Tue 15 Mar 2011
Reviewed by William F. Deeck: JOHN CROZIER – Murder in Public.
Posted by Steve under Characters , Reviews[5] Comments
William F. Deeck
JOHN CROZIER – Murder in Public. Hutchinson, UK, hardcover, 1934. Houghton Mifflin, hc, 1935.
Falcon — more familiarly known to his intimates as Onanta (Swooping Falcon), son of Nibowaka (The Wise), Chief of the Sinawaa — is a North American Indian of the Delaware tribe, apparently the Canadian branch.
Acquainted with Sherlock Holmes, Falcon emulates to some extent the Master in his own investigations. And to prove he hasn’t lost touch with his roots, Falcon has his headquarters in London.
When a pearl necklace is stolen, amid a rash of jewelry thefts, from an American actress starring in London play, Falcon is called in. He is soon called off, but then the actress is shot dead during a performance by another actor, maybe deliberately, maybe not.
Working with Scotland Yard and Miss Mitt, his office assistant who is as American as the author can make her, Falcon breaks up a gang of dope dealers, who were seemingly as nasty in England in the 1930s as they are here today but much more cunning.
The information about Holmes may be of interest to Sherlockians; the rare American Indian character may be of interest to. others. Otherwise, there’s not much here.
Editorial Comments: Bill Deeck, I am sure, was unaware of it, or he’d have mentioned it, but “John Crozier” was the pen name of the noted actor Alexander Knox, who over the years, as it turns out, was the author of a small number of mystery and adventure novels as well.
There was one other “Falcon” mystery under the Crozier byline, that being Kidnapped Again (Hutchinson, 1935; no US edition).
I haven’t read Murder in Public, but I found Bill’s review very illuminating, as the character named Falcon in this book is very similar to a character named Eagels in an earlier book by one Ian Alexander (another of Knox’s pen names) called The Disappearance of Archibald Forsyth (Hitchinson, 1933).
As far as it is known, this latter book was Eagels’ only appearance. He was, however, also a London-based PI, a full-blooded North American Indian (Iroquois), had a female secretary/assistant who was most decidedly American, and someone who had met Sherlock Holmes and who based his investigative techniques on the latter’s. Here’s a brief quote, with Eagels thinking over the case as it has developed so far:
For more, you’ll find (by following the link) my review of the Alexander book on the primary Mystery*File website.
I believe that Eagels, long before Tony Hillerman’s detectives came along, was the first fictional Native American detective. I think the fact that both he and Falcon had supposedly met Sherlock Holmes in person is also quite remarkable.
March 15th, 2011 at 9:44 pm
This certainly predates Manly Wade Wellman’s David Return or private eyes like Mohawk Daniels, but wasn’t Heskith Prichard’s November Joe a ‘half breed’ Canadian trapper? Certainly these are the first full blood Indian sleuths I know of.
Doesn’t Doyle describe Holmes as having a face like a “red indian.’
Knox wrote a pretty good adventure novel about the Inuit’s late in his career, but I haven’t heard of these.
A shame he didn’t do the audio book version with that voice.
I like the idea that both of these sleuths knew Holmes personally.
March 15th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
David
You’re right about November Joe. Back when I was putting together a list of Native American sleuths, I overlooked him altogether. He’s at least of mixed blood, and as you say, he may have been a full-blooded Indian. In either case, he was known in the stories he was in as one of the best backwoods trackers around.
Trying to find some more information about him, I came across an article about early Canadian detectives (and authors) that I found very interesting:
http://www.whodunitcanada.com/article;story,63;Lecture:-The-Detective-Story-in-Canada
and the good news is that the collection NOVEMBER JOE: DETECTIVE OF THE WOODS is itself online at
http://gaslight.mtroyal.ca/nvjomenu.htm
PS. It almost never pays to call someone or something in crime fiction the “first” of anything!
March 15th, 2011 at 10:13 pm
It strikes me that before anyone chooses to get offended by the use of Indian as opposed to Native American, that I live in Oklahoma and a good percentage of my friends and neighbors belong to various tribes. Most of them prefer ‘Indian’ to Native American, and aren’t shy of telling you so.
My mother-in-law was one quarter Cherokee, my father-in-law Choctaw and recieved a check. I’m only white because my great grandfather had the choice in 1913 (when the Income Tax law was passed) to be white or Indian, and chose white because of the prejudice in Texas. I look a good deal more Indian than many of my blonde, blue eyed, or red haired Indian friends — some of whom are tribal elders. Much of it has to do with the percentage of Indian ancestry you have and what decision an ancestor made back in 1913 (the ones that had the choice).
I’m proud of my Cherokee heritage, but it isn’t exactly unusual here. More unusual if you aren’t somewhere down the line.
So please, no one be too offended. Everyone here tends to use the term Indian more than Native American, it’s not considered racially insensitive. It’s not considered period most of the time. There are still enough real problems and more unacceptable racial terms for the various tribes without getting bogged down in terminology.
March 16th, 2011 at 8:55 am
I should have known David would beat me to the punch on David Return – who I think only appeared in a handful of short stories. I only know of him because I own Wellman’s ONLY mystery novel, Find Me A Killer, and was reading it this month until I lost interest in its routine formula. The jacket blurb for that book has all kinds of laudatory things to say about the first Return story which won the Ellery Queen Prize for Best Short Story and beat out some very successful established pros including William Faulkner.
I found a copy of November Joe last year and have read the first few stories. I tend to sample short stories then move on to novels. Good stuff! Very much like Upfield’s Boney for those familiar with that Outback policeman with the talents of an Aboriginal bushman.
Steve – We have learned the “lesson of the first” from that saga of The Notting Hill Mystery, haven’t we?
March 16th, 2011 at 6:07 pm
John
The debut David Return story was reprinted quite a bit and it shouldn’t be too hard to find an anthology that has it, though it hasn’t been reprinted recently to my knowledge.
I agree about Wellman’s FIND THE KILLER though I liked it a little better. He fared much better as a fantasist, science fiction writer, regional writer, and writer of Holmesian pastiche. TWICE IN TIME and the Silver John stories are well worth finding, and his Civil War story ‘The Valley Was Still’ a classic that received a classic treatment on the TWILIGHT ZONE.
The Return stories are good though, and the first one deserves all the acclaim, though no doubt the unique aspect of an American Indian sleuth accounted for some of its notoriety.
Wellman’s brother Paul had a fair career too — best selling historical novels like THE IRON MISTRESS and THE COMANCHEROS, mainstream novels like THE WALLS OF JERICHO, and a Pulitzer I think.