Max Carrados

Max Carrados
First appearance	The Coin of Dionysius
Last appearance	The Bravo of London
Created by	Ernest Bramah
Portrayed by	Alfred Shirley Robert Stephens Simon Callow Charles Edwards Pip Torrens
Information
Gender	Male
Occupation	Detective
Nationality	English

Max Carrados is a fictional blind detective in a series of mystery stories and books by Ernest Bramah, beginning in 1914. The Max Carrados stories appeared alongside Sherlock Holmes in the Strand Magazine, in which they often had top billing, and frequently outsold his eminent contemporary at the time, even if they failed to achieve the longevity of Holmes.

George Orwell wrote that, together with those of Conan Doyle and R. Austin Freeman, Max Carrados and The Eyes of Max Carrados "are the only detective stories since Poe that are worth re-reading."

The characters and identities of Max Carrados and his usual accomplice Mr Carlyle are explained in the first story, "The Coin of Dionysius". Mr Carlyle is a private investigator, running a private inquiry agency concerned mainly with divorce and defalcation. He is directed to the home of Wynn Carrados at The Turrets, Richmond, London, for an expert opinion on a tetradrachm of Dionysius the Elder of Sicily which he believes may be a forgery substituted into a famous collection in the course of a theft. At their meeting, the blind Carrados immediately recognises Mr Carlyle (from his voice) as his former schoolfriend (at St Michael's), Louis Calling. Carlyle then recognizes him in turn as Max Wynn ("Winning" Wynn).

Max explains that he was made financially independent by a rich American cousin who left him a fortune won by doctoring his crop reports, on condition that he adopt the surname Carrados. He was blinded some twelve years before the first story, as a result of a minor incident while out horse-riding with a friend. His friend, who was leading, brushed past a twig which flicked back and caught Max in the eye. From this he was blinded by the illness called amaurosis.

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