First published in 1923, Jim Hanvey, Detective is a collection of seven stories that originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and features private eye Jim Hanvey in classic whodunit style mysteries. Described as the "backwoods Nero Wolfe," the genial Hanvey befriends "good guys" and criminals alike to get the job done.
Bank robberies, jewel heists, and all-purposes cons—none are a match for Octavus Roy Cohen's waddling sleuth.
June 1, 2021
Seven adventures, first collected in 1923, of the world's most unprepossessing detective. As Leslie S. Klinger's introduction makes clear, Cohen (1891-1957) doesn't present much more mystery in his stories than the long-running TV series Columbo does, for the criminals are known from the beginning in every instance. In fact, Jim Hanvey--a homely, sleepy-eyed hick--isn't so much a crime solver as a crime preventer whose caseload minimizes violent crimes against persons in favor of crimes against property: confidence games, fraud, grand larceny. The formula is consistent: Hanvey is set against some thief or trickster who instantly recognizes him as the country's greatest detective but is convinced he can be outwitted this time. "I never lie to a crook," Hanvey guilelessly tells one client. "It ain't fair." Oftentimes, the crooks don't lie to him either--at least not in private. The results of their slow-motion mental duels are less whodunits than cat-and-cat tales in which the predators circle each other with placid self-assurance. Although Hanvey drolly underplots the bank robbers in "Fish Eyes," he's a step ahead of the jewel thief in "Homespun Silk," the securities thief in "Common Stock," and the swindling suitors in "Caveat Emptor" and "The Knight's Gambit." When the gang of robbers in "Helen of Troy N.Y." and the fence passing himself off as a wealthy socialite in "Pink Bait" try their hands at more elaborate plots, the stories are more complicated but no more entertaining, for their enduring appeal lies in the simple pleasures of watching the underdog outwit a succession of mostly veteran thieves who should really know better. Modestly but genuinely amusing.
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June 4, 2021
The latest in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series introduces seven stories by Octavus Cohen, first published in 1923 in the Saturday Evening Post. Klinger, the volume's editor, introduces Cohen's detective character Jim Hanvey as warm, big-hearted, kind man, but readers are more likely to remember the physical description of Hanvey as a gargantuan, ungainly man with cheap clothes and a gold toothpick. It's Hanvey's eyes that are eeriest, as described in the story "Fish Eyes": "great sleepy orbs of fishy hue" that blink slowly. Hanvey's few friends are criminals who both fear him and trust him to play fair. The seven cases in this volume all involve con men or thieves. In "The Knight's Gambit," a polished con man who's engaged to a millionaire's besotted 17-year-old daughter falls apart just because Hanvey is watching. "Common Stock" involves an employee and a thief who are both intent on picking up a voting proxy; Hanvey introduces them on a cross-country train trip and allows them both to feel in control, but all the while he's manipulating the entire scenario. In each story, Hanvey's presence and watchfulness are often enough to bring about the criminal's downfall. VERDICT The slow-moving detective stories, with no murder or violence, are likely to appeal to readers who enjoy classic short mysteries such as G. K. Chesterton's "Father Brown" tales.--Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
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June 28, 2021
First published in 1923, this fine story collection from Cohen (1891–1957) stars New York investigator Jim Hanvey, whose “huge, fat, shapeless” head and other unattractive features make him perhaps the least impressive–looking sleuth in crime fiction. The seven short stories are all inverted mysteries, with the fascination derived from the ways in which Hanvey trips up a criminal whose culpability has already been revealed to the reader. In “Fish Eyes,” bank teller Clifford Wallace, after stealing a large sum from his employer, attempts to allay suspicion by reporting the missing cash to his boss, having already passed the money to his fiancée, who uses a safety-deposit box maintained in her dead sister’s name to store the loot. Hanvey’s called in to investigate, and his hovering, annoying Columbo-like presence leads Wallace to make a costly misstep. Hanvey’s acumen is also on display in cases involving stolen gems (“Caveat Emptor”) and an effort to rig a proxy fight (“Common Stock”). The affable but lonely Hanvey is a unique and sympathetic creation. This Library of Congress Crime Classic provides a pleasant change of pace.
June 17, 2021
This collection of short stories is part of the Crime Classics series of the Library of Congress which, in 2020, started to re-issue out-of-print or little-known mysteries, originally published between the 1860s and the 1960s. While this approach can unearth some forgotten but truly valuable works for the public/scholars, it necessarily means that some re-issued works wouldn't appeal to the general public. Jim Hanvey, Detective is one such work, a collection of seven short stories, mostly from the Saturday Evening Post, first published as a collection 1923. Most of the author's effort goes to showing Hanvey as physically repellent and seemingly unintelligent as he susses out what went wrong after various capers have been pulled. In a collection like this, the repeated formula gets dull. The best part of this book is Edgar Award-winning critic and biographer Leslie S. Klinger's Introduction, which zeroes in on the "unlikely detective" genre. This heavily footnoted work is perfect for scholars, may be necessary for collectors, but probably won't appeal to contemporary mystery fans.
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