David Sharp, dates unknown, was an English author who published 11 mysteries featuring Professor Henry Arthur Fielding and his friend Sheridan Orford between 1930 and 1940. None of my usual sources offered biographical information about Sharp. Both the New York Times and the Times Literary Review praised the books but mentioned nothing specific I could find about the author. I didn’t have enough information to search Ancestry. The generic name makes me wonder if it is a pseudonym.
Sources tend to agree on the Sharp bibliography:
- When No Man Pursueth (1930)
- My Particular Murder (1931)
- None of My Business (1931), U.S. titleThe Code-Letter Mystery (1932)
- I, the Criminal (1932)
- The Inconvenient Corpse (1933)
- Marriage and Murder (1934)
- Disputed Quarry (1938)
- Elderly Gentleman Shot (1939)
- Everybody Suspect (1939)
- The Frightened Sailor (1939)
- Exit Second Murderer (1940)
See http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7931499/Sharp%2C%20David
The Classic Crime Fiction website states that three of the books were published in the United States by Houghton Mifflin. See http://www.classiccrimefiction.com/david-sharp.htm. The first half of the series was published by Ernest Benn and the remainder by Herbert Jenkins.
These books are incredibly rare. None of them are available on Project Gutenberg, on the Internet Archive or on Faded Page. I found The Code-Letter Mystery on the Hathitrust website. Some half dozen copies of various titles are available through Biblio.com, ABEBooks.com, and eBay at significant (to me) prices. A search on viaLibri.net yielded two German translations.
A publishing firm looking for a series to reprint might want to look into these books, assuming someone can identify the author well enough to track down his heirs and obtain the rights.
The Code-Letter Mystery (Ernest Benn, 1931; Houghton Mifflin, 1932) opens with a droll explanation of Sheridan Orford’s ruling vice, that of insatiable curiosity. Orford tends to let his inquisitive nature go where it will, past the bounds of acceptable behavior at times, such as the one described in the opening pages. A messenger handed Orford an envelope that was marked with someone else’s initials. Instead of returning the envelope to the messenger, Orford opened the envelope without hesitation, only to find another sealed envelope and a sheet of paper directing him to give the envelope to whoever asks for it at the Liverpool Street Station. Orford opened the second envelope, memorized the letter it contained, put it in a fresh envelope, and took it to Liverpool Street Station as directed.
There two different men asked for the envelope, thus launching Orford into a complicated adventure that ended with one man poisoned and another one shot. Orford involved his friend Professor Henry Arthur Fielding, upending that gentleman’s comfortable life about which he complained bitterly and often.
A fast-moving well-written narrative with a number of creative if not terribly realistic elements. Why someone hasn’t punched Orford in the nose is the real mystery but his exploits make entertaining reading.
None of My Business APA The Code-Letter Mystery and I, the Criminal are reviewed by Barzun & Taylor in A Catalogue of Crime. Their take on the former aligns generally with mine:
A preposterous English story which is of interest only because of the hero-detective, Sheridan Orford. Though he asks more questions than he answers, he has an entertaining side, and JB is amused by the intentional cock-and-bull development of a chase across Europe. The reader tolerates far less original complications in current stuff, because it is dressed up in vogue language. Sharp’s is terse and clear and humorous as well.
Isaac Anderson of the New York Times liked the book and thought other readers would like it too.
In the New York Times, April 17, 1932, Anderson said:
The young man who holds the centre of the stage in this story is Sheridan Orford, who is so consumed with curiosity that he just can’t keep his nose out of other people’s affairs. He is not a detective, and he is not in the least interested in seeing wrongdoers brought to justice, but when anything out of the ordinary meets his eye, he cannot rest until he knows what it is all about. His adventures in this story begin when he, obviously mistaken for some one else, is handed a sealed packet with instructions as to its delivery. The letter itself is so innocent that he is sure that it must have some hidden significance, and he decides to follow the matter up. In the course of his investigations he becomes an eyewitness to two murders and discovers the plot to which these murders are incidental. Orford enjoys himself thoroughly in spite of the dangers and discomforts that he encounters, and his enjoyment will be shared by the reader.
Recommended. I plan to continue to search for affordable copies of Sharp’s work.