Ernest Bramah (1868–1942)

A sequence of short stories which are meant to seem as if translated from Japanese. Most of the tales focus on the poor but noble triumphing over the rich but corrupt. The later tales seem to hold a bit more humour than the earlier stuff and i really felt it improved as it went. I only read part of this and listened to the rest from Libravox.
Heres a little sample of the kind of writing your in for: 'A sedan-chair! A sedan-chair! This person will unhesitatingly exchange his entire and well-regulated Empire for such an article'
I assume everyone will recognise this disguised shakespeare quote which is attributed to a famous japanese writer in one of the stories :lol . I actually wonder whether the entire book was written in normal english then parsed into this faux japanese afterward.
Because its supposed to be japanese everyone is very polite which means a great deal of passive aggressive dialogue which i found quite entertaining. Overall probably a lot easier to listen to than read, i quite liked it especially the latter third.… (altro)

Ernest Bramah’s The Eyes of Max Carrados, a brick-sized entry in the Wordsworth “Tales of Mystery and the Supernatural” series, collects all 26 Max Carrados mysteries, originally published in several volumes during the first quarter of the 20th century. Max Carrados is one of the truly unique detectives in the entire genre: he is blind, but has compensated for that impairment by some remarkable enhancements to his other senses - a very subtle, but very effective, array of superpowers that give him an edge in solving his baffling cases. The basic setup of the stories is that Louis Carlyle, an inquiry agent, functions as Carrados’s associate, bringing each of the cases to him. Carrados zeroes in on the most obscure details to find relevant clues. And the urbane and witty interplay between Carrados and Carlyle is quite engaging, with suspects, clues, and motives duly bantered about. Most of the stories are fun and intriguing, though some do tend to drag a bit. Highly recommended, particularly for aficionados of vintage Edwardian mysteries.… (altro)