Average Jones

by Samuel Hopkins Adams

Solve humorous cases as you travel across early 20th century New York City with amateur sleuth Average Jones!

Average Jones is a brilliant young man of independent means, thanks to the bequest of a wealthy yet jaded uncle. Five years after graduating college, he finds himself bored with travel and his bon vivant lifestyle, and restless for some meaningful hobby to occupy his mind. On the advice of a friend, he decides to set up a business as an "Ad-Visor," warning potential buyers of goods and services of potential scams. Each "ad-vising" case turns into a crime-detecting story showcasing the amateur sleuth's deductive reasoning, a la Sherlock Holmes. At times bizarre, at times humorous, this collection is highly entertaining, featuring stories such as "The B-flat Trombone," "The Man Who Spoke Latin," and "The Million-Dollar Dog."

Genres: Mystery, Short Stories, Fiction, Humor, Classics

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1911

About the author

From the book jacket of "Sunrise to Sunset", (c) 1950
At seventy-nine Samuel Hopkins Adams attributes his longevity, vigor and vim to neither smoking nor drinking, except when he feels like it. This is typical of the intelligent attitude toward the vagaries of life that has maintained him through the years in which he has authored more than forty books, written countless magazine articles and, as a crusading reporter, almost single-handedly accounted for the passage of the Federal Food and Drug laws which pave protected millions of his fellow citizens.

Mr. Adams' amazing knowledge of the history of upper New York State is the result of his lifelong interest in the region in which he was born. His home is Wide Waters, on the shore of Owasco, "loveliest of the Finger Lakes." From Wide Waters he still makes forways into the surrounding countryside, attending antique-auction sales "for the purpose of sneering at the prevalent junk," which he says he wouldn't put in his open hearth Franklin stove for fear of insulting it.

A graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, class of 1891, Mr. Adams introduced football to the campus, played tackle on its first team, and won the Intercollegiate Tennis Championship. For these contributions to scholarship, his college conferred on him the degree of L.H.D. in 1926.

Adams also wrote under the pseudonym Warner Fabian.

Reviews

[EuroHackie · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. A delightful collection of short stories that have been novelized. A. V. R. E. Jones - "Average" to his friends - is a rather wealthy young man who is doomed to live in New York for five continuous years, so that he might inherit the millions left by a late uncle. Not knowing what to do with himself, a friend suggests that he investigate advertisements in the papers, rooting out the scams and miscreants. Though Average is dubious of the title his friend gives him, the Ad-Visor, he thinks it is a fun idea and goes into business as such. The 11 stories that follow are his adventures in the ad business, which take him all over the place in search of murderers, kidnappers, assassins, and dog-haters. The stories are all told quite humorously, and Average himself is a very engaging character.

This is very much a collection of stories of its time. Originally published in 1911, a time when the newspapers were prevalent, and more than half their pages were ads of various kinds (one of the stories mentions 1600 ads in one daily paper). Fans of Sherlock Holmes will understand the usefulness of these pages and pages of ads, as the great detective himself uses them fairly regularly to assist in solving his most baffling cases. Average makes it his business to keep his eyes peeled for interesting adverts that definitely have a story to tell.

I can see a through-line from Average Jones in 1911 and Lester Leith fifty-odd years later. The characters are nothing alike, but their study and use of ads is the same. It's also a genre of story that is truly over, given the dearth of actual printed newspapers these days, and the lack of classified ads even in the ones that do exist. It's a time that has passed, but readers who enjoy clever characters will enjoy this book.

Sadly, there are no other Average Jones stories to be read. Luckily, these can be read over and over again for continued delight and humor!

[Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

These Golden Age short story mysteries are just my jam. This one was different that the others in that these are more fun romps than they are guess "who done it" but I thoroughly enjoyed each one. Average is such an intriguing character who's dry humor still brings a smile to my face almost 100 years later. The side characters bring depth to the stories and the world as well. I really wish there were more stories and/or a full novel with Average as the main characters, but, I'm happy I got these stories regardless.

Quick hits:
+ Average is a fun character. His wit, his intelligence and his non pompous lifestyle make for an enjoyable main character. I wish we got to explore more of him.
+ The side characters fill out the world in the individual stories as well as the wider plotline.
+ I really felt like I was in the time period with the characters.
+ A unique twist on the detective story using advertisements and creating characters who were similar to the Golden Age detective and Sherlock, but unique enough they didn't feel derivative.

So why only 4 stars? While I had a bunch of fun with this one, none of the stories are distinctly memorable since I wasn't surprised at the resolutions (or didn't have the association of trying to guess the culprit like a traditional novel). I would highly recommend this to mystery fans, it's very quick and fun which is a good palette cleanser for your hard hitting mysteries! 4/5.

[Finn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a collection of short stories.
They're an OK 'in-between' read for when you have little time but want to spend it with something interesting.

[Chris Lund · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing Earth-shattering here, and a few of the stories seemed to leave a couple of unanswered holes, but for the most part these were all fun, quick reads, with a great sense of dry humor. I especially liked all the informative footnotes in this LOC edition, and learning some amazing old-timey slang. Double-up, Lucy! The sun is in the sky!!

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

These delightful, if slightly antiquated, short stories feature a playboy-detective (think of a less stuffy Philo Vance) who gets his clues and his results from the classified advertisements in a variety of papers that existed in the 1900's. Since the stories were written separately, there's some repetition in the descriptions of the characters, and Adams, who wrote in the shadow of the Muckrakers, is fascinated by the influence of the trusts on everyday life. Unfortunately, the Library of Congress, which sponsors this series, is sloppy about the biographical notes (Adams could not have been descended from Henry Adams, who left no children), and the footnotes that are meant to explain topical references often seem rather random.

[Jeff Hobbs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The B-Flat Trombone--3
Red Dot--3
Open Trail--3
The Mercy Sign (NB: about the Armenian genocide)--3
Blue Fires--2
Pin-Pricks--2
Big Print--3
The Man Who Spoke Latin--2
The One Best Bet--3
The Million-Dollar Dog--3

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun mystery short stories from the 1910s, where the main detective uses advertisements to prevent crimes. Definitely a bit dated but there are some clever twists.

[Andréa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting angle to the consulting detective format.

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Thu Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of ten short stories featuring the character Average Jones by Samuel Hopkins Adams that were published between April 1910 and April 1911. These stories are not related to each other and could be read as stand-alones. I was vastly impressed at first, it strongly reminds me of Sherlock Holmes, plus: the dialogue is witty, the writing is brilliant, and the humour is one I appreciate. But the novelty quickly wears off after half a dozen stories, meaning the last 4 was kind of boring.

The narration style instantly brought me back to reading Sherlock Holmes back in primary school days. That was so long ago I can't remember anything about it to compare in details. But this one feeling I remember. Bits of information are offered to you as an idiot side character, but you're never inside the detective's head to know what he himself saw and thought, so you can't actively solving the cases, or maybe I'm just too stupid and need a few days to think about it instead of the 30 minutes reading time during which the story unfold. Besides, a lot of observations and their interpretation rely heavily on knowledge of the time period which is over 100 years ago. These stories were written for the readers of New York city in 1910-1911, a lot of things left unsaid but must have been everyday facts and a commonsense that I simply don't possess. The book is full of footnotes, even when it's not related to the stories, I enjoyed reading them and knowing a bit more about the past.

There are 10 stories in this collection. That's all of Average Jones ever existed in literature. Each story is more or less like this: someone brought up the case, some very bizarre and impossible facts were presented, the detective went away and did some very odd and unrelated jobs, a few days later the detective called everyone in to tell them who did what, the end.

[Michael Reilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read a reprint from the Library of Congress Crime Classics series. This is a 1911 collection of detective stories about Adrian Van Reypan Edgerton Jones, known to his friends as "Average Jones". He is a wealthy man about town in NYC. He decides he needs to do something with his life. He gets interested in the scams and cons that are using the classified pages in the newspaper. He sets up business as an "Ad-Visor". He offers to advise the public on all subjects connected with advertising.

Samuel Hopkins Adams was a newspaper and magazine writer. He wrote a series on phony medical advertisers. This series gave him a chance to attack them in fiction.

The stories are pretty silly. One involves a Rube Goldberg mechanism for shooting a gun. One has Jones running off to a desert in Mexico. The clues are haphazardly disclosed and some of Average's deductions seem a bit shaky. The advertising is usually used by Jones. He is always placing classified ads to find evidence and witnesses and he is seldom actually chasing fraud in ads.

This edition has background footnotes for some of the outdated references. For example. "Corea" is an older spelling of "Korea "or "Skeeing" is an archaic spelling of "skiing". I would have liked to know what the "Personal Liberty Bill" was in connection with regulating alcohol. (G00gle says it was an anti-prohibition act).

I was disappointed to learn that the original edition was illustrated. The illustrations are left out of this edition.

[Gemutlichkeit · Rating 3 out of 5]

About half of this was a fun romp, reminiscent of Wodehouse. And the footnotes are amazing, with one in particular explaining that a phrase used by one of the characters stemmed from a popular joke from a specific era over a hundred years ago. Just super helpful!

The back half of the book was less fun. Maybe it’s chemo brain. But it seemed to defy belief when the main characters guessed at an assassination plot and asks to have an audience with the governor … and is immediately given one. In real life, that’s a possible scenario for the author, who was a well known muckraker influential in the passage of consumer protection laws especially as related to patent medicines.

Would recommend but largely for experiencing what feels like the evolution of a genre (the mystery) in real time.

[Jane]

Enjoyed this late 19th century book of short stories centered on Average Jones, who uses advertising in newspapers as a resource for detective work and a method for solving the cases. I’d call him the Colombo of his era, often asking questions that seem far fetched or random, but always ultimately solving his case. This is a light read, and the fact that it is written in short story form allows the reader to pick it up and read without concern for remembering story lines.

[Annarella · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had a lot of fun and thoroughly enjoyed this short stories. They're humorous, well plotted, and highly entertaining.
Have fun and read it
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

[E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Did not finish but enjoyed what I did read for the portrait of a particular time/place.

[Phil Ellenberger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok

The detectives name tells the story ,good but not great! The stories have enough mystery but lack pizaz.so it is readable

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to enjoy these pulp stories from the early 20th century more than I did. The writing was pretty good, but many of the stories were weirdly plotted and constructed. Average Jones is a young, independently wealthy, brilliant man, who decides to keep himself busy by setting up a business as an Ad-Visor; he helps people determine is ads, especially the want ads in the newspapers of NYC, are shady deals or not. Each "case" stems from one of these ads. The Jones character is very likable, but he is given an annoying mannerism of drawling, depicted as lots of "--ers--" in his speech, when he is excited and thinking. It's supposed to trick the bad guys into thinking he's bored and uninterested.

The ebook edition, which cost me all of a buck, had a lot of formatting errors concerning paragraphing and punctuation of dialog. Often a second line of dialog by the same person was made into a new paragraph, with the quote having been closed after the first line. This in many instances required rereading of whole sections of dialog to sort everything out. A bad frustration.

[Julie Davis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Picked this up free (or very cheap) for my Kindle. Average Jones sets himself up in New York as an Ad-Visor, which struck me as a brilliant idea. He advises people whether ads they are interested in are in earnest or a scam. Each ad-vising case turns into a crime-detecting story in which we see just how clever Jones is.

I've only read the first two but have found them entertaining and interesting.

The other stories were much like the first two in being fun little brain puzzles that only Average Jones was able to put together. I enjoyed them not only for that but also for the setting in the past (which at the time of writing was very up to date, naturally).

[Emma · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of stories from the early 1900's (1904?) were a delight to read. Average Jones does almost everything through the classified - finding cases, finding clues, finding witnesses and often solving the crime.

[Robert · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, the authors gimmick being that his detective finds cases and clues in the various classified ads of the many newspapers in turn of the century (19th century) New York City.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

on Kindle

[Sarah Quhtani · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only listened to the audio book!

[Jack Heath]

Synopsis: Average Jones has a detective agency which offers advice to people as to whether want-ads are scams. Have times changed much?