Ernest Bramah occupies a small but secure place in the history of British detective fiction as the creator of Max Carrados, the remarkable blind sleuth. The Carrados tales belong to the golden age of short detective stories that flourished before World War I. During this era many unusual variants of the fictional detective were invented in an effort to give originality to the detective story. Max Carrados is one of these unique probers of mysteries. A cultivated, erudite gentleman who pursues detection as a hobby, Carrados is a thoroughly classic British detective hero. Unlike sighted private investigators, he must rely to a far greater degree on other senses and follow a somewhat different course in his investigations, thus providing new twists and novel approaches to solving mysteries.

Ernest Bramah, pen name of Ernest Bramah Smith, was born near Manchester in 1868. He was the younger son of Susannah Brammah...