"The First R. Austin Freeman Megapack" collects 27 mystery tales featuring the forensic sleuth Dr. Thorndyke (and others). Included in this volume RED THUMB MARK (1907)THE MAN WITH THE NAILED SHOES (1909)THE STRANGER'S LATCHKEY (1909)THE ANTHROPOLOGIST AT LARGE (1909)THE BLUE SEQUIN (1909)THE MOABITE CIPHER (1909)THE MANDARIN'S PEARL (1909)THE ALUMINIUM DAGGER (1909)A MESSAGE FROM THE DEEP SEA (1909)THE EYE OF OSIRIS (1911)THE MYSTERY OF 31 NEW INN (1912)THE CASE OF OSCAR BRODSKI (1912)A CASE OF PREMEDITATION (1912)THE ECHO OF A MUTINY (1912)A WASTREL'S ROMANCE (1912)THE OLD LAG (1912)THE UTTERMOST FARTHING (1914)A SILENT WITNESS (1914)THE GREAT PORTRAIT MYSTERY (1918)THE BRONZE PARROT (1918)POWDER BLUE AND HAWTHORN (1918)THE ATTORNEY'S CONSCIENCE (1918)THE LUCK OF BARNABAS MUDGE (1918)THE MISSING MORTGAGEE (1918)PERCIVAL BLAND'S PROXY (1918)THE CASE OF THE WHITE FOOTPRINTS (1920)HELEN VARDON'S CONFESSION (1922)If you enjoy this volume, please search this ebook store for "Wildside Megapack" to see more entries in the series, collecting great tales of adventure, mystery, science fiction, westerns, ghost stories, and much more. (Sort by publication date to see the most recent additions.)
Richard 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.
Very interesting stories written around 1905-1920, so in the old-fashioned style with many descriptive and technical details. I skimmed through the last one especially because there were so many descriptive details that slowed the pace down.
Se trata de una compilación de relatos breves, todos ellos muy intensos y con esa visión tan profunda que ve lo que los demás ni intuyen sel Dr. Thorndyke. Valoración 8/10 Leído noviembre 2022. Y con este termino mi reto de 50 libros de 2022.