Meet James McLevy - the original no1 detective

LURKING in the eerie closes, the crowded, stinking tenements and along the Old Town's dark, damp wynds, petty crime, debauchery and all forms of human brutality festered. Pilferers, pickpockets, prostitutes, vagrants, robbers and burglars. And, very often, murderers.
By The Newsroom
Published 30th May 2007, 01:00 BST

It was Edinburgh in the mid-19th century, the birthplace of the Enlightenment, a respected seat of learning and home to the cream of Scottish society.

But, as Irish farmer's son James McLevy quickly discovered, Scotland's capital was also a rich melting pot for its vile, lawless dregs. So it was just as well that he was on the case.

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Officially named on Edinburgh City Police's payroll records as their 'number 1' detective in a team of six, over three decades McLevy was involved in around 3000 cases.

McLevy's name went on to become famed in the annals of police history, thanks to his own diaries recording in vivid, sometimes caustic and often humorous detail the crimes, the people and the city streets where he worked.

Edinburgh's criminals were said to have fled at the sound of his giant footsteps, but it was his unique detection methods - one moment rubbing shoulders with the criminal fraternity, the next probing the educated minds of Edinburgh University's professors using scientific advances to develop clues - that sealed his reputation.

He might have been forgotten had he not published - in the 1860s - his account of his investigations.

And now his name and his position at the heart of Edinburgh's budding police force is - perhaps ironically for a man said to have been the inspiration for Sherlock Holmes - providing the heart and soul for yet another Edinburgh fictional crimefighter.

McLevy's name has already been loaned to a BBC Radio 4 crimefighting character, loosely based on his 150-year-old writings but given a dramatic edge by actor and author David Ashton. Currently in its fifth series - "quite an accomplishment for radio," declares Ashton - he has now moved into print to with the Inspector McLevy Mystery novels. Eventually it's hoped that tales of the crimefighter, born in County Armagh, who trained as a linen weaver and came to Edinburgh to work in the trade, could make the transition to TV - perhaps even played by the actor who has brought the radio character to life, Hollywood-based star Brian Cox.

It's a remarkable revival for a detective whose writings were adored by Victorian readers. Even back then, it seems, everyone loved tales of a good Edinburgh detective.

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