"Average Jones," by Samuel Hopkins Adams

There are times, when reading the short stories about Average Jones, that it seems they must have been written with today's collection of politicians, corrupt businesses and misleading advertising in mind.

Not so. "Average Jones," a collection of short stories by Samuel Hopkins Adams, was first published in 1911, 102 years ago, but they are as fresh - and as much fun - as if they had just been written last year. The stories about "Average Jones" are the subject of this week's audio review on the Classic Mysteries podcast, and you can listen to the full review by clicking here.

Samuel Hopkins Adams was a muckraking investigative journalist, and his newspaper and magazine articles about the evils of advertising in general and medical advertising in particular are generally credited with forcing Congress to create the Food and Drug Administration, the FDA.

His detective - not a detective, really, but as he calls it, an "ad-visor," is Average Jones. A strange name? Well, yes, but his parents had given him the full name of Adrian Van Reypen Egerton Jones, or A. V. R. E. J., which explains why his friends called him "Average." He used to scan the daily newspapers for their classified ads - and there were many of them - that intrigued him. For many business leaders at the time, the philosophy of advertising, of course, was largely "caveat emptor," let the buyer beware. and Jones, like his creator, would often find that a strange ad led him straight to a criminal conspiracy. The stories involve all kinds of criminal behavior, including kidnapping and murder. Some of the stories have wonderful, bizarre atmospheres, although the solutions are generally based on science - strange inventions and stranger animals, sometimes, but all pretty much legitimate. Given Adams's background as a muckraking journalist, these stories generally ring true; occasionally we find ourselves wondering how much really has changed in the century since they were written.

Sometimes - too often, perhaps, for some readers - Jones relies on coincidences to reveal the secrets he is investigating, although, as he says, "Detective work, for all that is said on the other side, is mostly the ability to recognize and connect coincidences." I found the stories to be a lot of fun, and I recommend them highly. There are still paperback and hardcover editions available - but it's worth noting that the Kindle edition (at the link above) is free.

Comments

[Margot Kinberg]

Les - I've often thought about how much truth there is in the saying that the more things change, the more they stay the same. This is a terrific example of that in that the stories stand the test of time. Thanks for the reminder.

[Yvette]

Another series I've never heard of, Les. Thanks a heap. Making a note of it, as usual. Playing catch-up is SO hard. :)

[Les Blatt]

Margot, it's amazing how fresh they feel. And Adams had very little good to say about greedy politicians and inept cops!

[Les Blatt]

It's not really a series, Yvette - as far as I know, these eleven stories were all he wrote about Average Jones, although Adams was very prolific, writing both fiction and, of course, non-fiction, investigative pieces. Sorry to add to the tottering TBR pile!

[Curt Evans]

I enjoyed this book too, good of you to point it out to people.

[Les Blatt]

Thanks, Curt. I'm glad I found these stories - they're an interesting sidelight on the career of a journalist who made a difference through his writings.

[Krissa@straighttalk]

I haven't read this one yet. You wrote an interesting review and I like the fact that the solutions are based on science. That's why many shows of the CSI type have taken off and done so well. People like to know that there are methodical steps to solving a mystery.

I'm going to check out the Kindle link. The fact that it's free encourages me to go over there as soon as I'm finished here. However I find nowadays that I prefer digital copies to print, for convenience.

[Les Blatt]

Krissa, you might also enjoy some of the later (relatively speaking!) detectives who rely on science. There's Arthur B. Reeve's Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective, and R. Austin Freeman's Dr. Thorndyke books, to name just two. I think you'll find examples of both available for free in e-book formats - at least their older books, prior to the mid-1920s.