TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Poisoned Pen Press is publishing the Library of Congress Crime Classics Series in paperback. Octavus Roy Cohen’s Jim Hanvey, Detective, first published in 1923, was praised in Ellery Queen’s Queen’s Quorum.

In his informative Introduction, Leslie S. Klinger suggests that Jim Hanvey was an earlier incarnation of Columbo, the rumpled detective who lulled criminals in thinking he was stupid while hiding his intelligence. Jim Hanvey is a massive man, ill-dressed, and armed with a gold tooth-pick. People dismiss Hanvey as a clown, but his razor-sharp thinking solves a lot of crimes.

In “Fish Eyes,” Hanvey foils what looks like a perfect crime as a bank teller steals $100,000. My favorite story in this collection is “The Knight’s Gambit.” A rich young woman falls for a con-man. Her father hires Jim Hanvey to break up the planned marriage. The girl is smart, but stubborn so Hanvey adopts a counter-intuitive strategy to expose the con-man’s game. Very clever!

These Jim Hanvey stories were written in the 1920s and some of them show their age. But, Octavus Roy Cohen creates a durable detective whose exploits are worth reading. GRADE: B

Foreword by Carla D. Hayden — vii

Introduction by Leslie S. Klinger — ix

Fish eyes — 1
Homespun silk — 34
Helen of Troy, N.Y. — 62
Caveat emptor — 119
The knight’s gambit — 149
Pink bait — 189

Reading Group Guide — 226

Further Reading — 227

About the Author — 229

Library of Congress Crime Classics:

• Last Seen Wearing. Hillary Waugh; Leslie Klinger (Editor) …
• Case Pending. Dell Shannon; Leslie S. …
• Jim Hanvey, Detective. Octavus Cohen; Leslie Klinger (Editor) …
• Dead Letter. Seeley Regester;…
• That Affair Next Door. Anna Katharine Green;..
• The Silent Bullet. Arthur Reeve;…
• The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope. C. W. Grafton…
• Final Proof. Rodrigues Ottolengui