Devlin the Barber

by Benjamin Leopold Farjeon

When Lizzie Melladew is murdered, a friend of the family turns detective. A tip off from a former servant leads the amateur investigator to Devlin - a mysterious barber with extraordinary and uncanny abilities. Devlin agrees to use these to help discover the killer. But is Devlin well-named? Is there, indeed, something develish afoot...?

A Victorian detective story with an unusual supernatural twist, this novel was first published in 1888 and was directly inspired by the then recent Jack the Ripper murders.

191 pages, Nook

First published January 1, 1888

About the author

Father of J. Jefferson Farjeon, Herbert Farjeon, and Eleanor Farjeon.

Farjeon was born in London, the second son of a poor Orthodox Jewish family, and grew up in Whitechapel. He received no formal secular education, but at fourteen began training as a printer at a newspaper office. He came to Australia in 1854 and spent seven years on the goldfields, and then left to settle in New Zealand, where he established a successful literary career, before ultimately returning to England in 1868. Farjeon produced countless popular novels, many with mystery and adventure themes that drew on his colonial experiences, as well as plays, burlesques, short fiction and journalism. Grif: A Story of Australian Life (1866) was the most popular of his novels set in Australia. Originally published in New Zealand, it was later dramatised for the theatre and also reprinted in Australia, America and London several times.

Reviews

[Nancy Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's like a 3.7 rounded up

While this book is by no means great, I seriously do not get the low, low ratings here. Two stars???? Sheesh!! It is in every sense of the word as different from contemporary Victorian crime as it can possibly be, and while I'm going to have to do some digging, it may just be a very early novel in the area of "psychic detectives." Considering it was written in the 1880s, it would be very early indeed. But most of all, it was just plain fun, a murder mystery with a seriously-unexpected twist, and was published in the same year that the Ripper murders began, which I do not think was coincidental given the nature of the crime.

It's also a tough book to explain so you can glean a bit more at my reading journal here:

http://www.crimesegments.com/2017/12/...

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sensation Novel featuring a mystery with paranormal elements. Mr. Devlin is a most unusual barber! A quick, entertaining read. Can be read for free at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/53044

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an audio book from LibriVox.

http://librivox.org/devlin-the-barber...

[Cindy B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Psychic mind reader solves crimes. Narrated by Lee Smalley.

Librivox and Gutenberg have free copies

[MarilynLovesNature · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entertaining with a very unusual character.