catch the spies before secret material can be compromised. A nice little mystery that takes place mostly in the archive division of the War Department.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved this book as a kid. golden age of the G-man, before all the cross-dressing, spying on American citizens, partisan political nonsense started (or at least anyone knew about).

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

loved this book as a kid. golden age of the G-man, before all the cross-dressing, spying on American citizens, partisan political nonsense started (or at least anyone knew about).

[Rex Libris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Our protagonist is young Bob Houston, a clerk in the National Archives. His uncle is a G-Man, and together they break up a ring of foreign spies who are trying to steal secret radio technology.

The uncle has a rival in the Bureau who also has a nephew in the archives. The two groups are rivals in tryin to solve the mystery, but Our Hero pulls it off in the end!

[Sarah Gallini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun, old school FBI story that has been told many times under different names. Pretty sure Sherlock Holmes solved a similar case. But still an enjoyable vintage book. (My copy has thick yellow pages that feel so nice...)

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun book. It shows that even working in an archives can be exciting, even if all you are doing is filing papers, in the right circumstances. The story is even vaguely realistic. This reads as if it takes place during WWII but it was actually written several years before. Very prophetic.

[Hoyadaisy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Interesting for historical value, but probably aimed at wide-eyed 8-year old boys.