Sexton Blake: Detective

by George Mann (Editor), Michael Moorcock (Introduction), Ernest Sempill (aka Michael Storm)

One of the most written about characters in the English language, Sexton Blake was a household name and a publishing phenomenon. This book contains the finest stories from this vast output, edited by leading publisher and author George Mann.

Genres: Crime

782 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2009

About the author

George Mann is an author and editor, primarily in genre fiction. He was born in Darlington, County Durham in 1978.
A former editor of Outland, Mann is the author of The Human Abstract, and more recently The Affinity Bridge and The Osiris Ritual in his Newbury and Hobbes detective series, set in an alternate Britain, and Ghosts of Manhattan, set in the same universe some decades later.
He wrote the Time Hunter novella "The Severed Man", and co-wrote the series finale, Child of Time.
He has also written numerous short stories, plus Doctor Who and Sherlock Holmes audiobooks for Big Finish Productions. He has edited a number of anthologies including The Solaris Book of New Science Fiction, The Solaris Book of New Fantasy and a retrospective collection of Sexton Blake stories, Sexton Blake, Detective, with an introduction by Michael Moorcock.

Reviews

[Wolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection should be wonderful.

The stories are excellent: fun, engaging and entertaining. They are well chosen with a wide range of Sexton Blake adventures on display - from his 'Duel to the Death' with his albino opponent Zenith or the challenges of other super-villians Dr Huxton Rymer, Prince Wu Ling, Waldo the Wonderman or George Marsden Plummer; to deepest, darkest Africa with Lobangu or Sir Richard Lawliss; to the challenges provoked by Mademoiselle Yvonne and later Mademoiselle Roxane; to the short stories punctuating the collection about Sexton Blake's first recurring nemesis, a dastardly barrister, who uses all his legal knowledge to get away with crime - display the range of Sexton Blake stories at the height of their popularity.

The collection is beautifully produced with effort made to reproduce the original illustrations - including often the story title page. This significantly adds to the enjoyment.

With such care taken on choosing the stories and producing a book that is so attractive, it seems doubly odd that the same level of care has not gone into the editing and proofing stage. It appears that Snowbooks have scanned the stories from the original magazines. They do not appear to have checked that scan has been accurate. There are constant mistakes: odd letters creeping in, words incorrectly spelt or changed to another similar looking word. These are minor problems but are sufficiently frequent to intrude into the reader's immersion in the story. After a while they grate, then they irritate. The most egregious example is one story where the finale is simply left out.

So, what to make of this collection? On the one hand it is deeply flawed by its lack of proper editing. On the other, it collects many good stories together and manages to retain something of the character of their first publication with the original illustrations. Overall, a qualified recommendation.

[Richard Horsman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great collection of Sexton Blake stories and novellas from the 20s and 30s, but one constantly marred by OCR-based typos and other instance of poor proofreading (including one novella that's missing its final chapter).