Dr. Richard Austin Freeman (1862–1943) was a British writer of detective stories, mostly featuring the medico-legal forensic investigator Dr. Thorndyke. His first successful stories were the “Romney Pringle” rogue stories written in collaboration with John James Pitcairn (1860–1936), medical officer at Holloway Prison. Some were published first in Australia, under the joint pen name of Ralph J. Jay, and all of them were serialized under another pseudonym, “Clifford Ashdown” in Cassell’s Magazine in 1902 and 1903.
Cassell’s MagazineIn 1905 Freeman published his first solo novel, The Golden Pool, with the background drawn from his own time in West Africa. The protagonist is a young Englishman who steals a fetish treasure. Barzun and Taylor make the point that while this is a crime, the book
