Sexton Blake Bibliography: 1948

Notes: Sexton Blake pilots the flying disc to the other side of a river and lowers the shed to the ground, out of reach of the attacking Indians. Little Crow believes that the missing people of Pine City are somewhere nearby but before continuing their search the detectives need food. Leaving Tinker and Little Crow at the shed, Blake goes hunting. He is captured by a group of men who take him to a sheer cliff. A hidden doorway opens ... and Blake is told that once he goes in, he will never come out!

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Blake is led into a secret valley, where an illegal uranium mine is in operation, and is taked to the trappers' boss, who orders that he be executed. The detective makes a break for it but is caught and thrown into a pit.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: As a load of soft earth falls on Sexton Blake, he uses it as cover while he ducks into a cleft in the side of the pit. A man named Larry O'Gorman is also hiding in there. Together they escape through another opening and fall into an underground river. It washes them into a valley where they are spotted by Tinker and Little Crow.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Tinker and Little Crow use the Flying Disc to rescue Blake and Larry. They return to the hut to refuel the disc but are confronted by indians who mistake the detective for one of the men responsible for enslaving their people. However, Blake convinces them that he is an ally. He uses the disc to batter a hole in the false cliff, allowing the indians to mount an assault on the hidden valley.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: The people of Pine City, Canada, have been kidnapped and forced to work as slaves in a hidden valley, mining uranium. After the Flying Disc has smashed the false cliff masking the entrance, Sexton Blake and his Indian friends, and Larry O'Gorman, the real owner of the valley, charge through to the rescue. Blake uses a bulldozer to trap the villains.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: The criminal boss is swept of his feet by the Flying Disc's grappler. The Mounties, summoned by wireless, arrive to make arrests. The slaves are liberated. Blake and Tinker resume their journey back to England.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: After their Canadian adventures, Sexton Blake sends Tinker away on holiday and hopes for peace himself but one day, while chatting with his irish friend, Larry O'Gorman, he is visited by the president of the Northern Counties Chamber of Commerce who shows him a number of newspaper headlines concerning a spate of thefts from clothing warehouses. After every robbery, a lorry is seen dashing at speed over the hills near Stocksfield but it has always vanished into thin air on a straight stretch of road. Two nights later, Sexton Blake and Larry are in the police station at Stocksfield when news of a raid comes through and a lorry dashes through the town. They chase after it but the crooks on the lorry pour oil onto the road. Blake's vehicle skids out of control and plummets over a steep drop.

Trivia: Tinker doesn't appear in this adventure. He is replaced by Larry O'Gorman.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Blake and O'Gorman survive the crash but are then captured by the crooks. Bound and blindfolded, they are dumped in a room in an abandoned factory. However, they're able to free themselves from their bonds, climb out of a window and onto the roof, then swing hand over hand across cables toward the building next door. The crooks see them and shoot, snapping the cables.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: O'Gorman slides to the ground, is stunned, and gets captured. Blake swings through a window into a cotton mill. He races down to the street but is too late to save his friend. He follows the crooks' trail to a farmhouse. Overpowering a guard, the detective dresses in the man's clothes, enters the house, and attacks the gang just as they are about to start torturing O'Gorman.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: None at present.

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Notes: Sexton Blake and Larry O'Gorman went to a shed in a lonely quarry to receive information about the black market clothing robberies from man whose life they had saved but it was a trap! Only by his quick wit does Blake save them from being blown up. However, the baffled crooks are all around and determined to get them. They tip a boulder, which the two men narrowly avoid. Then a gunman surprises them. He leads them into a secret compound under the hills, where all the stolen cloth is being stored. Escaping, they a glimpse of the boss and take note of a ring on his finger. They hide in the back of a lorry.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: The lorry drives away, heading for the Empire Mill, with Blake and O'Gorman hiding in the back. When it comes to a town, O'Gorman slips out in order to alert the police. A constable sees him, shouts out, and the driver is alerted. Blake tackles him, throws him into his friend's grasp, then drives off. When he arrives at the mill, he's recognised and forced to make a rapid getaway, he ducks into a cellar and finds the night watchman tied up. As he inties the man, the police arrive and break up the raid. The crooks flee. One of them shoots Blake. When O'Gorman, who is with the police, finds him, Blake is pretending to be dead.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: The black market gang are caught but their boss escapes, believing that he has shot Sexton Blake dead. Next day, Mr Jarvis, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, visits police headquarters to check that Blake is dead. The detective and Larry O'Gorman see that Jarvis is wearing a ring last seen on the hand of the gang boss. They tell him to keep the fact that Blake is still alive a secret. When he leaves, they follow him and he unwittingly leads them to the gang's secret headquarters.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Sexton Blake discovers that the cunningly concealed entrance to the black market gang's warehouse beneath the hill is by way of the cow-byre in the yard of the inn, which turns as if on a pivot. With the aid of the police, he traps the crooks. The police arrive in force. Blake and O'Gorman chase and catch Jarvis, the leader of the crooks, then round up the rest of the villains.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: As Blake and Larry O'Gorman are leaving the Baker Street house, a man is shot on the doorstep. The victim mutters, "Max Reid ... the chart," then faints. The shootist drives away at high speed. Blake and O'Gorman jump into Blake's car and pursue. They find the villain's car but the man has eluded them. As they check the vehicle, it explodes.

Trivia: Once again, for no clear reason, Tinker is replaced by Larry O'Gorman.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: A man is shot on Sexton Blakes doorstep and a chart snatched from him. Sexton Blake and lArry O'Gorman chase the assailant but he dodges them at Australia house and blows up his abandoned car with a time bomb. Amid the wreckage, Blake finds an envelope with Max Reid's hotel address. He goes there while O'Gorman visits the shot man in hospital. Blake finds intruders in Reid's room, grabs a chart from one of them, and races away with it. They corner him on the roof. Blake jumps for it.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Having snatched the stolen chart from Max Reid's hands, Sexton Blake leaps across to the next-door building. He escapes to the street and decides to drive to the hospital to contact Larry O'Gorman. However, the crooks, Maxie and Sam, follow and force Blake's car off a bridge. It crashes into a railway signal and, while Blake clings to the collapsing signal tower, falls onto a passing locomotive.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Sam and Maxie leap onto the train after Blake. Maxie shoots and the detective loses his balance and falls from the train. The crooks jump off and get the chart from his pocket before making their getaway. Blake recovers as O'Gorman drives up. They set off after Sam and Maxie who flee to an aerodrome and board a light aircraft. As it takes off, Blake runs and catches hold of the rear wing.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: None at present.

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Notes: Maxie and Sam have made their getaway in a stolen lorry. The French police arrive at the crash site and help Blake to set off in pursuit of the two criminals. They see their quarry board a non-stop train to Paris and give chase in the police car. As it closes with the train, the detective leaps from the speeding vehicle in an attempt to board the train.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Sexton Blake and Larry O'Gorman succeed in leaping aboard the train and there confront Maxie. O'Gorman throws himself at him and both men fall through a door, out of the train and off a bridge into a river below. Sexton Blake dives after them. Maxie is rescued by one of his henchmen and they run to a nearby aerodrome.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Knowing that Maxie will fly to New Guinea, Sexton Blake charters a plane and follows, accompanied by Larry O'Gorman. At Port Moresby, they settle in a hotel, confident that the false part of the map planted by Blake will lead the crooks astray. That night, a native climbs to Blake's window and throws a snake into the room. It lands on the detective!

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Larry O'Gorman shoots dead the snake that has been thrown onto Sexton Blake's bed by a native. They chase the man to the outskirts of the town but he evades them. Later that morning, they begin their flight to Talua but a bomb explodes in the tail of their plane, sending it plunging towards the jungle below.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Sexton Blake and Larry O'Gorman survive their plane's crash into the trees of the jungle. Maxie and Sam, with a group of natives, attack, hoping to reclaim the torn fragment of chart from Blake. The detective and his friend flee and start across a rope bridge which spans a deep gorge but the villains cut the ropes and the two men plunge towards the river below.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Clinging to the severed ropes of the bridge, Sexton Blake and Larry O'Gorman look on as the cliff crumbles beneath the feet of the watching crooks. Maxie and Sam fall into the river and are saved by Blake, who takes them captive. Maxie tries to turn the tables but is prevented from doing so by ... whom?

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Thanks to Sexton Blake and Larry O'Gorman, Max Reid and his pal are saved from certain death but the two crooks would have killed their rescuers if a stranger had not unexpectedly interfered. The stranger turns out to be the District Officer. He summons a native patrol and the crooks are taken into custody. He then explains to Blake that Tom Dakers, who was shot on the detective's doorstep, is now in Tulua, ten miles distant. They travel there to deliver the chart to him. Now, Dakers can stake his claim to a valuable stretch of land.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are on holiday in Yorkshire when their car breaks down near Castle Craig. Hearing a man scream, they enter the castle grounds and are attacked by ferocious guard dogs. They run to the castle door and find it open. When they enter, they are greeted by a machine-gun wielding butler who tells them that Lord Craig will see them upstairs in the library. Upon meeting Craig, Sexton Blake and Tinker are informed that they won't leave the castle alive!

Trivia: Tinker returns after being abset for two stories.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: None at present.

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Notes: Castle Craig is a strange place! One night, Sexton Blake and Tinker hear a scream in the grounds, and on investigation find savage dogs at large, a butler with a tommy-gun and stairs that collapse, hurling them into a cellar where Lord Craig vows to repay their curiosity with death. Blake and Tinker leap into a cupboard. Blake has spotted that it's a lift, and it quickly carries them up to the library. There, Blake finds a photograph, which he takes with them as they climb out of the window and climb down the ivy-clad wall.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: While escaping through a castle window, Blake sees a photograph of Lord Craig which looks nothing like the man he and Tinker have met. It seems that Castle Craig is occupied by an impostor! Suddenly searchlights come on and the detectives are spotted and shot at. They climb up to the battlements and drop through a skylight back into the castle. As they edge along a passageway, Blake falls through a secret door.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Tinker flees from the approaching crooks and suddenly finds himself yanked through another concealed door. With Sexton Blake in the secret passageway, he descends some stairs. They find spy holes into the castle and Blake peeps through and sees a man being held prisoner. He enters the room and introduces himself to Lord Craig.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Blake and Tinker have found the real Lord Craig. He tells them that the impostor is named Jasper Bentham. The crook and his men had forced their way in after Craig had given his servants a holiday. The castle is riddled with secret passages. Bentham is trying to force Craig to reveal their secrets, but Craig actually knows very little about them. Blake and Tinker take Lord Craig with them into the passage and close the concealed room. When Bentham arrives, he finds his prisoner has vanished. However, Tinker treads on a weak spot in the passage, falls through the floor, slides down a chimney, and rolls to the feet of the crooks. They capture him, and he sees that they have gold ignots in their possession.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Blake emerges from a secret door, Tinker joins him, and both drop through a revolving flagstone into water. This escape was planned and Lord Craig is waiting. He guides them out into the grounds and they race to the local police station. There, Blake learns that, during the night, a gold-carrying ship was wrecked off the coast. The detective summons police reinforcements ... and diving gear!

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: None at present.

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Notes: Jasper Bentham and his gang escape from Castle Craig in a submarine but Sexton Blake and Tinker, in their patent diving gear, are on the submarine and smash the propeller. Tinker heads to the surface to tell the Navy to lower grappling hooks. Inside the submarine, Bentham's men grow frightened and the crook has to forcefully subdue them. Blake and Tinker attach the grapple hooks.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: The submarine is hauled to the surface, the crooks are taken into custody, and the gold is recovered.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Lord Lomax is in his club showing a diamond to a friend when he is suddenly held at gunpoint by a crook named Solo. However, Sexton Blake happens to be in the club too and knocks the gun from Solo's hand. The villain flees through the window and gets away. Later, he telephones the detective and challenges him, telling him that he intends to steal Lady Willoughby's pearl necklace.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Lady Willoughby shows Sexton Blake her necklace, which he advises her to immediately place in a bank vault, along with the rest of her jewels. Suddenly, a brick is thrown in through the window. On it, is written HERE COMES SOLO. Blake looks out of the window and sees a constable who says he saw nothing but notes that the "area" door is open. He enters to see the brick, then offers to stand guard over the necklace while Blake and Tinker search the house. As soon as they leave the room, he pulls a gun on Lady Willoughby and demands her jewels. Blake though, suspicious, returns to the room and grabs the Constable, who is, of course, Solo. The crook knocks Blake down and runs from the room and up to the servant's quarters. By the time the detective has caught up, Solo is sliding down telephone cables toward a waiting motorcycle. Blake follows but the cables break and he plummets toward the ground.

Trivia: Blake's residence appears to be Georgian, in that the servants' quarters are upstairs. However, in the stories in UNION JACK and SEXTON BLAKE LIBRARY and most other publications, the Baker Street house is Victorian, with the servants occupying the basement (generally, just Mrs Bardell, though maids are occasionally mentioned).

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Tinker arrives as Blake drops from the broken wires and together they drive after Solo. When he finds himself cornered on a bridge, the crook leaps onto a barge passing below. Blake and Tinker follow and shoot at their quarry. He appears to be hit but, in fact, purposely falls into the river and dives beneath a passing steamer, coming up on its far side. He escapes to shore.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Returning to Baker Street, Sexton Blake finds that his desk has been booby-trapped by Solo. A telegram from the crook informs the detective that he now intends to steal the Star of Asia, a jewel on the Rajah of Nullapore's turban. The Rajah is currently at Heathrow Airport, so Blake and Tinker rush there and arrange to travel on his chartered plane. During the flight, Solo appears from the cockpit, holds them at gunpoint, takes the diamond and parachutes from the plane. Blake, parachuteless, dives out after him and grapples with him in mid-air.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: None at present.

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Notes: Sexton Blake discovers Tinker's motor-bike in the quarry, and the horse on which Solo escaped at the top of the cliff. Hoever, both Solo and Tinker have completely vanished. That evening Solo phones Blake, gives him an address, and demands £10,000 for Tinker's return. Blake goes to the house, breaks in, and finds it empty but for Tinker, who's tied up in a room on the second floor. As the detective approaches his assistant, Solo appears and throws a fire-bomb into the room. The entire house is soon ablaze. Blake and Tinker make a dash for the roof. A fire engine arrives and a ladder is extended up to them. A fireman climbs to the top and draws a gun. It is Solo!

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Solo shoots at Sexton Blake who drops just in time to avoid the bullet. The detective and his assistant leap from the burning building into a canvas sheet held by the firemen below. They find the fireman's uniform which the crook has hastily abandoned — so hastily, in fact, that he has left the Star of Asia in its pocket! Blake appropriates the jewel but leaves the uniform, certain that Solo will return for it. The criminal does: he races past on a motorcycle and snatches it up, disappearing into the smoke and confusion caused by the blaze.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker have escaped the trap set for them by Solo and have regained the Star of Asia. Solo, though, has got away. Blake returns to Baker Street. The crook is waiting, gun raised. Blake, having anticipated this, had told Tinker to hang back, and now the young 'un turns the tables on Solo, who barely gets away, leaving a shoe and newspaper behind. In the paper, an article is circled. It details the holiday being taken by a young heir aboard a yacht, The Swallow.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Blake and Tinker fly to the Isle of Wight, where they transfer to a flying boat. When they spot The Swallow, they put down beside it and discover that it appears to be empty. However, when Blake leaps aboard, he finds Sir Jasper tied hand and foot. The aristocrat tells Blake that his nephew, the Marquis of Ford has been kidnapped. Suddenly, Blake realises that a bomb is ticking. He and Sir Jasper jump for it just as the explosive detonates.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: None at present.

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Notes: Solo has kidnapped the young Marquis of Ford and escaped on a light locomotive. Sexton Blake and Tinker are hot on their heels, having commandeered a locomotive of their own. They gain on him and, when they're close enough, the detective jumps from one train to the other. The tackles the crook, who falls from the footplate and into a river. Tinker dives after him.

Trivia: KNOCKOUT drops 'COMIC' from its title.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Tinker drags Solo toward a barge that's loaded with barrels. As Tinker floats, stunned, Solo swims to the barge and conceals himself in a barrel. Blake rescues his assistant. Solo remains undetected.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Notes: Sexton Blake and Tinker are at home watching television when the programme is interrupted by a burst of interference. Blake supposes that it is caused by a powerful radio signal. The next morning the detective is visited by Miss Kent, whose father is suspected of robbing the National Museum during the night. He is the caretaker — the only man with keys — and since there are no signs of a break in, the case against him seems cut and dried. Blake realises that the robbery occurred at the same time as the radio signal. He calls Inspector Coutts and learns that robberies have coincided with the signal on repeated occasions. Blake charts the course of the signal and discovers that it originates in Eastern Europe, in a wild mountain kingdom named Zendavia. He and Tinker travel there in their Flying Wing and unknowingly approach the secret headquarters of Count Zardoni. The Count notices their approach and uses a matter transporter device to send a henchman, Karl, into the Flying Wing. Blake is forced at gunpoint to fly the plane into the side of a mountain. However, at the last moment a secret door opens and he lands in a huge cavern. Blake and Tinker are taken before the Count who shows them his matter transmitter and threatens to use it to send them to Devil's Island. First, though, he gives them a tour of his secret base, which is filled with stolen treasures from across Europe. After this, and while the transmitter's generators warm up, the detectives are left trussed up. Blake uses a concealed blade to free himself, re-programs the machine, then replaces his bindings. The Count returns and forces the detective and his assistant into the machine. He then transports them to Devil's Island — except Blake's meddling means that, in fact, he and Tinker re-materialise just outside Zardoni's base. They then creep back in and capture the Count, forcing him to transmit his loot into Inspector Coutts's office. The detectives and their captive then follow.

Rating: ★★★☆☆

Notes: Blake reveals Tinker's real name in this issue, referring to him as Ted Carter.

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Notes: Blake refers to Tinker as Mr Carter.

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Notes: This was later published as a non-Blake paperback novel under the title MURDER AT THE RED COCKATOO (Brown, Watson Ltd 1960). The story remained the same but the names of the main characters were changed.

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