Fans’ joy as famous fictional detective Dixon Hawke gets back to business

CRIMINALS, from cold-blooded murderers to black-marketeering spivs, beware, a famous detective is back on their trail.

Don’t think you’ll get away with stealing pearls, fooling the Home Guard or buying cigarettes from the back of a lorry, after the return of Dixon Hawke, also known as The Scottish Detective or The Dover Street Sleuth.

He is no ordinary crime solver. Hawke holds a unique place in the literature pantheon – more stories have been written about him than any other fictional character in the English language. The latest count, though more keep being discovered, shows around 5500 stories have Hawke as the hero.

And now he’s back in two new books.

Hawke is a throwback to the golden age of gumshoe fiction. He stands with Dick Barton, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple and G.K Chesterton’s Father Brown.

If you haven’t heard of him, it is probably because you are young. Dixon Hawke hasn’t been seen for almost 20 years. Along with sidekick Tommy Burke, he appeared in several DC Thomson publications, The Adventure, Weekly News and Sporting Post, as well as his own “casebooks”.

But he started his career here. His first appearance was in The Saturday Post, the forerunner of The Sunday Post, on April 6, 1912.

Another difference between Hawke and other fictional detectives is that it isn’t clear who invented him, or even who wrote the stories.

The cases were written to recipe traits, characters and type of crimes. These were faithfully adhered to by writers who submitted stories to The Sunday Post’s parent company, DC Thomson.

The authors weren’t named, however. Records of who wrote what have been lost, while the stories themselves sat unused in the vast DC Thomson archive in Dundee.

That multi-author system worked well. The collective imaginations of all those writers led Hawke and Tommy into some incredible, amusing – and quite dark – places.

The editors of this new collection, Steve Finan and Derek Uchman, are Dixon Hawke devotees. Steve said: “These stories are taken from the 1940s, and are very much of their time. They deal with crimes of the era, in wartime language and, in some cases, the prejudices of those days. We felt it was important to stay true to the character as described 80 years ago and not censor or dilute him.

“There’s quite a lot of casual – but also strangely sanitised – violence. Few stories pass without Tommy Burke, who has a particularly hard time, being involved in a fist fight. He is often knocked unconscious, poisoned, kidnapped, ambushed or threatened.”

Derek chips in: “And Hawke uses his fists too, when called upon. He also carries a gun – and will use it.

“That’s part of the charm. This isn’t politically correct stuff, it was created before health and safety was invented. But the stories are very readable and the heroes are dashing and gentlemanly.

“No one should be put off, thinking the books are violent, there is a strong sense of right and wrong and some excellent detective work. You can see the foundations of today’s crime fiction in the cases.

“We debated long and hard over which stories to use, given there are so many. We also wanted an era that some people could remember.

“There are odd references, like a clue that contravenes a change to the law that dictated all lorries should be locked if left alone for any more than five minutes.”

Steve agrees. “It shows the stories are from a different era. You can sometimes tell who the baddies are by whether they ‘talk common’ or are shown to cheat at sports. Mind you, there are salt-of-the-earth folk and rough diamonds too.

“Tens of millions read Dixon Hawke stories over the past century. It wouldn’t make sense to change it too much because they’d know the stories weren’t authentic.

“We’ve also kept the original story titles: The Case of the Plentiful Cigarettes, The Black Marketeers, The Doped Footballers…they also speak of their times.”

Derek said: “The DC Thomson archives department has had many letters and emails over the years, asking about the Dixon Hawke stories. He is remembered with genuine fondness by crime fiction fans.

“It’s been a privilege to go through the old books.”

The books are available at www.dcthomsonshop.co.uk or freephone 0800 318 846. Further info from sfinan@dctmedia.co.uk