Martin Hewitt, Investigator by Arthur Morrison
The book
page gives an excellent overview of Martin Hewitt and how he came to
be an investigator, and the introduction by Otto Penzler expands on
this. According to Penzler, after the success of Holmes, authors and
publishers wanted another detective in the same mould, and,
apparently, Arthur Morrison, with his character of Martin Hewitt was
the first author in England to exploit the Doyle formula. He operates
his own, very successful, detective agency, employing only a clerk on
a regular basis, although he does use the occasional casual helper.
He has a good relationship with the police and is a very likeable
man, who seems to get on well with everybody and anybody. His cases
are written up by his good friend, journalist, Mr Brett.
Hewitt
is usually called in by private individuals when the police have
failed to solve a crime. He doesn’t share any deductions or clues
with Brett, the police or the reader, so the conclusions of the cases
are all the more amazing for that. In one case he does give Brett a
hint about a clue (The Case of Mr Foggatt), but it isn’t really a
fair one to either Brett or the reader, as, again, we are not privy
to all the information Hewitt has. Hewitt’s theory about clues is
that “two trivialities, pointing in the same direction, become, at
once, by their mere agreement, no trivialities at all, but enormously
important considerations”. In “The Case of the Dixon Torpedo”,
a sketch would have been very helpful, although it is easy to draw
the plan for yourself.
MORE:
This
book is actually a series of short stories.
Martin
Hewitt is like Holmes in that he stresses the power of observation to
solve a mystery. He's also like Holmes in that he's a bit of jerk.
But for me, he strays too far into the realm of arrogance. Holmes
doesn't fault others for missing the clues, Hewitt calls them stupid.
The
mysteries weren't all too tough, though I didn't solve all of them.
This is another in the series of quick reveals and long explanation
before the reader could really put the clues together that were
popular in the 1890s. One thing I like about Mr. Morrison's mysteries
was the fact that the majority of them didn't focus on murder. I
always find it refreshing when an author doesn't kill someone for the
sake of the mystery.
This
was a very quick read so that if you're into classical mysteries but
don't really care for Martin Hewitt, Investigator you'll either be
done with him quickly or will be able to stop after a story and not
feel if your missing something.
