Henry Christopher Bailey (1878 – 1961) was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 author

Author

An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

 of detective fiction

Detective fiction

Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...

. Bailey wrote mainly short stories featuring a medically-qualified detective called Reggie Fortune. Fortune's mannerisms and speech put him into the same class as Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Wimsey

Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey is a bon vivant amateur sleuth in a series of detective novels and short stories by Dorothy L. Sayers, in which he solves mysteries; usually, but not always, murders...

 but the stories are much darker, and often involve murderous obsession, police corruption, financial skulduggery, child abuse and miscarriages of justice. Although Mr Fortune is seen at his best in short stories, he also appears in several novels.

A second series character, Josiah Clunk, is a sanctimonious lawyer who exposes corruption and blackmail in local politics, and who manages to profit from the crimes. He appears in eleven novels published between 1930 and 1950, including The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935), widely regarded as Bailey's magnum opus

Masterpiece

Masterpiece in modern usage refers to a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or to a work of outstanding creativity, skill or workmanship....

.

Bailey's works were published in a number of magazines, including Adventure

Adventure (magazine)

Adventure magazine was first published in November 1910 as a monthly pulp magazine. Adventure went on become one of the most profitable and critically acclaimed of all the American pulp magazines...

and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine

Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...

.

Works

• A Gentleman of Fortune (1907)
• Call Mr Fortune (1920)
• Mr Fortune's Practice (1923)
• Mr Fortune's Trials (1925)
• Mr Fortune, Please (1928)
• Mr Fortune Speaking (1929)
• Garstons / The Garston Murder Case (1930; Clunk)
• Mr Fortune Explains (1930)
• Case for Mr Fortune (1932)
• The Red Castle / The Red Castle Mystery (1932; Clunk)
• The Man in the Cape (1933)
• Mr Fortune Wonders (1933)
• Shadow on the Wall (1934; Fortune, cameo by Clunk)
• Mr Fortune Objects (1935)
• The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935; Clunk)
• A Clue for Mr Fortune (1936)
• Black Land, White Land (1937; Fortune)
• Clunk's Claimant / The Twittering Bird Mystery (1937; Clunk, cameo by Fortune)
• This is Mr Fortune (1938)
• The Great Game (1939; Fortune, cameo by Clunk)
• The Veron Mystery / Mr Clunk's Text (1939; Clunk, cameo by Fortune)
• Mr Fortune Here (1940)
• The Bishop's Crime (1940; Fortune)
• The Little Captain / Orphan Ann(1941; Clunk)
• No Murder / The Apprehensive Dog (1942; Fortune)
• Dead Man's Shoes / Nobody's Vineyard (1942; Clunk)
• Mr Fortune Finds a Pig (1943; Fortune)
• Slippery Ann / The Queen of Spades (1944; Clunk)
• Dead Man's Effects / The Cat's Whisker (1945; Fortune)
• The Wrong Man (1946; Clunk)
• The Life Sentence (1946; Fortune)
• Honour Among Thieves (1947; Clunk)
• Saving a Rope / Save a Rope (1948; Fortune)
• Shrouded Death (1950; Clunk)

• The Thistle Down in The Queen's Book of the Red Cross
  The Queen's Book of the Red Cross
  The Queen's Book of the Red Cross was published in November 1939 in afundraising effort to aid the Red Cross during World War II.The book was sponsored by Queen Elizabeth, and itscontents were contributed by fifty British authors and artists....
  
  

External links