The Crime Fighters

Page 6

The Counsellor

Mark Brand, known as The Counsellor, was a shade below middle height, wiry, and quick stepping, with a sparrow alertness. Aged twenty-two and an orphan, he started an agency to answer all sorts of problems and queries. His voice was pleasant, and this was an aid in the one hour radio programme he had on Radio Ardennes each Sunday. His work automatically brought him into contact with matters concerning the investigation of crime. He was featured in J. J.. Connington’s novels The Counsellor (1939) and The Four Defences (1940).

Gripton Court

This famous London detective appeared in Nugget Library in 1920 in a story entitled The Panic Plunderers by Stephen H. Agnew. His office boy and juvenile assistant was red-haired Joe Sparks, formerly a conjuror, call boy, and stable hand in Enrico’s Circus. Stories featuring Gripton Court also appeared in Sparks, one serial in 1915 being “Black Magic.”

Rose Courtenay

Rose Courtenay was a governess who, upon becoming involved with a crime, became a detective and one of Robert Spicer’s principal agents. She appeared in The Fatal Finger-Mark (1895) by Milton Danvers. See also the Robert Spicer entry.

Crackers and Co.

Crackers & Co. was a firm of private enquiry agents. Crackers himself lived at No. 12 Straker Street, London. He was so called because it was his nickname when originally a poor London newsboy. No one knew his real name, and the nickname stuck in a fashion similar to Tinker, Sexton Blake’s famous assistant. The firm was featured in Butterfly in the 1920s, and although the stories were anonymous they are known to have been written by F. G. Cordwell.

Austin Craig

The first story about Austin Craig, “The Quest of the Stolen Bonds,” appeared under the series title “The Adventures of Austin Craig” in the second issue of The Bullseye in 1898, though the setting of the story was 1895. Austin Craig, a very young man with clean cut features, was in fact the youngest member of the staff of Mr. Baring, a wealthy stockbroker, but in spite of his youth he held the responsible post of confidential clerk. Austin found his avocation and started up as a detective after he had been placed in a suspicious position. This first story and subsequent stories, including “The Mystery of Marden Towers,” were written by Escott Lynn.

Nat Craig

He was the star in a book of short stories, thirty in all, entitled The Private Eye (1950) by Ernest Dudley. Nat Craig, London’s foremost private detective, believed in hitting first and pulling no punches. He was typical of today’s impression of the private eye but untypical of the great originals.

Detective Inspector Crane

He was featured in The Case of the Alpha Murders (1947) by Stephen Blakesley. Detective Inspector Crane of Scotland Yard was assisted by the massive form of Sergeant Cloud and was the owner of a notorious battered brown car endowed with the name “The Rocket.”

Bill and Ann Crane

William Crane, a private detective from the pen of Jonathan Latimer, was aged thirty-four and had a tanned and clear skinned face. In the first novels, such as The Lady in the Morgue (1936), he worked alone but subsequently was assisted in his investigations by his wife Ann.

Craig Crane

He was featured in a detective story, “The Raven Talks Again,” in the Wizard in 1947. Crane was a famous British scientist who helped the police in the detection and solving of crime. He was curiously assisted by his pet talking raven Blackie.

Lamont Cranston. See: The Shadow.

Martin Cripps

“The Adventures of Martin Cripps, Detective” appeared anonymously in the short-running School and Sport. This sleuth, with rather stern, clear cut features, had a flat in Barkston Gardens, off the Earl’s Court Road, London. His assistant was a boy named Bob Weston, and his household also included a page boy, Sam Ruggles.

Croly

Croly, who was considered and referred to as the cranky detective, was a slender bespectacled man who spoke in a mild low voice. He had rooms in the Bowery, and had what was probably one of the largest collections in the world of weapons taken from criminals. He also kept complete files on and portraits of criminals that he had encountered or knew of. Croly was featured in Aldine Detective Tales in a story entitled Under His Thumb, which was published in No. 14 and reprinted in No. 347.

Chief Inspector Bill Cromwell

Edwy Searles Brooks, writing as Victor Gunn, created Cromwell, aptly known as Ironsides. He had a lean forbidding face and wore a shiny blue serge suit and soft hat. Together with his right hand man Detective Sergeant John Lister of the C.I.D., New Scotland Yard, they appeared in many novels including Ironside Smashes Through (1940), Ironsides on the Spot (1948) and The Treble Chance Murder (1958).

Arthur Crook

Featured in many books by Anthony Gilbert, Arthur Crook was described by the critics as a slightly unscrupulous detective but was actually an unprepossessing lawyer/sleuth who followed his hunches and blundered his boisterous way through his cases. He was also red headed, unconventional and loud mouthed, and drove an old, old Rolls. But the critics were also right in that Crook was apt to bulldoze and blast his way straight through mysteries and come out on the other side with a beautifully neat little solution. He was an entertaining character, but definitely no Sherlock Holmes. Books in which he appeared included The Black Stage (1945), Death Against the Clock (1958) and She Shall Die (1961; published in the U.S. as After the Verdict).

Detective X. Crook

He was a former master criminal who reformed, and the only thing known for certain about him was that his christian name was Henry. After crossing sides, he became quite a skilful detective, and lived in a large house in Hampstead. The series of stories entitled “The Cases of Detective X. Crook” were in the Penny Pictorial in 1925, and the author was J. Jefferson Farjeon..

Leonard Cross

Cross was a young private detective who appeared in No. 487 of the Marvel.

Howard Crowningshield

Detective Howard Crowningshield was featured in Pitiless As Death; or, Crowningshield the Detective in Aldine Detective Tales No. 309.

Sergeant Cuff

Sergeant Cuff was an elderly grizzled man, so lean that he looked as if he had not an ounce of flesh on any of his bones. His face was as sharp as a hatchet and its skin was as yellow and dry as an autumn leaf. His eyes were a steely light grey and had a very disconcerting trick of looking, when they encountered your eyes, as if they expected something more from you than you were aware of yourself. His walk was soft, his voice was melancholy and his long lanky fingers looked like claws. He might have been a parson or an undertaker-or anything else you like, except what he really was-a professional detective in the classic story The Moonstone (1868) by Wilkie Collins.

Monty Cute

He was featured by Chris Allen in the 1916 issues of Comic Life in a series entitled “Monty Cute, Camera Man.” Cute was an expert film taker and attached to Scotland Yard. He was tall, with long brown wavy hair and a goatee. He wore patent leather boots and a large black hat. His associates at the Yard were Detective Evans and Superintendent Ware of the C.I.D.

Archer Dale. See: Maxim Law.

Ex-Superintendent James Dale

He was still involved in the detective of crime, though retired from Scotland Yard after thirty years of service. He was a tall spare man, with a slight stoop, steely grey hair and keen steady eyes. He lived at Wembley in Middlesex until moving to a dream cottage in the heart of the Sussex countryside, where he grew roses. Dale appeared in The Body Was of No Account (1957) and Death in Aberration (1958) by John C. Cooper.

Martin Dale

Martin Dale was the creation of Maxwell Scott, who also created the more famous Nelson Lee. Dale first appeared in Chums in 1911, and then the stories were reprinted in Boys Friend Library in the 1916-1917 period; reprint examples included The Double Six (1916) and The Silver Key (1917). Scott described Dale as “the most famous private detective in Europe” (obviously forgetting about Nelson Lee) “with consulting rooms in Jermyn street.” His assistant and friend was Jimmy Readman, who was furnished with a typical background, having been rescued from the slums of Stepney by Dale. Jimmy was later proved to be the heir to a fortune and a large estate. Martin Dale himself was broad shouldered, with a clean shaven face, lit by a pair of piercing grey eyes. He was unassuming and always a little less superhuman than his contemporaries. He soon disappeared completely from stories because his greatest rivals, Sexton Blake and Nelson Lee, considerably surpassed him in popularity.

Michael Dale

He was a private investigator featured in Ernest L. McKeag’s The Man from the Gallows. His assistant was Chick Farrell, who was also the keeper of Dale’s private dossiers on criminals. Dale was tall, well built, with a bronzed face which looked grimly humorous. His powers of deduction surpassed anything the underworld could present.

Dan Damon

Dan Damon, or Gilt Edged Dan, was a detective who appeared in Aldine Half-Holiday, probably in a reprint from America.

Dan of Denver

He appeared in The Great Dan of Denver, the Rocky Mountain Detective in Aldine Half-Holiday No. 90. It was in all probability a reprint from America.

Louise and Jean Dana

Louise Dana and her sister Jean were orphans who lived with Aunt Harriet and her brother Captain Edwin Dana, a sea-captain in Oak Falls. Louise at age seventeen was a dark, rather serious girl. Jean, a year younger, was blonde, gay and flippant. The girls shared a gift possessed by few others of their age, namely a talent for deduction and solving mysteries. They had a keen zest for adventure, and their ability as amateur detectives led them into several complicated affairs in which they had their full share of thrills and excitement. The sisters attended Starhurst School for Girls, located some distance from Oak Falls on the outskirts of the town of Penfield. The stories, which originated in America and were subsequently reprinted in England, were written by Carolyn Keene, author of the more famous Nancy Drew detective stories. Books included By the Light of the Study Lamp (1934), The Secret at Lone Tree Cottage (1934), In the Shadow of the Tower (1934) and A Three Cornered Mystery (1935).

Dane the Dog Detective. See: Clive Markham.

Bill Dane

Charlie Danforth, otherwise known as Bill Dane, was a powerfully built detective of perhaps thirty years of age. A sharp featured, clean shaven man, he operated privately in New York. He appeared in No. 266 of Aldine Detective Tales together with another detective known as “Star.” The story was probably reprinted from Old Cap. Collier Library.

Colwyn Dane

Stories about Colwyn Dane, private detective of Benton Street in London, appeared in the weekly boy’s paper Champion from 1928 until 1955. The stories originally appeared as by Rupert Hall, a pen-name of Edward R. Home-Gall. For the first couple of years, Dane’s boy assistant, Slick Chester, was the central character, as indicated by the title of the first yarn: “Detective Slick’s First Scoop.” But later Dane took over the leading role, though Slick of course still appeared. In later stories the author was given as Mark Grimshaw, an editorial name to cover several writers, though the main two were Ernest McKeag and Harry Belfield. Ernest McKeag wrote about 300 Dane stories before the war, and all those from 1939 until the paper was shut down, with possibly a few exceptions when he was indisposed, were by Harry Belfield. It was natural that Colwyn Dane should also appear in the Champion’s companion publications, Champion Annual and Champion Library. Throughout his lone run, Dane was always assisted by his young assistant Slick Chester, who never aged and drove his master’s super sports car. The stories were short and usually complete, though sometimes they assumed the pattern of a serial. Colwyn Dale could be said to be almost the double of Dixon Hawke, Amalgamated Press’s challenge to the D. C. Thomson sleuth. Dane had none of the motivated thought of Sexton Blake, and the stories were written with the Thomsonian modernisms, even down to his assistant “Slick”, and on occasion they would run into a vein of fantasy.

Paul Dane

Paul Dane was a striking looking man, somewhat over middle height. He had a pale face and jet black hair, with heavily marked eyebrows above deep-set eyes. For years he had been connected with Scotland Yard, but his fame was such that he had retired and gone into private practice. He had vowed that he would retire altogether if he ever failed to solve a case. Paul Dane appeared in stories in Puck in 1908. In a later series, he had some highly trained pets including a very clever black raven named Grip.

Wallace Dane

Wallace Dane appeared in The Brand of the Crook (1942) by Fred Ramsdale. He was known to his intimates as “Wal” and he was one of the assistant commissioner’s best men in the C.I.D. Inspector Boothroyd was also featured in the story.

Michael Danevitch

Dick Donovan, a prolific writer, created Michael Danevitch, one of the foremost detectives in the world, and featured him in The Chronicles of Michael Danevitch of the Russian Secret Service (1897). Danevitch had more to do with unravelling political crime than any other living person. He was endowed with wonderful gifts, and having once got on the track of a criminal that person was certain to be doomed. Eventually he was involved in a terrible train crash in Russia and because of his awful injuries had to have both legs amputated. He related his most interesting cases to a friend before death came to him. Danevitch was a genius and born detective who seemed to possess an eighth sense. He was a natural actor and could imitate anybody in both voice and appearance, and he had the good fortune to be well educated and a fluent linguist.

Charlie Danforth. See: Bill Dane.

Dangerfield

He was a sleuth who appeared in The Doctor Detective in No. 37 of Aldine Half-Holiday.

Dangerman. See: John Drake.

Inspector Jack Danton

Auxiliary Inspector Jack Danton was one of the new police, the type that had found its way into Scotland Yard from the commissioned ranks of the army. In The Thief in the Night (1928) by Edgar Wallace he was featured with Barbara May, a Foreign Office detective, with whom he was married at the conclusion of the story.

Derwent Dare

Derwent Dare of Baker Street and his assistant Billy Webster appeared in Behind the Blank by Creighton Dale in the first issue of My Pocket Detective Stories Library.

P.C. Dick Dare

A series of complete stories in The Surprise in 1930 entitled “Dare of ’D’ Division” featured P.C. Dick Dare, an ex-university man, courageous at heart, and the pride of the force.

P.C. John Dare

The adventures of P.C. John Dare XY77, or Gentleman Jack, as he was known, appeared in The Butterfly under the title of “In the Glare of the Bullseye.” In No. 389 in 1912 he joined forces with another Butterfly detective, Polly Smith, and together they formed “Daring & Co. Detective Agency”, q.v.

Lucile Dare

Lucile Dare was a handsome, fascinating woman with brilliant black eyes and pale features. She was renowned as a marvellous investigator of crime, and it was her sleuthhound instinct and vast experience which gave her the wonderful powers that were not visible upon her face. That face had perfect features, without lines, and its ivory hued pallor was as pure and soft in texture as the delicate shading of a child. She was introduced in Lucile Dare, Detective (1919) by Marie Connor Leighton.

Neil Dare

“The Exploits of Neil Dare, Detective” by Derwent Miall began in No. 99 of Young Britain in 1921. He was a famous London detective who had rooms in Westminster and an assistant named Ted Scudder, an ex-groom whom he had met while on an earlier case.

Stanley Dare

Stanley Dare was a very young man, usually identified as the boy detective. His creator was Alec G. Pearson, although many of the stories were published anonymously in Pluck, Boys Herald, and Marvel some years before the First World War. Dare had his quarters in London, and his constant companion and helper was his old friend Professor MacAndrew. His home was under the jurisdiction of an able housekeeper, and therefore although the boy detective engaged with many criminals and mysteries he could be said to have had aid from an older generation. Stanley Dare was apt to adopt the most clever of disguises, which would baffle his associates, but as these stories were aimed at a juvenile readership the rather impossible situations were readily accepted. A most interesting story was Marvel No. 141, “The Great Temptation,” which described a case concerning the editor of the Marvel itself and the mystery surrounding stories published in that paper. Other stories published in the 1906/7 period included “Stanley Dare’s Master Stroke” and “The Secret of the Quicksand.”

Susan Dare

Susan Dare lived and worked in a small house and was a successful young writer of thrilling mystery stories. She was recognized as a valuable consultant to the police force, and helped the force solve many mysteries. She was introduced in The Cases of Susan Dare (1934) by Mignon G. Eberhart.

M. Georges Dares

This dramatist detective appeared in Fortune Du Boisgobey’s The Steel Necklace in 1886.

Daring & Co.

Gentleman Jack and Miss Polly Smith were both left an inheritance of 1500 pounds and together they formed the Daring & Co. Detective Agency. They were a combination of two Butterfly detectives who had previously worked alone: Gentleman Jack, otherwise John Dare of the Metropolitan Police, and Polly Smith, the Board School detective. The latter had had plenty of experience, having served her apprenticeship to Gordon Barrington, a Secret Service type. Later Polly was successful in reforming a gentleman crook, Max Matmaddox, who eventually married her and supplanted Dare as head of the firm, with rooms in Laker St. Daring & Co. appeared in Butterfly from No. 389 in 1912, and the leading author was H. T. E. Mansfield.

Inspector Daring

This detective was created by Talbot Mayne and appeared in Aldine’s Diamond Library No. 52 in a story entitled The Messenger Boy Detective.

Bob and Betty Daring

These were brother and sister partners in a detective agency with an office in Bloomsbury. They were featured in the Joker in the early 1930s in a series entitled “The Daring Detectives.”

Paul Daring

Paul Daring, detective, helped by his little niece Daisy, appeared in a series of short stories in the twenties in My Favourite, a juvenile story paper.

Dudley Dark

This detective, a pipe-smoking, nondescript type, appeared in the Marvel No. 393.

Jeffery Darke

Jeffery Darke, the ghost detective, had consulting rooms in a side street off Portman Square, London. He was of medium height, with a fresh complexion and short crisp hair that was greying at the temples. He was alert in appearance, without a superfluous ounce of flesh on his bones, but there was nothing about him to denote his unique profession. That profession was the investigation of mystery and crime which concerned ghosts and the world of the dead. Darke was featured from time to time for several years in the Champion, beginning with No. 38 in October 1922. The author was Carras Yorke.

Frank Darrell

He was created by Sidney Strand and featured for some years in the Scout. The man with many faces, as he was described, solved numerous cases with the help of his assistant Roy Martin and Biffles, his page boy. His great friend was Chief Inspector Railton of Scotland Yard. His home and consulting rooms were at Adelphi Chambers in Adelphi Terrace. Darrell was a tall, handsome man who was in turn an actor, mimic, contortionist, author, and detective. So clever was his disguise that even his own assistant couldn’t see through it, and often he would suddenly reveal himself as Frank Darrell when he was consorting with crooks. The following extract is an example from a typical story:

“It was ten o’clock at night. The rain poured down in a ceaseless torrent, but the ragged individual standing opposite the filthy looking tenement off Soho hardly took any notice of the elements. The wretched rain soaked individual was Frank Darrell, the man with many faces in one of his clever disguises. For several weeks he had been assisting Railton in what he termed ’a waiting game.’”

John Darrell. See: Slade of the Yard.

Captain Jose Maria Carvalho Santos Da Silva

Carvalho Santos Captain Jose Da Silva was a liaison officer between the Brazilian Police and Interpol. He was a tall, athletic man in his late thirties, with a lean pockmarked face and the full bushy moustache of the Brazilian of the Interior. He weighed one hundred and ninety pounds and was six feet in height. He had swarthy skin and high cheek bones, thick black hair and very white teeth, and his rugged features were more often than not set in a smile. He came from the pen of Robert L. Fish and appeared in such novels as The Shrunken Head (1963), Brazilian Sleigh Ride (1965), and Always Kill a Stranger (1967).

Dick Datchery

Datchery appeared in the classic unfinished novel by Charles Dickens, The Mystery of Edwin Drood (1870). He had black eyebrows and an unusually large head covered with a shock of white hair. When Charles Dickens died on the 10th of June in 1870 he had only written six of the twelve parts that had been planned for the book. The book has been completed many times by a number of authors. The story has also been filmed several times under the same title.

Detective Inspector Alan Dauncey. See: Harvey Tuke.

Adam and Abel Daunt

Adam Daunt, the millionaire detective, had been killed in Europe when his aeroplane was blown up in mid-air. His will bequeathed all his vast wealth and his mysterious palace, hidden in the heart of London, to his nephew Abel Daunt, with the stipulation that Abel should carry on his work.

Twenty-five year old Abel Daunt had been a student in Paris. He had dark hair, he was clean shaven with a clear cut face which showed power and indomitable will, and his keen and piercing eyes seemed to be able to read the inmost secrets of anyone upon whom they were fixed. When interviewing clients he usually sat on a chair of state (which had once been the throne of an Indian Prince), with a Siberian wolf stretched out at his feet.

In his chamber, called the Hall of a Hundred Columns, priceless vases stood on brackets and pictures by the greatest artists the world had known adorned the walls. Hangings of rich silk screened alcoves and recesses, tropical plants displayed gorgeous flowers, rich Oriental rugs were strewn about the marble floor, and in the centre of the chamber a scented fountains splashed soothingly. Dark skilled men, robed in flowing white garments, stood here and there, silent and motionless. Terrifying animals, including a black-maned lion, were either crouching on the rugs or stalking noiselessly to and fro. Birds of gaudy plumage fluttered about the chamber, while a hidden orchestra played soothing music in the gallery.

Abel Daunt obtained his clients by advertisements in the leading London newspapers, and was assisted by one of the world’s greatest jujitsu experts, Itoya, a Japanese who had never been beaten and who also acted as his servant.

Both Adam and Abel Daunt were featured in Firefly and Fun and Fiction in the first series. Abel also appeared in Merry & Bright’s Clues Ltd.

P. J. Davenant

Philip John Davenant was a public school boy, a slim fair-haired lad who gave the appearance of having outgrown his clothes and was blessed with a particularly innocent face. His father was a celebrated engineer and he had an elder sister of eighteen. The adventures took place while he was still a pupil at Tonbridge School, mainly during the holiday period. He had, in addition to an amazing bent to criminology, a wonderful knowledge of the German language. The stories about P. J. appeared first in the Grand Magazine and were the nucleus of the books of short stories to follow. The setting was the First World War period, and the opening story was “The Lady at Hempstead.” In this tale Mr. Cyril Ambrose, a six-footer in his middle thirties and the Assistant Commissioner of Scotland Yard, first met P. J. and decided that he had the makings of a detective. Although he was possessed with extraordinary astuteness for a lad of his age, there were some extremes in his mannerisms, such as from the astounding remark, “You won’t be shocked, Mr. Ambrose, if I light a pipe,” to his boyish joy at the end of a case: “It’s the most ripping game I ever played.” The stories were by Lord Frederic Spencer Hamilton and were contained in the volumes Some Further Adventures of Mr. P. J. Davenant (1915), Nine Holiday Adventures of Mr. P. J. Davenant (1916), The Education of Mr. P. J. Davenant (1916) and The Beginnings of Mr. P. J. Davenant (1917).

George Davis

This detective of Scotland Yard was a short spare man with iron grey whiskers and a quiet, unassuming manner. He appeared with another detective, George Stone, in Marvels and Mysteries by Richard Marsh in 1900.

Lucius Davoren

M. E. Braddon’s 1873 three volume novel, Lucius Davoren, described the title character as a surgeon without a practice. He had a strongly defined profile, a broad forehead, clear grey eyes, a well-cut mouth, and a resolute chin hidden by a bushy untrimmed beard. Davoren was a very melodramatic type of detective, written about in a century past.