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Keverne, Richard

Page history last edited by Jon 11 years, 9 months ago

Richard Keverne was the pseudonym of English writer Clifford James Wheeler Hosken (1882-1950). He married Emma Harris Foster in 1911 and served in the Flying Corps during WW1. He was a journalist on the Daily Mirror. He also wrote books under the name Clifford Hosken. His series characters were Inspector Mace and Inspector Artifex.

Mike Grost on Richard Keverne

The title of Richard Keverne's Cast-Iron Alibi (1941) echoes a phrase from Sayers' Unnatural Death (1927). Keverne's style seems closest to that of Freeman Wills Crofts, a founder of the British realist school to which Sayers belonged. The tone of the writing echoes Crofts', being somewhat flat, but also cheery and good natured. The creation of alibis is also a specialty of Crofts. So is the use of policeman heroes, such as Keverne's series sleuth, Inspector Artifex of Scotland Yard. And so is the use of trains in the tale, something that always seems pleasant to me. The way Keverne's policeman protagonist discusses the case with his wife recalls Crofts' Inspector French, who also frequently consults with his wife, in charming scenes full of high comedy. And there is a middle class ambiance to the tale, that once again seems Crofts-inspired. However, I have read too little of Keverne's work to firmly place him in this or any other tradition. According to Adrian, he shared a publisher with both the realist Henry Wade, and E.C. Bentley. The title of his 1934 collection, Artifex Intervenes, anticipates that of Bentley's Trent Intervenes (1938), by four years. This story's plot is also fairly clever, but easily guessed.