Dr. Thorndyke

In The Red Thumb Mark, the doctor works to clear young Reuben Hornby of stealing a parcel of diamonds from his uncle's safe, despite the apparently damning evidence. Then, in The Eye of Osiris, an amateur Egyptologist abruptly goes missing, leaving behind a strangely vexatious will. In The Mystery of 31 New Inn, Thorndyke's long-time collaborator Dr. Jervis consults his mentor regarding a mystery who may be being slowly poisoned. And in A Silent Witness, someone is making very determined attempts to murder inoffensive newly-qualified Doctor Humphrey Jardine.

When Sherlock Holmes began his practice as a consulting detective, his ideas of scientific criminal investigations caused the London police to look upon him as a mere ‘theorist’. And yet, through his work, the science behind catching criminals became so important that it's hard now to imagine the world without them. Many famous great detectives followed in Holmes's footsteps, but before they began their careers - and while Holmes was still in practice in Baker Street - another London consultant, Dr John Thorndyke, opened his doors using the scientific methods of Holmes.

Valuable diamonds are missing, and the thumbprint of one Reuben Hornby is discovered in some blood at the bottom of the safe from where they were taken. An open and shut case, surely. Or is it? For reasons known only to himself, Doctor John Thorndyke has some doubts about the evidence. But to prove the innocence of a young man he must make his case in open court through the use of the latest Edwardian science. Will Dr. Thorndyke succeed, or will the case of the red thumb mark prove to be not only his first case but also his last?

"The Eye of Osiris" (1911) is a novel by R. Austin Freeman. Dr. John Thorndyke, a medical jurispractitioner bases his solutions on his method of collecting all possible data (including dust and pond weed) and making inferences from them before looking at any of the protagonists and motives in the crimes. It is this method which gave rise to one of Freeman's most ingenious inventions, the inverted detective story, where the criminal act is described first and the interest lies in Thorndyke's subsequent unraveling of it.

Dr. Thorndyke is at his best, along with his friend Dr. Jervis, as they solve a series of mysteries and murders using logic and up-to-date criminal investigation methods. Trusting in science and the microscope, Dr. Thorndyke and Dr. Jervis travel together to aid the sometimes befuddled police.

"[T]he longer I practise, the more I become convinced that the microscope is the sheet-anchor of the medical jurist." So declares "scientific investigator", Dr John Thorndyke, as he interprets the clues found in the likes of bloodstains, dust, ash, hairs and fibres, and broken glass, to evolve "an ordered train of evidence from a mass of facts apparently incoherent and unrelated," leading to the solution of the mystery. This book contains five tales of intrigue, murder, mutiny, pathos, and romance - including four in Freeman's then revolutionary "inverted detective story" format.

The Magic Casket describes a classic case for Dr. Thorndyke. It tells the story of an ordinary and apparently quite worthless metal casket, which conceals a mysterious secret which nearly costs a young woman her life.

A wonderful collection of 30 of the greatest detective and mystery stories ever written. Featuring all the great classic sleuths, including Sherlock Holmes, Father Brown, Max Carrados, Dr. Thorndyke and Madame Rosika Storey. 1. 'Who killed Charlie Winpole?' By Ernest Bramah 2. 'The Blue Cross' by G. K. Chesterton 3. 'The Problem of the Five Marks' by Melville Davisson Post 4. 'The Comedy at Fountain Cottage' by Ernest Bramah 5. 'The Mysterious Card' by Cleveland Moffett 6. 'The Card Unveiled' by Cleveland Moffett

Fourteen mysteries to test your inner sleuth! This collection includes "The Stolen White Elephant" by Mark Twain, narrated by Mauro Hantman; "The Fenchurch Street Mystery" by Baroness Orczy, narrated by Davina Porter; "Problem of the Superfluous Finger" by Jacques Futrelle, narrated by Stephen R. Thorne; "The Blue Sequin" by R. Austin Freeman, narrated by Simon Vance; "An Intangible Clue" by Anna Katharine Green, narrated by Angela Brazil; and "The Oblong Box" by Edgar Allan Poe, narrated by Mauro Hantman, among others.

During the last part of the nineteenth century, the detective story took off as a popular genre as literary magazines vied with each other to draw in readers with gripping page-turners by the likes of Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton, Guy Boothby and Wilkie Collins. This collection brings together some of the great detectives of the Victorian era, from the master sleuth himself, Sherlock Holmes, to the mild mannered Father Brown, to the feisty J. G. Reeder.

R. Austin Freeman's famous forensic investigator, Dr. John Thorndyke, is asked by a former student to help on his first murder case. A prostitute has been murdered, and it seems a woman has done the heinous deed. Dr. Thorndyke helps find the actual murderer with the evidence available.

When Robin Anstey KC comes upon the beautiful Miss Blake, who has been wounded while courageously attempting to detain a fleeing murderer, he calls upon his long-time legal collaborator Dr. John Thorndyke to investigate the killing. But what at first looks like a mere robbery gone wrong, leaving a scene awash with clues, in fact proves to be far from straightforward. And while trying to untie that knot, Thorndyke also interests himself in the still more complex mystery of Miss Blake's family inheritance, and the cat's eye pendant....

Coming to the aid of a man kicked by a rearing police horse, R. Austin Freeman's famous forsensic investigator, Dr. John Thorndyke, stumbles upon an anarchist plot to assassinate a visiting Russian grand duke. The key appears to be a cryptogram written in ancient Moabite found on the man's body.

This third collection of vintage detective stories includes tales by authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, R. Austin Freeman, and Emile Gaborioux.

Introducing Dr. John Thorndyke and his friend Mr. Jervis. Together the sleuths solve through scientific means murders and mysteries, using logic and material evidence and Dr. Thorndyke's indispensable little green case.

When her beloved father is threatened with imprisonment over misappropriated trust funds, Helen Vardon agrees secretly to marry the man who holds her father's fate in his hand, to save both her father and herself from poverty and social disgrace. But the marriage merely precipitates a terrible personal disaster, and a series of events involving death and blackmail, which puts Helen herself under suspicion of murder. Can Dr. Thorndyke unravel the mystery in time to save her?

In another of Freeman's revolutionary "inverted" detective stories, celebrated forensic investigator Dr. John Thorndyke examines the case of a man found dead in a cave at Margate, and the curious absence of the money lender attempting to make an insurance claim on the dead man's life.

Peerless medical jurist Dr. John Thorndyke unravels nine more tales of greed, deceit, theft, and murder—including the sinister meaning behind a pickpocket's discarded plunder; a man terrorized by a vengeful ghost; a young wife accused of poisoning her older husband; a body concealed beneath the floor of a cottage; and the case of an unknown criminal mastermind and a strong room with an impossibly complex lock...

While acting as a locum in London, young Dr. Strangeways is called to treat a woman following a violent attack by her drug-addled husband. A year later, as he begins a new practice in Rochester, he encounters the same woman again; but Mrs. Frood is now in hiding from her husband, who is actively searching for her in the area. And then, abruptly, she disappears into the evening fog, and the items she was carrying begin to turn up near the river—but there is no sign of a body.

A man apparently sends an incriminating letter to his solicitor, by the simple mistake of placing it into the wrong envelope, and then he abruptly disappears—this, immediately following a sailing trip from Sennen Cove to Penzance with an old friend, the last person known to have seen the missing man alive. But when Dr. John Thorndyke agrees to investigate the disappearance on behalf of the man's wife, he soon begins to question the circumstances and to suspect a more sinister outcome...