The Eyes of Max Carrados

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 show more 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. show less