Jimmie Dale and the Phantom Clue

Jimmie Dale #3

by Frank L. Packard

Jimmie Dale was the most brilliant of all thieves, a member of society by day, at night a celebrated cat burglar, "The Grey Seal." But he was only a pawn in the hands of the "Tocsin," the mysterious, unseen woman who forced him to steal--for good! With both the police and the underworld baying at his heels, Jimmie Dale uses his criminal talents to right wrongs, save lives and reputations, and expose wrongdoers to the light of day. How could Jimmie help but fall in love with the Tocsin--and how could he know that when he finally found her, he'd be placing her life in the gravest danger and that their adventures would only be beginning!

Genres: Mystery

301 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1922

About the author

Frank Lucius Packard was born in Montreal, Quebec and educated at McGill University and the University of Liege. As a young man he worked as a civil engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. His experiences working on the railroad led to his writing a series of mystery novels, the most famous of which featured a character called Jimmie Dale.

Frank Packard died in 1942 in Lachine, Quebec and was buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.

Reviews

[Jreads · Rating 3 out of 5]

☆3
It saddens me just how much this rating has gone down.
The first book was perfection, a delicate balance of Jimmie Dale, the Grey Seal, and Larry the Bat
The second book had a striking blow to the amount of time spent as Jimmie Dale and the Grey seal and it was mostly just Smarlinghue
And now, ugh.

One of the things that made me rate the first book five stars was Jimmies interactions with people (mostly carruthers) who didn't know he was the Grey seal. Carruthers and Jimmie had a perfect dynamic, Jimmie and Jason and the chauffeur also had that great dynamic it was nice to spend time with them but the books have slowly but surely slipped into just the underworld which is very disappointing.
I'm sorry but the underworld is pretty boring in my opinion. If I wanted to read a book focusing just on crime I would but these books promised the double life I LOVE.
Carruthers really carried these books huh?
This issue of Jimmie Dale was especially boring considering the Tocsin- ONCE AGAIN disappears for safety reasons and Jimmie is left being boring and by himself. He spends 80% of the book as smarlinghue or the Grey seal with no good Jimmie Dale moments which I miss!
Also the reveal at the end was the worst. I was more interested in a new character rather than what we got instead.

With the first book, I was motivated to keep reading for the story and character interactions. With this book, I just read to get it over with.
Rip Carruthers you'll probably never show up again ig

☆3

[Mh430 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Frankly, this is the weakest of the five original Gray Seal novels. Author Frank Packard shows a troubling lack of originality here, both in the basic plot of the story and the interactions of Jimmie Dale and his oh-so competent and yet oh-so infuriating lady love. Readers running through the series in publication order will definitely get a feeling of deja-vu with this one. Still, there are some nice twists along the way, as can be expected from a Frank Packard story, and the ending, with Jimmie acting heroic and yet eminently human, is quite good. And even an inferior Gray Seal novel is still better reading than most early Twentieth-century adventure fiction.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jimmie Dale, a man about town, in his various disguises tries to bring down the master criminal The Phantom to save his girlfriend.

It was ok. It was too overwritten and melodramatic for my tastes but it did remind me a bit of the Saint or the Shadow. I think it would have been better if it was a bit shorter.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

24 characters. 72 nicknames. 15 disguises. 65 door locks picked. 18 burglaries. Ridiculous but “finishable.”

[Kyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these out of order. It doesn't matter much; they're all pretty similar, but there was one plot point I knew all along that kind of ruined the big surprise. The gray seal alias Jimmie Dale and his beloved, the Tocsin, take on many identities in this series and it is better not to know who they are before hand. The criminals also take on many identities. Packard is pretty heavy-handed with foreshadowing so it's not to hard to guess what will happen, but I would have preferred not to know. So try to read them in order.

It takes place in New York City and they are alwayson the Bowery and the Lower East Side and in opium dens in Chinatown. It's pretty cool.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The third book in the Gray Seal series is quite fantastic! The interplay between Marie LaSalle, aka the Tocsin and the Gray Seal is compelling. The Tocsin is Jimmie Dale's mysterious love interest, and his own mixed identity as the Gray Seal, is fraught with drama, unrequited love, and danger. I won't say too much, as there are many available spoilers, yet I will say this a great conclusion to the story established in the first volumes. Highly, highly recommended!

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

An exciting, though archaic and episodic novel featuring Jimmie Dale, The Gray Seal, as he attempt to unmask The Phantom, a kingpin of the underworld.

Mostly, Dale walks the streets in disguise, receiving a letter from The Tocsin every so often, or eavesdropping on a criminal conspiracy in progress, then rushes to foil the plot.

Pretty good stuff.

[Christina · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitious at this point. I wasn't even aware, for some time, that there were more books to the Jimmie Dale series than the first two. I felt, reading this, that the way in which Packard stretched the mystique of the Tocsin, stretched her sad situation, was a bit ridiculous. I do hope the next book(s) in the series won't have the continuation of her being saved, then having to go hide again, and Dale having to save her again. I know this damsel in distress story is tried and true, but still, I felt less involved and excited and breathless reading this than the first two. Albeit, that aside, the craft of the prose is still wonderful, as usual. The speed and the nail-biting, close calls for both Dale and LaSalle were a pleasure to read. The point of these stories, to me, is the narrative along the way and far less the end result, as Packard always buttons everything up at the very last second. Love the pace! Love the seedy descriptions, the gross Badlands characters, etc.