Nigel Strangeways

Nigel Strangeways is a fictional British private detective created by Cecil Day-Lewis, writing under the pen name of Nicholas Blake. He was one of the prominent detectives of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, appearing in sixteen novels between 1935 and 1966. He also features in a couple of short stories.[1]

A gentleman detective Strangeways is an Oxford-educated writer and nephew of an Assistant Commissioner at Scotland Yard. His surname is derived from the Strangeways Prison in Manchester. In the first novel A Question of Proof he is modelled on the poet W. H. Auden but this aspect became less marked as the series progressed.[2] As well as being a private investigator he also works as a literary scholar, producing a study of the Caroline poets amongst other works. Slightly arch he is given to using literary quotes during his investigations, which often pass over the heads of the other characters. His style of detection has been compared to that of John Dickson Carr's Gideon Fell.[3]

During the course of the novels, Strangeways becomes involved in a number of cases reflecting the changing periods of the time. A variety of locations are used for the murder investigations he undertakes including a public school (A Question of Proof, 1935), a brewery (There's Trouble Brewing, 1937), a holiday camp (Malice in Wonderland, 1940) a Whitehall ministry (Minute for Murder, 1947), a publishing house (End of Chapter, 1957) and a cruise ship (The Widow's Cruise, 1959). The Smiler with the Knife (1939) features a Fascist organisation plotting to overthrow British democracy, while The Sad Variety (1964) focuses on an attempt by British Communists and their Soviet backers to kidnap a professor.