The first twelve cases for M. McDonnell Bodkin’s insightful but self-deprecating detective Paul Beck, a man who claims no more genius than “a little common sense,” and says of himself that “I just go by the rule of thumb, and muddle and puzzle out my cases as best I can.” Including tales of card-sharping, deception, and theft; of treachery in the British Cabinet, and a plot to undermine the nation’s silver currency; and of ingenious and cold-blooded murder.
Matthias McDonnell Bodkin (1850–1933) was a prominent Irish barrister, judge, and Member of Parliament, as well as a prolific author of detective stories and mystery fiction, a journalist, and newspaper editor. Paul Beck (originally named “Alfred Juggins”) was his first detective, and went on to marry Bodkin’s “lady detective,” Dora Myrl, founding a dynasty of fictional detectives, with their son, Paul junior, investigating in his own right in a 1911 novel.View all by M. McDonnell Bodkin
