Clive 'Dormouse' Conrad
Created by Frank King

Imagine a hard-boiled Robin Hood prowling 1940's London.

Let's face it -- CLIVE "DORMOUSE" CONRAD is a crook. A brazen criminal, a professional thief and sometimes killer who, with the assistance of his lovely partner, Alice Faversham, operates the Conrad Detective Agency of London. But it's really just a a front for his criminal activities.

Not that he's all bad -- he even achieves a sort of grudging admiration from Scotland Yard due to some of the assistance he provides them with as the series progresses. Part of that relationship is due to his Robin Hood ethic of only taking valuables (and lives) from those who deserve to lose them. Like Raffles, he applies brainpower over muscle power in his endeavors, but is definitely boiled harder than your average gentleman thief.

And that's with a droopy eyelid. According to Jess Nevin's amazing Pulp and Adventure Heroes of the Pre-War Years, the Dormouse is "the only hero to carry nonchalance to the point of actually looking half-asleep."

NOVELS

• Enter the Dormouse (1936)
• The Dormouse ­ Undertaker (1937)
• The Dormouse Has Nine Lives (1938)
• The Dormouse ­ Peacemaker (1938)
• Dough for the Dormouse (1939)
• This Doll is Dangerous (1940)
• They Vanish At Night (1941)
• What Price Doubloons? (1942)
• Crook's Cross (1943)
• Gestapo Dormouse (1944)
• Sinister Light (1946)
• The Catastrophe Club (1947)
• Operation Halter (1948)
• Operation Honeymoon (1950)
• The Case of the Strange Beauties (1952)
• The Big Blackmail (1954)
• Crook's Caravan (1955)
• The Empty Flat (1957)
• That Charming Crook (1958)
• The Two Who Talked (1958)
• The Case Of The Frightened Brother (1959)

Report respectfully submitted by Dale Stoyer.