The Collected Max Carrados Investigations: The Cases of the Renowned Blind Edwardian Detective

Max Carrados #1-3

by Ernest Bramah

The complete short story casebook of the blind rival of Sherlock Holmes
In the pages of the influential Strand Magazine, there was a time when Ernest Bramah's stories of crime and detection, featuring the blind detective Max Carrados, appeared alongside those about the world's most renowned fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes, and received equal critical acclaim. George Orwell considered the Max Carrados stories to be among the finest detective fiction published since the genre's creation by Edgar Allan Poe. The first Carrados stories appeared in 1914 as the Great War erupted and although they have not endured in the public imagination to the same degree that Holmes and Watson have, they were phenomenally popular and occasionally out-sold Conan Doyle's stories in book form. In common with Holmes and his Dr. Watson, wealthy and urbane Carrados operated with his own indispensible partner, the slightly shady Mr. Carlyle, and was further assisted by his manservant Parkinson and his secretary Mr. Greatorex. His blindness, caused by an accident, made Carrados very distinctive, and from his base at 'The Turrets, ' Richmond, London, he relied solely on his heightened powers of sensory perception to solve the mysteries which come his way. This Leonaur Original collects all twenty six of the Max Carrados short stories into a satisfying volume with all the ingredients of period detective fiction at its very finest. A treasure-trove of enjoyment that will be welcomed by all aficionados of the Golden Age of Crime and Detective fiction.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.

628 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 2013

About the author

Bramah was a reclusive soul, who shared few details of his private life with his reading public. His full name was Ernest Bramah Smith. It is known that he dropped out of Manchester Grammar School at the age of 16, after displaying poor aptitude as a student and thereafter went into farming, and began writing vignettes for the local newspaper. Bramah's father was a wealthy man who rose from factory hand to a very wealthy man in a short time, and who supported his son in his various career attempts.

Bramah went to Fleet Street after the farming failure and became a secretary to Jerome K. Jerome, rising to a position as editor of one of Jerome's magazines. At some point, he appears to have married Mattie.

More importantly, after being rejected by 8 publishers, the Wallet of Kai Lung was published in 1900, and to date, remains in print. Bramah wrote in different areas, including political science fiction, and mystery. He died at the age of 74. See http://www.ernestbramah.com for more information.

Reviews

[Tony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collects all 25 of Bramah's Max Carrados detective stories, which were previously separately collected in "Max Carrados" (1914), "The Eyes of Max Carrados" (1923), and "Max Carrados Mysteries" (1927). The first twelve stories were serialized in News of the World in 1913, then five appeared only in the second book, with the rest appearing from 1924-27 in various periodicals. There was also one stand-alone Max Carrados novel, but that is not included in this collection.

The premise of the stories is that Carrados is a wealthy Englishman with an acquaintance who is a private investigator, and when he has a case he can't crack, he brings it to Carrados. The gimmick is that Carrados is blind, but has highly attuned powers of perception that allow him to solve these tricky cases. The influence of the Sherlock Holmes stories is pretty direct, as they would have been published when the author of these stories was in his 20s, and he must surely have read them.

I read a third of the stories from different parts of the collection, and that was enough to give me a taste, without whetting my appetite to read the rest. The stories are all little puzzle-boxes, entertaining enough in the moment, but not striking enough to leave any last impression. Carrados and his friend are not developed as fully-rounded characters, and while the stories all seem to take place within the greater London environs, there's not much color to be had there either. The writing itself is a mix of stiff and sometimes convoluted phrasing, so that the overall experience can be a little laborious at times. Readers with an interest in Golden Age detective stories may find these of moderate interest, but most modern readers aren't likely to find them very compelling.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

Max Carrados (1914):
The Coin of Dionysius--2
The Knight's Cross Signal Problem--3
The Tragedy at Brookbend Cottage--2
The Clever Mrs. Straithwaite--2
The Last Exploit of Harry the Actor--3
The Tilling Shaw Mystery--2
The Comedy at Fountain Cottage--2
The Game Played in the Dark--3

The Eyes of Max Carrados (1923):
The Virginiola Fraud--2
The Disappearance of Marie Severe--3
The Secret of Dunstan's Tower--2
The Mystery of the Poisoned Dish of Mushrooms--3
The Ghost of Massingham Mansions--2
The Missing Actress Sensation--2
The Ingenious Mr. Spinola--2
The Kingsmouth Spy Case--2
The Eastern Mystery--2

The Specimen Case (1924):
The Bunch of Violets--2
***
[a non-Max Carrados story:]
Smothered in Corpses--1

Max Carrados Mysteries (1927)
*The Secret of Headlam Height
The Mystery of the Vanished Petition Crown--3
*The Holloway Flat Tragedy
*The Curious Circumstances of the Two Left Shoes
*The Ingenious Mind of Mr. Rigby Lacksome
The Crime at the House in Culver Street
The Strange Case of Cyril Bycourt
The Missing Witness Sensation