James McLevy (1796–1875) was a prominent detective in Edinburgh during the mid-19th century, and later an author of popular crime mysteries.

Biography

The son of a farmer, he was born in

Ballymacnab Ballymacnab (from meaning ''"son of the abbot / McNab's town"'') is a townland and village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It is within the civil parish of Kilclooney, four miles south of the City of Armagh on the road towards Newtownhamilt ...

County Armagh County Armagh (, named after its county town, Armagh) is one of the six counties of Northern Ireland and one of the traditional thirty-two counties of Ireland. Adjoined to the southern shore of Lough Neagh, the county covers an area of and ha ...

, Ireland. McLevy later moved to

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, and became a builder's labourer before joining the police force in 1830. In 1833 he became Edinburgh's first detective and handled 2,220 cases during his 30-year career, almost always securing a conviction. His fame was such that the UK Parliament asked for his advice on dealing with criminals and

Mary Carpenter Mary Carpenter (3 April 1807 – 14 June 1877) was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunitie ...

, the great social reformer, quoted him in her paper on dealing with convicts. McLevy published a series of extremely popular books in the 1860s, including ''Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh'', ''Sliding Scale of Life'' and ''The Disclosures of a Detective''. It is sometimes suggested that his writings helped to inspire

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Ho ...

. McLevy sought

forensic Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to Criminal law, criminal and Civil law (legal system), civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standard ...

advice from members of the medical faculty at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

, where Conan Doyle later studied. McLevy died in Edinburgh on 6 December 1873. In the late 1990s, the James McLevy Trophy, named after him, was donated by former Detective Superintendent John McGowan to recognise outstanding achievement in crime detection in Scotland.

In popular culture

Radio

As part of its ''

Afternoon Drama ''Drama'' (formerly ''Afternoon Theatre'', ''Afternoon Drama,'' ''Afternoon Play'') is a BBC Radio 4 radio drama, broadcast every weekday at 2.15pm. Generally each play is 45 minutes in duration and approximately 190 new plays are broadcast each ...

'' programme,

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

has broadcast twelve series of dramas written by

David Ashton David Ashton may refer to: * David Ashton (botanist) (1927–2005), Australian botanist and ecologist * David Ashton (actor) David Ashton (born David Scott on 10 November 1941, in Greenock, Scotland) is a Scottish actor and writer. Trained a ...

and starring Brian Cox as McLevy,

Siobhan Redmond Siobhan Redmond, ( ; born 27 July 1959) is a Scottish actress, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, and known for various stage, audio and television roles. Early life Siobhan Redmond was born on 27 July 1959 in the Tollcross area of ...

as Jean Brash, Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Constable Martin Mulholland and

as Lieutenant Robert Roach. All episodes of each series are currently available on both CD and audio download.

Books

David Ashton has continued McLevy's story in his 2006 book ''Shadow of the Serpent'' (); following volumes include ''Fall From Grace'' (2007) (), ''Trick of the Light'' (2009) (), featuring a young

, and most recently ''Nor Shall He Sleep'' (2012) (), featuring

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll a ...

; all four novels are currently available in audio download format, read by David Ashton. McLevy's "nemesis" Jean Brash currently has two mysteries of her own to solve, with McLevy in a supporting role: ''Mistress of the Just Land'' () and ''The Lost Daughter'' (), both currently available in both paperback and e-book format as well as audio recordings narrated by Siobhan Redmond. McLevy also appears in “The Way of All Flesh” by Ambrose Parry .

Short stories

Two short stories, "No Rest for the Wicked" and "A Child is Born", were published in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its par ...

''. Two more short stories, "End of the Line" and "The Painted Lady", are available for purchase in

Amazon Kindle Amazon Kindle is a series of e-readers designed and marketed by Amazon. Amazon Kindle devices enable users to browse, buy, download, and read e-books, newspapers, magazines and other digital media via wireless networking to the Kindle Store. ...

e-book format. All of these are also by David Ashton.

References

External links

Article of 26 April 2006
in

br>contrasting historical and dramatic figures.

James McLevy Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:McLevy, James Detectives and criminal investigators Scottish police officers Scottish crime writers People from County Armagh 1796 births 1875 deaths category:Officers in Scottish police forces