Malcolm Sage, Detective

Originally published in 1921, Herbert George Jenkins' Malcolm Sage, Detective, chronicles the first year of the Malcolm Sage Detective Bureau. A distinctly British private detective, Sage has his own full set of eccentricities. In some ways his opinions are spot on, including disparaging fingerprints as an investigative tool (they really were of very little value for finding an unknown criminal before computerized comparison became available). In others, his notions no doubt made sense in 1921, but sound more than a little silly today. A master of deductive reasoning, Sage provides a nice example of the British crime novelist's cliche belief that the official detectives, Scotland Yard and the local constables, are quite incapable of solving most crimes without the assistance of either a little old lady or a naturally more talented private sleuth.The book contains eight stories, with several consisting of more than one chapter, and contained within a framework provided by the first and