Book Review: Detectives Inc. by William Heyliger
Dr. David Stone was once a police surgeon until he lost his sight. But he did not lose his keen mystery-solving instincts. Now he and his faithful seeing eye* dog Lady take on mysterious incidents in their New Jersey small town, aided by Dr. Stone’s young nephew Joe Morrow.
This set of mystery stories for boys is most interesting for featuring a blind adult protagonist and his German Shepherd guide dog. The introduction touts the work of The Seeing Eye, America’s first school for guide dogs for the blind, founded only a few years before this book was written in 1935. While dogs had been used as companions for blind people throughout history, formal training was introduced in Germany for blinded veterans of World War One and spread from there.
*The Seeing Eye maintains that only guide dogs trained at their institute should be referred to as “seeing eye” dogs; since Lady is heavily implied to have been trained there, we can go ahead and refer to her as such.
Joe is in the stories to be the reader identification character, a boy of about ten who helps his uncle out by identifying distant objects and when reading needs to be done.
Dr. Stone tackles crimes ranging from insurance fraud to murder. These aren’t fair play mysteries, as several of them withhold clues that Dr. Stone has sensed until he explains them at the end of the story, but they are simple enough that most genre savvy readers will be able to guess the truth. One or two rely on clues randomly falling into Dr. Stone’s lap, which is less excusable.
While the stories do go with the old cliché of “losing your sight makes your other senses more keen”, it isn’t overdone, and realistic details of how Dr. Stone copes with his blindness are included. Lady, as explained in the introduction, combines skills and feats of several individual guide dogs into one entity, making her something of a wonder dog. Joe is treated as a normal boy of his age.
Because Dr. Stone is not formally a member of the police, though he often works with them (and a good thing too, as Captain Turner is a dolt), in several instances he is able to spare a wrongdoer prison time in exchange for their making restitution or not going all the way with their crime.
The book’s biggest weakness is its title, which does not even hint at the aspects of the stories that make it memorable. (And also at no time does Dr. Stone become incorporated.)
Content note: One story features a stereotyped “Gypsy fortuneteller”; it’s implied she’s actually leaning into the stereotype because she’s figured out the mystery herself but can’t tell the truth directly because of the prejudice against her people; no one would believe her. There’s also ethnic prejudice against Italian immigrants in another story.
The writing is decent, and I think the book is most valuable as a time capsule reflecting the attitudes and technology of 1935. It’s suitable for middle schoolers on up, and parents should talk about attitudes towards blindness and service animals and how they’ve changed over the decades with younger readers.
