Max Carrados

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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.

As published in book form, the series consists of Max Carrados (1914), The Eyes of Max Carrados (1923), Max Carrados Mysteries (1927) and The Bravo of London (1934). A selection of stories from the earlier volumes were later gathered into Best Max Carrados Detective Stories (1972).

Given the somewhat outlandish idea that a blind man could be a detective, Bramah's introduction to The Eyes of Max Carrados took pains to compare his hero's achievements to those of real life blind people such as Nicholas Saunderson, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, Blind Jack of Knaresborough the road builder, John Fielding the Bow Street Magistrate, of whom it was said he could identify 3,000 thieves by their voices, and Helen Keller.