If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.
You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

McIntyre, John T

Page history last edited by PBworks 15 years, 11 months ago

John Thomas McIntyre (1871-1951) was a Philadelphia author. He wrote extensively in mystery fiction, and in many other genres. Ashton-Kirk, the detective star of his Ashton-Kirk: Investigator (1910), was an early example of the "upper crust, genius amateur sleuth who works with the police" that would play such a major role in the Golden Age to come, through such examples as Lord Peter Wimsey and Philo Vance. The book's setting among collectors will also echo through the Golden Age.

McIntyre also wrote hard-boiled realistic novels of Philadelphia life. These books often contain elements of crime and urban corruption. They were critically acclaimed in their day, and are now seen as examples of noir fiction.

Late in life, McIntyre wrote some crime thrillers under the pseudonym Kerry O'Neil, often featuring Jerry Mooney, "the Robin Hood of Philadelphia", an ex-cop private eye who likes to run benevolent con schemes. The last three were panned by Anthony Boucher as "unfair" and full of "execrable writing" (ouch!). McIntyre also used the Kerry O'Neil pseudonym for magazine short stories, including some Westerns.

McIntyre was also a prolific playwright, including some plays with crime elements, such as In the Toils (1898).

The first three Ashton-Kirk novels were filmed as a series in 1915. All three starred Arnold Daly as the detective; Daly was fresh from playing Arthur B. Reeve's sleuth Craig Kennedy in The Exploits of Elaine movie serials. Daly was a Broadway star, who had previously acted in McIntyre's play Steve (1912) on-stage.

A detailed profile by Kevin Plunkett of John T. McIntyre is available here.

Steve Lewis' overview of McIntyre's detection fiction can be found here and here.

An e-text of Ashton-Kirk: Investigator is available here.

Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist is available on-line here.

Mike Grost

The four Ashton-Kirk novels by John T. McIntyre — Ashton-Kirk: Investigator, Ashton-Kirk: Secret Agent, Ashton-Kirk: Special Detective, and Ashton-Kirk: Criminologist — are a bit extravagant both in characterization and plot, but they may be justly mentioned here because of their strict adherence to the Sherlock Holmes tradition and their occasional ingenuity of structure. - S. S. Van Dine, Introduction to The World's Great Detective Stories (1927).