Dr Thorndyke

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Dr (John) Thorndyke is a fictional detective in a long series of novels and short stories by R Austin Freeman. Thorndyke was described by his author as a 'medical jurispractitioner': originally a medical doctor, he turned to the bar and became one of the first - in modern parlance - forensic scientists. His solutions were based 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. (Freeman, it is said, conducted all experiments mentioned in the stories himself.) 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 unravelling of it.

Thorndyke resided at 5A King's Bench Walk, Inner Temple. He was often assisted by his friend and foil Christopher Jervis, who usually acts as narrator, and always by the resourceful Nathaniel Polton, his crinkly-faced lab technician. Thorndyke tended to have a better relationship with the police (usually in the form of Superintendent Miller) than Sherlock Holmes did, despite proving them wrong on numerous occasions. Thorndyke, although tall, athletic, handsome and clever, never married.

Between 1907 and 1942 Thorndyke appeared in around 60 novels and short stories, viz.

Novels:

• The Red Thumb Mark (1907)
• The Eye of Osiris (1911)
• The Mystery of 31, New Inn (1912)
• A Silent Witness (1914)
• Helen Vardon's Confession (1922)
• The Cat's Eye (1923)
• The Mystery of Angelina Frood (1924)
• The Shadow of the Wolf (1925)
• The D'Arblay Mystery (1926)
• A Certain Dr Thorndyke (1927)
• As a Thief in the Night (1928)
• Mr Pottermack's Oversight (1930)
• Pontifex, Son and Thorndyke (1931)
• When Rogues Fall Out (1932)
• Dr Thorndyke Intervenes (1933)
• For the Defence: Dr Thorndyke (1934)
• The Penrose Mystery (1936)
• Felo de se? (1937)
• The Stoneware Monkey (1938)
• Mr Polton Explains (1940)
• The Jacob Street Mystery (1942)

Short Stories:

• The Case of Oscar Brodski
• A Case of Premeditation
• The Echo of a Mutiny
• A Wastrel's Romance
• The Missing Mortgagee
• Percival Bland's Proxy
• The Old Lag
• The Stranger's Latchkey
• The Anthropologist at Large
• The Blue Sequin
• The Moabite Cipher
• The Mandarin's Pearl
• The Aluminium Dagger
• The Magic Casket
• The Case of the White Footprints
• The Blue Scarab
• The New Jersey sphinx
• The Touchstone
• A Fisher of Men
• The Stolen Ingots
• The Funeral Pyre
• The Puzzle Lock
• The Green Check Jacket
• The Seal of Nebuchadnezzar
• Phyllis Annesley's Peril
• A Sower of Pestilence
• Rex v. Burnaby
• A Mystery of the Sand-hills
• The Apparition of Burling Court
• The Mysterious Visitor
• The Contents of a Mare's Nest
• The Stalking Horse
• The Naturalist at Law
• Mr. Ponting's Alibi
• Pandora's Box
• The Trail of Behemoth
• The Pathologist to the Rescue
• Gleanings from the Wreckage