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The Works of R. Austin Freeman
This Halcyon Classics ebook contains twenty-eight detective novels and short stories by British writer R. Austin Freeman. These include twenty-one Dr. Thorndyke works and seven other mysteries by Freeman.
Dr. Thorndyke was a prototypical forensic scientist who used minute bits of evidence to solve his cases. 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. 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 large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge.
This ebook includes and active table of contents for easy navigation.
Dr. Thorndyke Novels:
The Red Thumb Mark
The Eye of Osiris
The Mystery of 31 New Inn
A Silent Witness
Helen Vardon’s Confessions
When Rogues Fall Out
The Jacob Street Mystery
Dr. Thorndyke Short Stories:
The Case of the White Footprints
The Man with the Nailed Shoes
The Stranger's Latchkey
The Anthropologist at Large
The Blue Sequin
The Moabite Cipher
The Mandarin's Pearl
The Aluminium Dagger
A Message from the Deep Sea
The Case of Oscar Brodski
A Case of Premeditation
The Echo of A Mutiny
A Wastrel's Romance
The Old Lag
Other Works:
The Great Portrait Mystery
The Uttermost Farthing
A Mystery of the Sand-Hills
The Kimberley Fugitive
The Mysterious Visitor
The Silkworms of Florence
The Submarine Boat
Dr. Thorndyke was a prototypical forensic scientist who used minute bits of evidence to solve his cases. 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. 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 large proportion of the Dr Thorndyke stories involve genuine, but often quite arcane, points of scientific knowledge.
This ebook includes and active table of contents for easy navigation.
Dr. Thorndyke Novels:
The Red Thumb Mark
The Eye of Osiris
The Mystery of 31 New Inn
A Silent Witness
Helen Vardon’s Confessions
When Rogues Fall Out
The Jacob Street Mystery
Dr. Thorndyke Short Stories:
The Case of the White Footprints
The Man with the Nailed Shoes
The Stranger's Latchkey
The Anthropologist at Large
The Blue Sequin
The Moabite Cipher
The Mandarin's Pearl
The Aluminium Dagger
A Message from the Deep Sea
The Case of Oscar Brodski
A Case of Premeditation
The Echo of A Mutiny
A Wastrel's Romance
The Old Lag
Other Works:
The Great Portrait Mystery
The Uttermost Farthing
A Mystery of the Sand-Hills
The Kimberley Fugitive
The Mysterious Visitor
The Silkworms of Florence
The Submarine Boat
- GenresShort Stories
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First published August 16, 2010
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28 people want to read
About the author
R. Austin Freeman
602 books89 followersRichard Freeman was born in Soho, London on 11 April 1862, the son of Ann Maria (nee Dunn) and Richard Freeman, a tailor. He was originally named Richard, and later added the Austin to his name.
He became a medical trainee at Middlesex Hospital Medical College, and was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He married Annie Elizabeth Edwards in 1887; they had two sons. After a few weeks of married life, the couple found themselves in Accra on the Gold Coast, where he was assistant surgeon. His time in Africa produced plenty of hard work, very little money and ill health, so much so that after seven years he was invalided out of the service in 1891. He wrote his first book, 'Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman', which was published in 1898. It was critically acclaimed but made very little money.
On his return to England he set up an eye/ear/nose/throat practice, but in due course his health forced him to give up medicine, although he did have occasional temporary posts, and in World War I he was in the ambulance corps.
He became a writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. The first of the books in the series was 'The Red Thumb Mark' (1907). His first published crime novel was 'The Adventures of Romney Pringle' (1902) and was a collaborative effort published under the pseudonym 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.
He died in Gravesend on 28 September 1943.
He became a medical trainee at Middlesex Hospital Medical College, and was accepted as a member of the Royal College of Surgeons.
He married Annie Elizabeth Edwards in 1887; they had two sons. After a few weeks of married life, the couple found themselves in Accra on the Gold Coast, where he was assistant surgeon. His time in Africa produced plenty of hard work, very little money and ill health, so much so that after seven years he was invalided out of the service in 1891. He wrote his first book, 'Travels and Life in Ashanti and Jaman', which was published in 1898. It was critically acclaimed but made very little money.
On his return to England he set up an eye/ear/nose/throat practice, but in due course his health forced him to give up medicine, although he did have occasional temporary posts, and in World War I he was in the ambulance corps.
He became a writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr Thorndyke. The first of the books in the series was 'The Red Thumb Mark' (1907). His first published crime novel was 'The Adventures of Romney Pringle' (1902) and was a collaborative effort published under the pseudonym 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.
He died in Gravesend on 28 September 1943.
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September 7, 2014
In his private capacity, Freeman was probably more intelligent and erudite than Conan Doyle. He pioneered many forensic techniques that were adapted by the world's police forces and he exposed the fallibility of many then in use. (Fingerprint evidence was a nonsense, he proved. How long before we apply the same scepticism to DNA?) His stories invariably hinge upon some recondite scientific fact or innovation, such as the use of X rays to examine the interiors of mummy cases, decades before such methods became commonplace.
So why have we forgotten Dr Thorndyke? Because, unlike Sherlock Holmes, he is not human. He is an elemental force. He has no family or personal friends. No vices (other than a taste for Trichinopoly cigars). And - unlike the denizen of Baker Street - he never makes a mistake. Not ever. How can we relate to such an Olympian deity? We don't.
Freeman could write like an angel, at least in his early years. His stories from 1910-1920 are often little gems, masterpieces of ingenuity, readable time and again. (His later novels were increasingly flatulent and digressive. They yearned for the editor's pen.) But his greatest character was not Thorndyke but Thorndyke's laboratory assistant, Polton. Whenever little Polton 'crinkled', the story became alive!
So why have we forgotten Dr Thorndyke? Because, unlike Sherlock Holmes, he is not human. He is an elemental force. He has no family or personal friends. No vices (other than a taste for Trichinopoly cigars). And - unlike the denizen of Baker Street - he never makes a mistake. Not ever. How can we relate to such an Olympian deity? We don't.
Freeman could write like an angel, at least in his early years. His stories from 1910-1920 are often little gems, masterpieces of ingenuity, readable time and again. (His later novels were increasingly flatulent and digressive. They yearned for the editor's pen.) But his greatest character was not Thorndyke but Thorndyke's laboratory assistant, Polton. Whenever little Polton 'crinkled', the story became alive!
Displaying 1 of 1 review