The Red Thumb Mark

Fingerprints. We now take for granted their use in the detection of serious crime. Shortly after [Francis] Galton developed his method of fingerprint identification, however, a thoughtful few discovered flaws in his thinking, sparking a controversy. One of those few was Dr. R. Austin Freeman, who was inspired to write a novel on the subject. This novel, “The Red Thumb Mark,” is notable for another reason as well: it was the first novel featuring the great Dr. Thorndyke. John Evelyn Thorndyke, doctor, lawyer and indisputably the greatest of all scientific detectives, has achieved a stature unmatched in detective fiction. This is largely because of the impeccable scientific work of Freeman himself, who always tested Thorndyke’s methods and technical procedures in his own laboratory and attributed to Thorndyke his own vast erudition. Many of Thorndyke’s techniques proved so sound that they were adopted by police detectives in real life! Freeman’s work has drawn lavish praise from figures as diverse as Edith Hamilton, Christopher Morley, Howard Haycraft and Raymond Chandler. Once you have finished “The Red Thumb Mark,” you will never again view in the same way the use of the fingerprint in the detection of crime.