Casebook of a Victorian Detective (Hardcover)- Hardcover: 296 pages
- Publisher: Littlehampton Book Services Ltd (May 1975)
- ISBN-10: 0903937077
- ISBN-13: 978-0903937078
McLevy: The Edinburgh Detective (Mercat Press) - Paperback: 185 pages
- Publisher: Mercat Press (30 April 2002)
- ISBN-10: 1841830313
- ISBN-13: 978-1841830315
In the 1860s, a few years before Arthur Conan Doyle began his medical studies at Edinburgh University, there appeared a hugely popular series of books with titles like "Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh", "The Sliding Scale of Life" and "The Disclosures of a Detective". They were all the work of one James McLevy, an Edinburgh policeman. In the words of his editor at the time - "The name of McLevy is the guarantee of this book. He is known throughout the kingdom for the possession of those many qualities which go to form a successful detective officer. While he is beyond question without a competitor in Scotland, he has very few, if any, in England." The unjustly forgotten McLevy was one of the first exponents of the crime genre and a likely influence on the creator of Sherlock Holmes. His books were based on over 2,000 of his own cases in which he almost always secured a conviction. Uniquely, he was as good a storyteller as he was a sleuth. His pages are alive with 'thieves, robbers, thimblers, pickpockets, abandoned women and drunken destitutes' and their nefarious activities: 'the swearings, the fights, the drunken brawls, the prostitutions, the blasphemies, the cruelties, and the robberies'. He provides us with a remarkable evocation of Victorian Edinburgh and vivid descriptions of its criminal classes as they move between the very different worlds of the Old and New Towns. Above all, as Quintin Jardine writes in his Foreword,'McLevy's tales more than pass the first and most important test, in that they are an outstandingly good read.'
McLevy Returns: Further Disclosures of the Edinburgh Detective (Mercat Press)- Paperback: 194 pages
- Publisher: Mercat Press (18 Nov 2002)
- ISBN-10: 1841830380
- ISBN-13: 978-1841830384
Edinburgh enjoys a high profile nowadays when it comes to crime fiction. Writers like Ian Rankin, Christopher Brookmyre and Quintin Jardine all set their best-selling novels in the Scottish capital. What is less well known is that the city has provided the backdrop to stories of detection for almost a century and a half. In the 1860s, a few years before Conan Doyle began his medical studies at Edinburgh University, there appeared a hugely popular series of books with titles like "Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh", "The Sliding Scale of Life" and "The Disclosures of a Detective". They were all the work of one James McLevy, an Edinburgh policeman. McLevy had been all but forgotten until Mercat Press reissued a selection of his work in 2001, when the stories received widespread acclaim, notably from Quintin Jardine - "These stories are true crime classics, imbued with all the pathos, darkness and occasional humour that you will find in the best crime fiction ...They remain an outstandingly good read, as well as being a very important contribution to the social history of that time." This new volume, featuring true accounts of a further 29 of McLevy's cases, gathers together the rest of the famous sleuth's writings.
McLevy: The Edinburgh Detective (Paperback)- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (21 Aug 2008)
- ISBN-10: 1841587419
- ISBN-13: 978-1841587417
David Ashton Novels
The Shadow of the Serpent An Inspector McLevy Mystery- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (10 April 2006)
- ISBN-10: 1904598706
- ISBN-13: 978-1904598701
The first in the McLevy series, this is wonderfully evocative detective fiction, based in dark, violent, Victorian Edinburgh. It's 1880 and the city is gripped by election fever. But while the rich and educated argue about politics, in the dank wynds of the city it's a struggle just to stay alive, especially when a murderous madman seems to have resurfaced after thirty years. A prostitute is brutally slain and Inspector McLevy makes it his mission to find the killer, having failed the first time round. But his questioning leads him somewhere far more dangerous than the labyrinth of Leith. It leads him into a world of politics, perversion, deception and mystery and into the shadow of the serpent.
Fall from Grace An Inspector McLevy Mystery - Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Polygon (10 May 2007)
- ISBN-10: 1846970075
- ISBN-13: 978-1846970078
The second in a new series of McLevy books, "The Fall from Grace", revolves around the terrible Tay Bridge Disaster. The story begins with a break-in and murder at the Edinburgh home of Sir Thomas Bouch. Bouch is at the height of his powers, the enigmatic, egotistical builder of the Tay Bridge. McLevy is brought in to investigate. With the help of brothel madam, Jean Brash, McLevy finds the murderer, the dangerous, self-destructive Hercules Baxter but there is much, much more to unfold: murder, arson, sexual obsession and suicide.
A Trick of the Light: An Inspector McLevy Mystery - Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Polygon An Imprint of Birlinn Limited (22 Oct 2009)
- ISBN-10: 1846970911
- ISBN-13: 978-1846970917
The third in a new series of McLevy books, 'A Trick of the Light' sees McLevy team up with Arthur Conan Doyle to pursue a ruthless killer. It is 1860 and a Confederate officer, Jonathen Sinclair, arrives in Edinburgh with a sheaf of money to purchase a blockade-runner from Clydeside shipbuilders. He is betrayed to the Union forces and brutally shot dead by their secret agents. The money vanishes. This incident sets the scene for more foul play in another pacy McLevy thriller.
McLevy published a series of extremely popular books in the 1860s, including Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh, Sliding Scale of Life and The Disclosures of a Detective. It is sometimes suggested that his writings helped to inspire Arthur Conan Doyle. McLevy sought forensic advice from members of the medical faculty at the University of Edinburgh, where Conan Doyle later studied.
