Author Arthur B. Reeve. Image via Wikiwand.

Arthur Benjamin Reeve (1880–1936) was an American mystery writer. He is best known for creating the series character Professor Craig Kennedy, sometimes called “The American Sherlock Holmes”, and Kennedy’s Dr. Watson-like sidekick Walter Jameson, a newspaper reporter in the Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Series.

A detective scientist at Columbia University, Professor Kennedy uses his knowledge of chemistry and psychoanalysis to solve cases, and uses “exotic” devices in his work, such as lie detectors, gyroscopes, and portable seismographs. The bulk of Reeve’s fame is based on the eighty-two Craig Kennedy stories, published in Cosmopolitan magazine between 1910 and 1918.

Skyboat Media is proud to partner with Blackstone Publishing to produce and publish top-quality audiobooks of classic or little-known texts, ensuring these stories remain accessible to broad audiences.

Paul Boehmer and Stefan Rudnicki narrate three audiobooks featuring Arthur B. Reeve’s Professor Craig Kennedy, sometimes called “the American Sherlock Holmes.” Professor Kennedy will need all of his scientific expertise to solve these mysteries…

Click here to listen to audiobook samples on Skyboat’s SoundCloud page.


“You know the lawyer, Vail Wilford? Well, they found him in his office—this morning—dead—the lights on; a suicide—that is, it looked like a suicide at first. I don’t know. The thing’s a mystery to me.”

THE SOUL SCAR (The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Series) by Arthur B. Reeve

Read by Paul Boehmer

Sometimes called “the American Sherlock Holmes,” Professor Craig Kennedy is a scientist detective based at Columbia University, where he applies his extensive knowledge of chemistry and psychology to the mysteries that come his way, and utilizes such cutting-edge devices as lie detectors and portable seismographs.

Kennedy appears in eighteen detective novels, and in The Soul Scar, he may be up against his most perplexing case yet—trying to unravel a murder mystery through the analysis of a beautiful woman’s dreams.


“New York, I knew, was full of high-class international crooks and flimflammers who had flocked there because the great field of their operations in Europe was closed. The war had literally dumped them on us. Was some one using a band of these crooks for ulterior purposes? The idea opened up wide possibilities.”

THE TREASURE TRAIN (The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Series) by Arthur B. Reeve

Read by Stefan Rudnicki

A railroad vice president and his chauffeur are struck with sudden and mysterious seizures on their way to work; a family in New York City suffers from a dangerous disease; the healthy American consul in the Virgin Islands collapses and dies without explanation; a Wall Street speculator is apparently stabbed to death with a rubber dagger.

When facing an unsolvable mystery that defies all easy explanation, Professor Craig Kennedy, armed with his knowledge of chemistry, technology, and Freudian psychology, is just the man for the job.


“Here’s this murder of Fletcher, the retired banker and trustee of the University,” he explained. “Not a clue—except a warning letter signed with this mysterious clutching fist. Last week it was the robbery of the Haxworth jewels and the killing of old Haxworth. Again that curious sign of the hand. Then there was the dastardly attempt on Sherburne, the steel magnate. Not a trace of the assailant except this same clutching fist. So it has gone, Jameson —the most alarming and most inexplicable series of murders that has ever happened in this country. And nothing but this uncanny hand to trace them by.”

THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE (The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Series) by Arthur B. Reeve

Read by Stefan Rudnicki

Professor Craig Kennedy and Elaine try to track down the ruthless villain who murdered her father and has more sinister plans in mind …

Professor Craig Kennedy and his loyal sidekick, newspaper reporter Walter Jameson, first learn of the Clutching Hand and his gang when they investigate a string of murders involving the policyholders of Taylor Dodge’s insurance company. After receiving a threatening note, Dodge himself is robbed and killed, and his daughter, Elaine, turns to Kennedy for help.

Using the latest advances in forensic science, the professor uncovers the exotic and deadly scheme behind the murders. But when the Clutching Hand and his band of evildoers kidnap Elaine, Kennedy must shed his lab coat and leap into action before it’s too late.


Explore The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Series. Purchase your copies of THE SOUL SCARTHE TREASURE TRAIN, and THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE today.

Looking for more classic mysteries? Uncover your new favorite author on Skyboat’s “Classic Mystery Library” playlist on SoundCloud, and visit our blogs celebrating works by Émile Gaboriau, Agatha Christie, Anna Katharine Green, Maurice Leblanc, Andrew Forrester, Gaston Leroux, and more.

Share →

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

− 2 = 2

Facebook

YouTube

Vimeo

X