The Problemist: The Complete Adventures of Thornley Colton, Blind Detective

Clinton Stagg created a fascinating character in detective fiction before being killed in a car crash at the age of 26. We are left with only 8 short stories and one novel (all collected in this volume) of Thornley Colton, the well-to-do blind man who solves criminal mysteries for the sheer enjoyment of it (and calls himself a problemist, not a detective). Along with Max Carrados, and a few one-shot mystery novels by other authors, Colton is one of an early fictional niche built around blind sleuths who use their other (often hyper-sensitive) senses to solve crimes that befuddle the police.