|
scientific detective Craig Kennedy. Born in Patchogue, N.Y., the son of Jennie (Henderson) and Walter F. Reeve, he graduated from Princeton University in 1903 and went on to study law, which he never practiced, becoming a journalist instead. Reeve became interested in scientific crime detection when he wrote a series of articles on the subject, and he subsequently created Kennedy, the most popular detective in America for several years. Much of that vast popularity was due to silent film serials, written by Reeve, about a young heroine named Elaine who constantly finds herself in the clutches of villains, only to be rescued at the last moment by the white- coated Kennedy. Reeve's mysteries were the first by an American to attain wide readership in Great Britain. They are not read much today, for pseudoscientific methods and devices that were of great interest then are all outdated; many of them never had a solid technical basis in the first place. Reeve's major achievement was his application of Freudian psychology to detec- tion two decades before psychoanalysis gained sub- stantial public acceptance. During World War I he was asked to help establish a spy and crime detec- tion laboratory in Washington, D.C. I Reeve wrote only four mysteries not involving Kennedy: Guy Garrick (1914), "Constance Dunlap: Woman Detective" (1916; s.s.), The Master Mystery (1919); a novel based on a motion picture serial star- ring Harry Houdini; written with John W. Grey, and The Mystery Mind (1920; a novel based on a motion picture serial about hypnosis; also written with Grey). (from Steinbrunner & Penzler, Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection, NY., McGraw-Hill, 1976 |
