Jeffrey Blackburn

Jeffrey Blackburn was a fictional private investigator who was the hero of a series of stories by Australian writer Max Afford.

Afford used him as the hero of various novels as well as the radio series Danger Unlimited.

According to one writer "His Jeffrey Blackburn features were probably the most popular of their type to originate in Australia; they were usually fast moving, suspenseful, intricately but clearly worked out and invariably well written."

Most of the stories were set in England which Afford felt was a more glamorous setting. "Purely personal feeling,” he said, “a n d partly influenced, I suppose, by writing for London publishers; they _ seem to think that Australian settings would have little glamour, even for Australian audiences.”

Background
Afford created the character of Jeffrey Blackburn "on the rebound from" an "obnoxious" detective character he had earlier created, Rupert Garland. Afford had been commissioned to write a series of 12 short stories about a gentleman detective and he came up with Garland. Afford said "“No school could have produced a more perfect example of courtliness than my Rupert Garland. He was forever quoting Latin phrases, smoking expensive Russian cigarettes, and flicking the ash nonchalantly about him. He was always faultlessly dressed, and made all the airy deductions while other people did the dirty work of catching the criminals and hanging them."

Afford says that he then heard of a competition held by London publishers John Long for the best first detective novel. Afford decided to enter. "I had a good plot, but I wanted a character —not a gentleman detective, but a normal human individual who would make mistakes and persevere. He had to be as different from Rupert Garland as chalk from cheese."

Afford originally called him Anthony Burnhill ("too theatrical") then Jeffery Massingham ("too much of a mouthful) then Jeffery Black ("too abrupt and hard") before settling on Jeffery Blackburn.

Max Adford wrote "in his first adventure, titled Blood On His Hands, there were suggestions of Ellery Queen’s mentality; and his drawl was rather patterned on that of Philo Vance. Under certain lights his profile blatantly implicated Lord Peter Wimsey, while his passion for neatness was inherited from Hercule Poiret. Sherlock Holmes, being dead, was above suspicion. Then Blackburn grew up and took on an individuality of his own. But it took radio to  make a really new man of Jeffrey. Since the day when Blackburn was plucked from the pages of “The Dead are Blind,” to make his bow before the listening audience, the change has been for the better.  "

Novels

 * Blood on His Hands (1936)
 * Death's Mannikins aka Dolls of Death (1937)
 * The Dead are Blind (1937)
 * Owl of Darkness aka Fly by Night (1942)
 * The Sheep and the Wolves (1942)

Short stories

 * "The Vanishing Trick"
 * "Poison Can Be Puzzling" (1944)

Radio serials

 * Fly By Night (1936) - starring James Raglan and Hilda Scurr
 * The Mysterious Mr. Lynch (1939) - with Peter Finch and Neva Carr Glynn - repeated in 1946
 * Grey Face (1940) - with Peter Finch and Neva Carr Glynn - repeated in 1950
 * It Walks by Night (1941) - Douglas Kelly and Margaret Magreor
 * The Blackburns Take Over (start 4 Jan 1942) - with Grant Taylor and Patricia Kennedy in the lead - "Jeffery and Elizabeth visit a waxworks... Jeffery feels that one of the wax models is a real body. He is right. The body turns out to be that of Stephen Ashley, scient- ist, who had been at work on a secret weapon tor the British Government. "
 * Double Demon (1951)
 * Murder's Not for Middle Age (1953)

Radio series

 * Danger Unlimited (1945–49)

Radio plays

 * The Queer Affair at Kettering (1940)
 * It Could Be Natural Death (1942)