James McLevy

James McLevy (1796–1875) was a prominent detective in Edinburgh during the mid-19th century, and later an author of popular crime mysteries.

The son of a farmer, he was born in Ballymacnab in County Armagh, Ireland. McLevy later moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, and became a builder's labourer before joining the police force in 1830.

In 1833 he became Edinburgh's first detective and handled 2,220 cases during his 30-year career, almost always securing a conviction. His fame was such that the UK Parliament asked for his advice on dealing with criminals and Mary Carpenter, the great social reformer, quoted him in her paper on dealing with convicts.

McLevy published a series of extremely popular books in the 1860s, including Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh, Sliding Scale of Life and The Disclosures of a Detective. It is sometimes suggested that his writings helped to inspire Arthur Conan Doyle. McLevy sought forensic advice from members of the medical faculty at the University of Edinburgh, where Conan Doyle later studied.

In the late 1990s, the James McLevy Trophy, named after him, was donated by former Detective Superintendent John McGowan to recognise outstanding achievement in crime detection in Scotland.

As part of its Afternoon Drama programme, BBC Radio 4 has broadcast to date twelve series of dramas written by David Ashton and starring Brian Cox as McLevy, Siobhan Redmond as Jean Brash, Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Constable Martin Mulholland and David Ashton as Lieutenant Robert Roach. In the 1999 pilot play, Phyllis Logan played Jean and John Paul Hurley played Mulholland. Lieutenant Roach was not introduced until the actual first episode of Series One; in the pilot play, McLevy's superior was Lieutenant Moxey, with the change in command explained as Moxey having been "elevated" to The Haymarket (in the novel Shadow of the Serpent, the explanation is that Moxey "had left somewhat under a cloud and Roach had been swiftly drafted in from Haymarket to fill the gap ...").

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