Volume 8. The Vincent Starrett Memorial Library
Against the backdrop of Prohibition Era Chicago, James Eliot Lavender and his assistant Charles Gilruth stalk murky byways of a violent city, to solve some unusual crimes in the best tradition of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, whom they so delightfully attempt to emulate. The dozen tales were collected from magazines by the editor by Peter Ruber, who supplies a knowledgeable introduction.
Jimmie Lavender, gentleman detective, is back with a second collection of rare stories that have never before appeared in any book. Many have been lost in the detective story pulp magazines the 1920s.
Lavender made his bow in 1916 in Wayside Tales and was one the earliest American series detectives, along with Martin Hewitt and Max Carrados, who helped to shape the future of the "cerebral" detective in literature. Written in Starrett's inimitable literary style, these stories are sly imitations of the formula created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories. They are great puzzles that will keep you reading into the night.
Chicago Daily News: "Mr. Starrett has an enviable trick of plot and an ease of narration ... He was one of the first American authors to discover that the mystery story may be well written and just as respectable as any other type of fiction."
Maroon Cloth, Hard Cover
with Dustjacket, 255 pp.
ISBN 1-896032-74-5 $30.00
The Other Volumes in The Vincent Starrett Memorial Library
