Alexei Maxim Russell is a Canadian writer of fiction and non-fiction. He is most notable as the creator of Trueman Bradley. Trueman Bradley is a fictional character in a series of

detective novel Detective fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator or a detective—whether professional, amateur or retired—investigates a crime, often murder. The detective genre began around the same time as s ...

s, with an international following. Bradley is characterized as a genius detective with

Asperger's Syndrome Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's, is a former neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavio ...

. His work has developed a cult following in

educational Education is a purposeful activity directed at achieving certain aims, such as transmitting knowledge or fostering skills and character traits. These aims may include the development of understanding, rationality, kindness, and honesty. Vari ...

and advocacy circles, having been added to school lesson plans and officially adopted as educational material for

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

programs, which focus on

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be cognitive, developmental, intellectual, mental, physical, ...

awareness and

equality Equality may refer to: Society * Political equality, in which all members of a society are of equal standing ** Consociationalism, in which an ethnically, religiously, or linguistically divided state functions by cooperation of each group's elit ...

.Thomson, Liz(12 September 2011)
"Meet Trueman Bradley – a definitely different detective"
Book Brunch. Retrieved 20 November 2011.

Career

Russell's debut novel, ''Trueman Bradley – Aspie Detective'', was published in 2011 by

Jessica Kingsley Publishers Jessica Kingsley Publishers (JKP) is an independent, multinational publishing house headquartered in London, and founded in 1987 by Jessica Kingsley. History Early on JKP published books pertaining to the social sciences and behavioural scien ...

. This novel was the first detective novel to feature an openly Autistic detective as a protagonist and was the first work of fiction to portray Asperger Syndrome as a "different way of thinking", with some advantages over the

neurotypical Neurotypical (NT, an abbreviation of neurologically typical) is a neologism widely used in the neurodiversity movement as a label for non-neurodivergent people. That is, anyone who has a typical neurotype, so excluding autism, autistic people, t ...

way of thinking—and therefore, not necessarily a

. A German-language edition was published in 2013 by Von Loeper Literaturverlag, of

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

, Germany. His other works include ''Trueman Bradley – The Next Great Detective'' and ''Instruction Manual for the 21st Century Samurai''.Kulkarni, Nitish(20 October 2015)
"Stanford Researchers Treat Autism With Google Glass"
Tech Crunch. Retrieved 20 October 2015."Someone Like Me"
. Department of Justice and Equality . Retrieved 20 October 2015.

Style

''CM'' magazine described Trueman Bradley as "Somewhat reminiscent of the bold private detective genre of Hammett's The Maltese Falcon, along with a nod to Haddon's central character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, the book also has its own unique style ...". According to BFK Books: "Russell's writing style is pleasant and easy, reminiscent of the simplicity and innocence of

Alexander McCall Smith Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, CBE, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh. He became an expert on medical law an ...

."Daher, Anita(14 January 2012)
"PAPERCHASE"
''Winnipeg Free Press''. Retrieved 22 January 2012. Alexei describes his methods as "ridiculously protagonist based". As he describes it: "the character takes over, at some point, and I find myself dictating what I see, rather than writing it. Protagonists do come to life, in this way, for some authors. It may sound metaphysical to some, but this is what makes believable, living characters."Brenna, Beverly(2 March 2012)

''CM'' Magazine. Retrieved 14 March 2012.

Following

Alexei's work has gained a cult following in advocacy and

circles. His first novel, ''Trueman Bradley - Aspie Detective'' was added to the book

lesson plan A lesson plan is a teacher's detailed description of the course of instruction or "learning trajectory" for a lesson. A daily lesson plan is developed by a teacher to guide class learning. Details will vary depending on the preference of the tea ...

for grade 6 students, by the Cromwell Center for Disabilities Awareness, of

Portland, Maine Portland is the largest city in the U.S. state of Maine and the seat of Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 in April 2020. The Greater Portland metropolitan area is home to over half a million people, the 104th-largest metropo ...

, in 2015. And was officially adopted, in that same year, by Ireland's

Department of Justice and Equality The Department of Justice ( ga, An Roinn Dlí agus Cirt) is a department of the Government of Ireland. It is led by the Minister for Justice who is assisted by a Ministers of State. The department's mission is to maintain and enhance community ...

, as official teaching material for their "Someone Like Me" program, for

primary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...

—designed to encourage understanding of disabilities in their students and encourage and instil the "celebration of difference" in children."TRUEMAN BRADLEY, Aspie Detective"
The Cromwell Center for Disabilities Awareness. Retrieved 20 October 2015.Daher, Anita (14 January 2012)

''Winnipeg Free Press''. Retrieved 27 April 2015.Parkhill, Cynthia (23 January 2012)
"On the Spectrum: Trueman Bradley advocates, entertains"
. ''Lake County Record-Bee''. Retrieved 23 January 2012.Van Der Post, Anna (31 July 2011)
"Trueman Bradley – Aspie Detective"
''Reviews''. BFK Books. Retrieved 20 November 2011.

Politics

Alexei has announced his intention to run for political office in the next Canadian federal election.

References

External links

Facebook Account

Trueman Bradley
at publisher Jessica Kingsley * {{DEFAULTSORT:Russell, Alexei 1976 births 21st-century Canadian novelists Autism activists Canadian male novelists Canadian mystery writers Living people Writers from Winnipeg 21st-century Canadian male writers