H. C. Bailey

H. C. Bailey

Henry Christopher Bailey (1878–1961) was an English author of detective fiction. Bailey wrote mainly short stories featuring a medically qualified detective called Reggie Fortune. Fortune's mannerisms and speech put him into the same class as Lord Peter Wimsey but the stories are much darker, and often involve murderous obsession, police corruption, financial skulduggery, child abuse and miscarriages of justice. Although Mr Fortune is seen at his best in short stories, he also appears in several novels.

A second series character, Joshua Clunk, is a sanctimonious lawyer who exposes corruption and blackmail in local politics, and who manages to profit from the crimes. He appears in eleven novels published between 1930 and 1950, including The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935), widely regarded as Bailey's magnum opus.

Bailey's works were published in a number of magazines, including Adventure^[1] and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.

Works

Bailey's "The Woman in the Veil" was the cover story in the May 1912 issue of Adventure

Romantic and historic fiction

• My Lady of Orange (1901)
• Karl of Erbach (1903)
• The Master of Gray (1903)
• Rimingtons (1904)
• Beaujeu (1905)
• Under Castle Walls (1906), aka Springtime
• Raoul, a Gentleman of Fortune (1907), aka A Gentleman of Fortune
• The God of Clay (1908)
• Colonel Stow (1908)
• Storm and Treasure (1910)
• The Lonely Lady (1911)
• The Suburban (1912)
• The Sea Captain (1913)
• The Gentleman Adventurer (1914)
• The Highwayman (1915)
• The Gamesters (1916)
• The Young Lovers (1917)
• The Pillar of Fire (1918)
• Barry Leroy (1919)
• His Serene Highness (1920)
• The Fool (1921)
• The Plot (1922)
• The Rebel (1923)
• Knight at Arms (1924)
• The Golden Fleece (1925)
• The Merchant Prince (1926)
• Bonaventure (1927)
• Judy Bovenden (1928)
• The Roman Eagles (1929), juvenile
• Mr Cardonnel (1931)
• The Bottle Party (1940)

Detective fiction

• Call Mr Fortune (1920), short stories collection
• Mr Fortune's Practice (1923), short stories collection
• Mr Fortune's Trials (1925), short stories collection
• Mr Fortune, Please (1928), short stories collection
• Mr Fortune Speaking (1929), short stories collection
• Garstons / The Garston Murder Case (1930; Clunk)
• Mr Fortune Explains (1930), short stories collection
• Case for Mr Fortune (1932), short stories collection
• The Red Castle / The Red Castle Mystery (1932; Clunk)
• The Man in the Cape (1933)
• Mr Fortune Wonders (1933), short stories collection
• Shadow on the Wall (1934; Fortune, cameo by Clunk)
• Mr Fortune Objects (1935), short stories collection
• The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935; Clunk)
• A Clue for Mr Fortune (1936)
• Black Land, White Land (1937; Fortune)
• Clunk's Claimant / The Twittering Bird Mystery (1937; Clunk, cameo by Fortune)
• This is Mr Fortune (1938), short stories collection
• The Great Game (1939; Fortune, cameo by Clunk)
• The Veron Mystery / Mr Clunk's Text (1939; Clunk, cameo by Fortune)
• Mr Fortune Here (1940), short stories collection
• The Bishop's Crime (1940; Fortune)
• The Little Captain / Orphan Ann(1941; Clunk)
• No Murder / The Apprehensive Dog (1942; Fortune)
• Dead Man's Shoes / Nobody's Vineyard (1942; Clunk)
• Mr Fortune Finds a Pig (1943; Fortune)
• Slippery Ann / The Queen of Spades (1944; Clunk)
• Dead Man's Effects / The Cat's Whisker (1945; Fortune)
• The Wrong Man (1946; Clunk)
• The Life Sentence (1946; Fortune)
• Honour Among Thieves (1947; Clunk)
• Saving a Rope / Save a Rope (1948; Fortune)
• Shrouded Death (1950; Clunk)

Uncollected short stories

• The Thistle Down, in The Queen's Book of the Red Cross (1939)
• A Matter of Speculation, in Anthology 1968 Mid-Year, edited by Ellery Queen (1968)

References

• Murder Will Out: The Detective in Fiction, T. J. Binyon (Oxford, 1989) ISBN 0-19-219223-X pp. 22–26

External links

• Works by H. C. Bailey at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about H. C. Bailey at Internet Archive
• Works by H. C. Bailey at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)