REEVE, Arthur B(enjamin)

(1880-1936)

   US writer almost exclusively remembered for his Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective sequence, the early stories being first published 1910-15 in monthly instalments in Cosmopolitan. Almost every volume of the series contained one of more sf device, sometimes trivial, sometimes central to the tale. Kennedy himself (EDISONADE) was interminably responsible for developing new forms of weaponry, making medical breakthroughs, forging super-metals and chemicals . . . Though many individual stories showed only minimal displacement into an sf frame, the overall framework was clearly generic, and the individual titles warrant listing: The Silent Bullet: The Adventures of Craig Kennedy, Scientific Detective (similar subtitles are ignored below) (coll 1912; vtThe Black Hand 1912 UK), The Poisoned Pen (coll 1913), The Dream Doctor (coll 1914), The War Terror (coll 1915; vt Craig Kennedy, Detective 1915 UK), The Gold of the Gods: The Mystery of the Incas Solved by Craig Kennedy - Scientific Detective (1915), The Exploits of Elaine (1915), The Social Gangster (coll 1916; vt The Diamond Queen 1917 UK), The Ear in the Wall (1916), The Romance of Elaine * (1916), a film tie, The Triumph of Elaine (1916), The Treasure-Train (coll 1917), The Adventuress (1917), The Panama Plot (coll 1918), The Soul Scar (1919), The Film Mystery (1921), Craig Kennedy Listens In (coll 1923), Atavar, the Dream Dancer (1924), The Fourteen Points (coll 1925), The Boy Scouts' Craig Kennedy (coll 1925), Craig Kennedy on the Farm (coll 1925), The Radio Detective * (1926), a film tie, Pandora (1926), The Kidnap Club (1932), The Clutching Hand (1934), Enter Craig Kennedy (1935) with Ashley Locke, and The Stars ScreamMurder (1936). Of these titles, the most remarkable was perhaps Pandora, in which the evil land of Centrania successfully seduces the USA from her former power by (as E.F. BLEILER remarks) "subsidizing jazz musicians", inventing a synthetic fuel, and causing a stock-market crash. The quick development of a tiny atomic bomb leads to the utter defeat of Centrania. ABR was editorial consultant to SCIENTIFIC DETECTIVE MONTHLY (1930), whichprinted 1 new Craig Kennedy story and reprinted 9 old ones.

   JC

   Other works: Guy Garrick: An Adventure with a Scientific Gunman (1914); Constance Dunlap, Woman Detective (1916); The Master Mystery (1919) andThe Mystery Mind (1921), both with John Grey; The Best Ghost Stories (anth 1936).

   See also: CRIME AND PUNISHMENT.