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.