new thing when the Baroness Orczy evolved Patrick Mulligan near the start of the 20th century, but we can still enjoy contemplating their peregrinations; consider, for instance . . .
"The Murder in Saltashe Woods."
By Baroness Orczy (Baroness Emma Magdolna Rozália Mária Jozefa Borbála "Emmuska" Orczy de Orci, 1865-1947; Wikipedia HERE).
Skin o' My Tooth No. 1.
First appearance: The Windsor Magazine, June 1903.
Collected in Skin o' My Tooth (1928); for sale (HERE).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE) and Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
The death of a local worthy at the hands of someone who had just quarreled with him seems
to be easily explained by an unexpected posthumous letter from the deceased naming the person who might want to murder him and the fact that the accused was seen in the vicinity
at the time of the crime and doesn't deny it; for Skin o' My Tooth, a.k.a., Patrick Mulligan,
the case "could not very well be more hopeless"—except for that discordant matter of the dog . . .
Major characters:
~ The late Jeremiah Whadcoat:
". . . was not known to possess a single enemy, and he certainly was not sufficiently endowed with worldly wealth to tempt the highway robber."
~ Amelia Whadcoat, his sister:
". . . knew nothing of her brother's quarrel with Mr. Edward Kelly. She did not even
know that he was going to Saltashe Woods on that fatal afternoon."
~ The coroner:"Wilful murder against Edward St. John Kelly."
~ Edward Kelly:
"This is damnable!"
~ Mrs. Kelly, Edward's sister-in-law:
"He is innocent, Mr. Mulligan. I swear he is innocent. You don't know him. He never
would do anything so vile."
~ Mr. Kelly, Edward's brother:would do anything so vile."
"I suppose that you came here to-day for the express purpose of setting a trap for
my wife; and she fell into it, poor soul!"
~ "Rags":". . . speaks in dumb eloquence in his master's condemnation."
~ Skin o' My Tooth, a.k.a. Patrick Mulligan:
"I am going to get Edward Kelly out of the hole his own stupidity has placed him
in."
~ Mullins:"It will be by the skin of his teeth if you do, sir; the evidence against him is posi-
tively crushing."
Typo: "motionlessly figure".
Mulligan-isms:
"I always take it for granted, Mr. Kelly, that my client is innocent. If the reverse
is the case, I prefer not to know it."
"In all cases of this sort, my dear sir, the great thing is to keep absolutely cool."
"Justice never miscarries—at least, when I have the guidance of it in my hands."
"I am not a detective . . ."
- There's more than a passing resemblance between Patrick Mulligan and Anthony Gilbert's Arthur Crook (HERE); David R. Eastwood's customer review on Amazon.com (HERE) nicely summarizes the Skin o' My Tooth stories (excerpts):
"Baroness Orczy's SKIN O' MY TOOTH: HIS MEMOIRS BY HIS CONFIDENTIAL CLERK (1928), a collection of 12 cases of her fat, bald Irish detective-lawyer named Patrick Mulligan, opens with a kind of joke: on the title page are the words 'compiled and edited by the Baroness Orczy.' Thus, at the outset, she wryly pretends to adopt the role that fans of the Sherlock Holmes stories had assigned to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, as they pretended that Holmes and Watson were real people. And her final story in this collection is an 'homage' to Conan Doyle by being an undisguised 'variation' on the early Holmes-Watson case 'The Greek Interpreter' (THE STRAND, Sep. 1893).
. . . "Some of these stories are 'adventures' with little detection that readers can test their wits with; others are 'adventure-puzzles,' which allow us to make fairly informed guesses; and a few are first-rate Fair-Play Puzzles.
. . . "Most of these stories are quite good. The narrator or 'Watson-Figure' is named Alexander Stanislaus Mullins, but his 'chief,' Patrick Mulligan (nick-named 'Skin o' my Tooth'), enjoys calling him 'Muggins' for fun, as in this sarcastic quip: 'Your penetration, Muggins, my boy, surpasses human understanding.'
. . . "As I've pointed out in reviews of Orczy's other collections of mysteries, she (like other writers, including Conan Doyle) occasionally recycled her plots and plot-gimmicks. None of this bothered me: I have enjoyed detecting and observing how she changed characters and settings to make something different—like a composer writing variations on favorite themes . . ."
Some of Eastwood's other reviews on Amazon.com are (HERE).
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Here are the other (known) Skin o' My Tooth (Patrick Mulligan) stories. (Note: When linking to Project Gutenberg Australia, you might have to scroll down several times.)
2 - "The Case of the Polish Prince."
First appearance: The Windsor Magazine, July 1903.
When collected, title changed to "The Case of the Sicilian Prince."
Short story (10 pages; illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE) and Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
3 - "The Case of Major Gibson."
First appearance: The Windsor Magazine, August 1903.
Short story (9 pages; illos).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE) and Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE).
4 - "The Duffield Peerage Case."
Illustrations by Oscar Wilson.
First appearance: The Windsor Magazine, September 1903.
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE) and Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
5 - "The Case of Mrs. Norris."
First appearance: The Windsor Magazine, October 1903.
Short story (9 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE) and Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
6 - "The Murton-Braby Murder."
First appearance: The Windsor Magazine, November 1903.
Short story (10 pages).
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE) and Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
7 - "A Shot in the Night."
Illustrations by Oakdale.
First appearance: Pearson’s Magazine, November 1927.
Novelette.
Online at Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
8 - "The Hungarian Landowner."
First appearance: Unknown.
Short story.
Online at Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
9 - "The Kazan Pearls."
First appearance: Unknown.
Short story.
Online at Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
10 - "The Inverted Five."
First appearance: Unknown.
Novelette.
Online at Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
11 - "The Turquoise Stud."
First appearance: Unknown.
Short story.
Online at Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
12 - "Overwhelming Evidence."
First appearance: Unknown.
Novelette.
Online at Project Gutenberg Australia (HERE; no illos).
For a background article about Baroness Orczy in the leadup to Lady Molly's appearance in Cassell's, see:
"Women As Detectives."
By A(lfred) B(enjamin) Cooper (1863-1936).
First appearance: Cassell's Magazine, May 1909.
Online at Hathi Trust (HERE).
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