Harry Martineau is a fictional British police detective created by Maurice Procter. He is a Chief Inspector in the industrial Northern city of Granchester, which was inspired by Manchester.[1] Procter, himself a former police officer, wrote fourteen novels in the series published between 1954 and 1968. Martineau has been described as a transitional figure in detective fiction standing between the Golden Age detectives such as Ngaio Marsh's Roderick Alleyn and Josephine Tey's Inspector Grant and the newer fashion for police procedurals.[2]

Harry Martineau
First appearanceHell Is a City
Last appearanceHideaway
Created byMaurice Procter
Portrayed byStanley Baker (film)
In-universe information
GenderMale
OccupationPolice inspector
NationalityBritish

Novels

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  • Hell Is a City (1954)
  • The Midnight Plumber (1957)
  • Man in Ambush (1958)
  • Killer At Large (1959)
  • Devil's Due (1960)
  • The Devil Was Handsome (1961)
  • A Body to Spare (1962)
  • Moonlight Flitting (1963)
  • Two Men in Twenty (1964)
  • Death Has a Shadow (1965)
  • His Weight in Gold (1966)
  • Rogue Running (1966)
  • Exercise Hoodwink (1967)
  • Hideaway (1968)

Film adaptation

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In 1960 the first novel in the series was adapted into the film Hell Is a City directed by Val Guest and starring Stanley Baker as Martineau.[3] The film was shot on location in Manchester.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Mitchell p.14
  2. ^ Reilly p.1216
  3. ^ Goble p.376
  4. ^ Mitchell p.14

Bibliography

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  • Barnes, Melvyn P. Murder in Print: A Guide to Two Centuries of Crime Fiction. Barn Owl Books, 1986.
  • Goble, Alan. The Complete Index to Literary Sources in Film. Walter de Gruyter, 1999.
  • Herbert, Rosemary. Whodunit?: A Who's Who in Crime & Mystery Writing. Oxford University Press, 2003.
  • James, Russell. Great British Fictional Detectives. Remember When, 2009.
  • Mitchell, Neil. Directory of World Cinema: Britain 2. Intellect Books, 2015.
  • Reilly, John M. Twentieth Century Crime & Mystery Writers. Springer, 2015.
  • Triplow, Nick. Getting Carter: Ted Lewis and the Birth of Brit Noir. Oldcastle Books,2017.