"Trevvy" by Felix Bennett
with a Preface by Gene Christie
with an Introduction by John Robert Colombo
The Crime Magnet is a collection of sixteen short stories of crime and mystery written by Sax Rohmer that are only now being collected between the covers of a book. They originally appeared between 1937 and 1945 in This Week, a Sunday supplement in U.S. newspapers. They feature Major Bernard de Treville, known as "Trevvy," who is a "magnet" for crime. As reported by his friend and companion known as "Digger," he investigates — and solves — many an improbable case involving master criminals and international intrigue.
1. The Black and White Bag (This Week, September 11,
1937)
2. The Broken Ikon (This Week, September 18, 1937)
3. An Egyptian Romance (This Week, September 25, 1937)
4. The Five Musketeers (This Week, December 31, 1937)
5. Count D’Ambro’s Window
(This Week, January 1, 1938)
6. The Persian Portfolio (This Week, January 15, 1938)
7. Cinderella’s Slipper (This Week, February 26, 1938)
8. The Dutch Cheese (This Week, June 18, 1938)
9. The Panama Plot (This Week, September 10, 1938—October
1, 1938)
10. The Mystery of the Paneled Room (This Week, July 29,
1939)
11. Exit the Princess (This Week, August 5, 1939)
12. The Mystic Turban (This Week, August 12, 1939)
13. The Elusive Jackdaw (This Week, August 19, 1939)
14. The Oversized Trunk
(This Week, October 21, 1939)
15. The Stolen Peach-Stone (This Week, November 18, 1944)p.
16. The Secret of the Ruins (This Week, May 13, 1945)
Sax Rohmer (1883-1959) was at one time one of the world’s most widely read writers of crime and mystery fiction. The storyteller’s name is linked with that of Dr. Fu Manchu, his principal creation, but Rohmer wrote about many other lively villains and private investigators. Among his most surprising crime-fighters is Major Bernard de Treville who is known as "Trevvy." With his trusted companion, a fellow called "Digger," he solves sixteen curious cases — short stories published throughout the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s in This Week, a Sunday supplement syndicated to American daily newspapers. Now, for the first time, they have been collected under the series title as The Crime Magnet.
Gene Christie has been a reader and collector of Sax Rohmer’s books since the 1960s, and is the series editor for "The Sax Rohmer Library," published by Black Dog Books.
John Robert Colombo, author and anthologist, is a long-time fan of the fiction of Sax Rohmer. He is the editor of The Sumuru Omnibus and the author of Tears of Our Lady, two works based on Rohmer’s writings.
Other volumes by Sax Rohmer from The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box
