The Adventures of Jimmie Dale

Jimmie Dale #1

by Frank L. Packard

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Mystery, Classics

395 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Frank Lucius Packard was born in Montreal, Quebec and educated at McGill University and the University of Liege. As a young man he worked as a civil engineer for the Canadian Pacific Railway. His experiences working on the railroad led to his writing a series of mystery novels, the most famous of which featured a character called Jimmie Dale.

Frank Packard died in 1942 in Lachine, Quebec and was buried in the Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.

Reviews

[Julie Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jimmie is a rich man who dabbled in safe-breaking and crime for the thrill of it. When he was discovered by an anonymous woman who began pulling the strings and directing his activities, his purpose changed. One, he wants to discover Her identity. Two, his crimes actually are doing good in the long run — which is what we see as each chapter gives us a different adventure.

I originally discovered this book at Librivox, which is a good narration, but love it so much that I have the Gutenberg.org version on my Kindle. There's just something about the crime/mystery novels from this time period that I love.

[Bookworm · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Grey Seal adventures are classic and timeless. Social millionair by day, notorious criminal by night, Jimmie Dale works with life and death hanging in the balance every day. And the "crimes" he commits are mapped out by the equally mysterious lady who discovered his identity one night and who now uses it to make good use of his talents for the underdog and needy.
A bit of an O. Henry style which I found fascinating. The second part was extremely suspensful and I had to set the book down and leave it for a while several times, when the tension became too much!

[Mh430 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Maybe you don't know it but you've been reading about and watching Gray Seal type heroes your entire life. Frank Packard's Gray Seal character first appeared in print in 1914. In some ways he was inspired by earlier Edwardian adventurers like A.J Raffles, the Scarlet Pimpernel, and Arsene Lupin, but Packard blended those borrowed elements into an entirely new concept: a man with a secret identity who fights crime in an American big city. Decades before Batman appeared on the scene bored society millionaire Jimmie Dale donned mask and slouch hat to become the Gray Seal. With an equipment belt around his waist holding crime-fighting gadgets - many of which he created himself - Dale combats a series of bloody-handed criminals that the police can't or won't stop. And years before the Saint's exploits began, the Gray Seal was leaving little gray paper calling cards behind him to antagonize cops and crooks alike.

Not only did Frank Packard create a heroic archetype that dozens of writers - knowingly or otherwise - have employed in their own work over the last century, he also had the courage and the added originality to make the Gray Seal's unseen leader be a practically infallible woman! For a good part of this first novel he is in effect her agent, a Harry Vincent to her Shadow.

But over the course of this novel the veil separating Jimmie from that mysterious female is slowly drawn away until by book's end he and his old way of life are changed forever. This story will have you frantically turning the pages until the last secret - and the last deadly threat - have been met.

So don't read this book just because of the huge importance it had on Twentieth-century adventure fiction, read it because it happens to be an excellent novel in its own right.

[Rick Mills · Rating 2 out of 5]

Major characters:

Our protagonist has three, yes three, distinct identities:
      1. Jimmie Dale - millionaire man-about-town
      2. Larry the Bat - a Bowery dope fiend
      3. The Gray Seal - a benevolent safecracker
Jason, Jimmie Dale's butler
Benson, Jimmie Dale's chauffeur
Herman Carruthers, managing editor of The Morning News-Argus
Marie LaSalle, a.k.a "she", 'The Tocsin', and "Silver Mag"
Inspector Clayton

Locale: New York City

Synopsis: Millionaire Jimmie Dale inherited a fortune from his father, president of a safe manufacturer. Not only did he inherit his millions, but also the knowledge of cracking safes. He lives in a luxury apartment on Riverside Drive, along with butler Jason and chauffeur Benson. He spends his leisure time at the posh St. James Club, many times with his friend Herman Carruthers, managing editor of The Morning News-Argus.

Dale has a secret identity, that of Larry the Bat, a dope fiend. He maintains a shabby tenement room, 'The Sanctuary', in the Bowery, where he changes into Larry the Bat, in order to move around and infiltrate the seamier side of New York City.

His motive is to right wrongs, many times outside the law. Whether as Dale or Larry the Bat, he leaves a calling card at the scene of his "crimes": a small grey diamond-shaped label which gives him the name of The Gray Seal, always wanted by the police.

Review: I enjoy Packard's railroad adventure books, but his mysteries are quite ... the only word I can think of is 'dense'. High page counts (this one has 468), repetitive phrases throughout, lots of characters - each having two, three, or four nicknames. A flood of exclamation points, and a constant barrage of rhetorical questions; so the reader doesn't forget all the loose ends pouring out of the fire hose:



A good editor could have cut this book in half without losing anything. I did resort to skimming ... the first sentence of each paragraph will get you through it just fine.

I do see a similarity to The Saint here, in Dale's quest to right wrongs outside the law; as well as Batman, with a secret identity, hideout, and faithful butler (although this butler is unaware of his secret identity).

The book has two major parts. In Part One, each chapter is self-contained, contains some series characters, and follows a consistent formula:
1. The mysterious woman delivers an envelope with instructions
2. Dale goes to The Sanctuary in the Bowery and changes to Larry the Bat
3. Larry the Bat skulks around the bars and waterfront to get information
4. Dale cracks a safe to obtain some essential evidence, leaving a gray seal behind
5. A twist ending rewards a victim and punishes an evildoer

In Part Two, Jimmie learns the identity of the mysterious woman, and together they seek to tie up all the loose ends.

For additional reviews indexed by author, please visit The Mystillery Blog and try The Mystillery Reading Challenges!

[Caitlyn Unruh · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is like the 1917 version of Batman. Rich guy alter egos as extremely intelligent Robin Hood in New York. It fluctuates between very classy and well dressed to the grimy slums. He spends most of his time committing crimes against very bad and powerful people, which results in him being hunted unmercifully by the grimy underworld and the police. He gets his information and orders from a mysterious and all knowing lady, whom he is in love with even though he has never met her. It's all very dramatic. The first half each chapter is its own story which I didn't love. But the last half was finally a longer story which was interesting. A good old book with heroes and villains, even if the hero is misunderstood.

[Faina · Rating 3 out of 5]

It started as an interesting story of a young man who'd open safes at night to punish the owner, to return money to people he robbed. A woman somehow found him out, and sent him letters telling him where to do it. After a while it became repetitive, always the same scenario. And when he finally found out who that woman was, and fell in love, it felt like the ending is too sugary. 

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Scott! This was an absolutely amazing read. It may be a little repetitive sometimes, but the formula it follows is one of my favourites. I see now where the Green Hornet originated from and I'm sure this inspired lots of the heroes we see today.
If you want an old-fashioned vigilante story definitely recommend this one!

[Dale]

My Grandmother named my Dad Jimmie Dale after reading the Adventures of Jimmie Dale.

It was really descriptive and a thriller. A good read with our power being out for three days now. I almost have up, but pressed in and was glad I did.

[Jreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

☆5

I'm shocked at how little this book is talked about.

I had finished listening to an audiobook on Librivox and decided to go for another one.
I was looking for a book I'd always wanted to read but never got around to until I stumbled on this.
The name Jimmy Dale is an inside joke within my family so I thought I'd give it a try.
I'M SO HAPPY I DID
A lot is happening here and I'm shocked that no one has adapted this book into- anything! Give me a movie, give me a TV series, give me a comic book perhaps but nothing!

Let me get into why I like this book so you can understand.

The adventures of Jimmy Dale center around- as you would expect - Jimmy Dale and his double life. When he's not a significant figure in New York, he's donning a mask of the Grey seal.
At first, Jimmy committed crimes for fun as the Grey seal until a woman- nicknamed the Tocsin - discovers his identity. In a sort of blackmail-ish turn of events, the Tocsin doesn't reveal his identity to the police and instead uses him to do good in the world and bring justice as an antihero. Instead of stealing for fun, he's stealing leases from corrupt landlords, and things like that. While you may think he tries to get away from this, the Grey Seal loves helping people and is happy the Tocsin sends him new missions to go on.
However, the Grey Seal doesn't know Tocsin's true identity, he only knows she exists through letters and as you get later on in the book, some telephone calls.
To find her identity, Jimmy takes on a second alter ego of Larry The Bat.
Jimmy is revered as NYs playboy, The Grey Seal is one of the biggest criminals yet still revered by Jimmy's newspaper columnist friend, and Larry the Bat is written off by the crime world as that crazy dope fiend who lives next door.

The dynamics of all the characters worked well and were probably the highlights of this book.
I enjoyed Jimmy and Tocsin, but I found myself loving the interactions of the side characters with themselves and with Jimmy.
Jason- Jimmy's butler and Benson - Jimmy's chauffeur were notes of that especially in the second part and also Jimmy's columnist friend.
I think that's the only critique I have, Jimmy's college friend who's a columnist obsessed with the Grey Seal was left to the side. I was looking forward to more moments between the two of them because I loved seeing the two of them together, especially in the second arc where Jimmy and His friend are working to solve a murder case.

You could've done so much with him and I was looking forward to him being a major character but they dropped him early on. I can't even remember his name that's how sad it is.
There are three more books in the series and hopefully, he'll get more time then.

Also, I'd like to note just how great of a character the Tocsin was.
Somehow this book from 1917 written by a man has a better female second lead than most of the women written by men today. That's insane.
The tocsin is such a great character because she has one of the most crucial points for a woman to have which is agency. She makes the plot go forward rather than being tossed around by it. In fact, she's shown on multiple occasions to be more smart, cunning, and informed than our male lead, she is a great character and romance is never something that keeps her character from being prevalent it's amazing.

The book also had a good setup, because the first part is little 3 chapter adventures and the second part is one big overarching story that brings everything to a climactic finish. Let me note that for a second in the spoiler territory over here

----spoilers-------------
So the Magpie saw the seal of the Grey seal on the safe and then he saw Larry the Bat but why did he assume Larry the Bat was the Grey seal??? It was circumstantial evidence Larry could've been like "I'm not the Grey seal, I came to steal all the money for myself before you but then I saw the seal on the safe so I came down here to hide in case he was still around!"
Bam problem solved but Jimmy acted like the Magpie saw him change from Larry the Bat to the Grey Seal or something.
Idk It just seems like you could've easily avoided all this drama and near-death with a cover story.
I honestly thought Jimmy Dale would be discovered as Larry the Bat with the Tocsin meeting him before the robbery and calling him Jimmy every 2 seconds when they didn't know where the Magpie was, like stfu and say Larry instead of Jimmy he could be 2 feet away from you and you wouldn't even notice
---------------

Overall a great book that needs more recognition, I'm in love with this story
☆5

[Rolf Forrester · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written

Great story of a good guy battling crime in his own way. Story ends well. Love it when the good gits win

[Vicki Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always liked this book. Well executed and no lack of suspense.

[Kent Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly eloquent for 'pulp'. Became a little to melodramatically romantic toward the end but not unlike a film of the same era would have been.

[Shawn Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

My 98 year old father was recently telling me how when he was growing up in Montreal, he was best chums with Lou whose dad was a 'famous novelist called Frank L Packard.' While I couldn't find any information on what had happened to Lou, I was pleased to discover many free Frank L Packard books available via Project Gutenberg and so I'm reading The Adventures of Jimmie Dale. It is so quaint! It reads like an early spy movie- lots of exclamation points to let you know how perilous the troubles are. It's written in a series of anecdotal chapters, each adventure complete in itself. Millionaire Jimmie Dale receives instructions from a mysterious lady, and as the thief The Grey Seal, he does dangerous deeds that the police presume are evil, but which are really good.

Very melodramatic, entertaining read. It feels like watching an old black and white crime movie.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jimmie Dale, alias the Gray Seal, is a sort of vigilante and a master safe-cracker. He goes around keeping thugs from doing heinous things, giving back stolen goods, and protecting the poor. He always ends up looking like the criminal, so the police are after him and so are all the crooks he's stymied. Takes place in NYC. Colorful slang, a bit repetitive, awesome scenes in Chinatown's Chang Foo's opium den.

[Glen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Grey Seal is a pulp hero that predates most of them, even the Shadow and the Saint. He's pretty much a Robin Hood type who commits thefts in order to help others. While in reality, he's the gentleman Jimmie Dale, he also had another persona named Larry The Bat.

Pretty good stuff. A bit archaic, but more exciting than many tales of the same vintage.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

*THE GRAY SEAL--
*BY PROXY--
THE MOTHER LODE--
THE COUNTERFEIT FIVE--
*THE AFFAIR OF THE PUSHCART MAN--
*DEVIL'S WORK--
THE THIEF--
THE MAN HIGHER UP--
TWO CROOKS AND A KNAVE--
*THE ALIBI--
THE STOOL-PIGEON--

[Amyem]

http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1218

[Nev Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars.Dated and corny but not bad

[Marilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jimmy Dale is a wealthy playboy who pretends to be an opium addict in order to solve crime. He's like the Canadian version of Batman.

[Llothil]

It was a really awesome book. I loved every minute of it and it surprisingly made great bedtime stories for both of my kids. We all had a blast reading it.

[Sharon Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good story, great characters. Though you could play a drinking game with how many times 'Jimmie Dale' was written!

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it. Went at a cracking pace and lots if suspense. But also firmly set in another era when electric light was new and doctors made house calls within the hour!!

[Becky Best · Rating 5 out of 5]

adored this book my Dad and I read it out loud together and my Grandmother read it with him.

[Licette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the suspense and drama

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

Part One quickly becomes repetitious, but Part Two is actually quite good!

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Jimmie, aka the Gray Seal, was an early 20th century vigilante who thwarted criminals in New York City.