Blood on His Hands

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Blood on His Hands
Author Max Afford
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
Series Jeffrey Blackburn
Genredetective
PublisherJohn Long
Publication date
1936

Blood on His Hands is a 1936 Australian novel by Max Afford. It was his first novel and featured Jeffrey Blackburn his detective hero. It was set in Melbourne during that city's Centenary celebrations. [1] Afford wrote the novel for a competition held by John Long a publishers in London, submitted it in December 1934, then while waiting to hear back wrote a sequelo. John Long accepted it and offered a contract for three books. The novel was published in London before Australia. [2] [3] [4]

The novel was reprinted several times. [5] By 1940 it had sold 34,000 copies. [6]

Thev Daily Telegraph said "Afford has worked out his murders and an ingenious mystery plot with painstaking diligence, and although his scholarly, if colorless, sleuth, Jeffery Blackburn, jumps to many astonishing conclusions on hopelessly inadequate data, he is capable at times of very sound deduction". [7]

The Australian Woman's Mirror called it "a good and gripping yarn, with the killer kept hidden to the last chapter, and even the weaknesses in the story- are explained or covered very plausibly by the chief free-lance sleuth, who does most of the talking." [8]

The Melbourne Herald said "Afford has the necessary skill, knowledge and material for a good yarn, but he has not yet learned to mix thrso Ingredi ents In the right proportions." [9]

ABC Weekly later wrote "in his first adventure, titled Blood On His Hands, there were suggestions of Ellery Queen’s mentality; and his drawl was rather patterned on that of Philo Vance. Under certain lights his profile blatantly implicated Lord Peter Wimsey, while his passion for neatness was inherited from Hercule Poiret. Sherlock Holmes, being dead, was above suspicion. Then Blackburn grew up and took on an individuality of his own. But it took radio to make a really new man of Jeffrey. " [10]

Afford wrote a short story with this title in 1934 for Smith's Weekly. [11]

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References

  1. ↑ "Trend of the Australian Novel". The Age . No. 26, 212. Victoria, Australia. 22 April 1939. p. 8 ("The Age" Literary Supplement). Retrieved 4 January 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  2. ↑ "Aid From Adelaide", The Wireless Weekly: The Hundred per Cent Australian Radio Journal, 28 (17), October 23, 1936, nla.obj-674928746, retrieved 4 January 2024– via Trove
  3. ↑ "Passing By". The News. Vol. XXVII, no. 4, 080. South Australia. 19 August 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 4 January 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  4. ↑ "These Men Make News". The Daily Telegraph. Vol. I, no. 165. New South Wales, Australia. 30 September 1936. p. 6. Retrieved 4 January 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  5. ↑ Michael J. Tolley, 'Afford, Malcolm (Max) (1906–1954)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/afford-malcolm-max-9315/text16349, published first in hardcopy 1993, accessed online 4 January 2024.
  6. ↑ "Australia on the Air", ABC Weekly, 2 (38), 21 September 1940, nla.obj-1314883137, retrieved 4 January 2024– via Trove
  7. ↑ "Mystery of the Week". The Daily Telegraph. Vol. I, no. 180. New South Wales, Australia. 17 October 1936. p. 8. Retrieved 4 January 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Let's Talk About Books", The Australian Woman's Mirror, 13 (14), 2 March 1937, nla.obj-424549129, retrieved 4 January 2024– via Trove
  9. ↑ "Some Recent Detective Novels". The Herald. No. 18, 539. Victoria, Australia. 15 October 1936. p. 42. Retrieved 4 January 2024– via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Listeners Demand Action Not Talk", ABC Weekly, 2 (19), 11 May 1940, nla.obj-1370251044, retrieved 4 January 2024– via Trove
  11. ↑ "Blood on His Hands". Smith's Weekly . Vol. XVI, no. 32. New South Wales, Australia. 6 October 1934. p. 15. Retrieved 4 January 2024– via National Library of Australia.
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