Johnny Hawke (Johnny One-Eye)

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Created by David Stuart Davies
(1946–)

The war evidently didn’t belong just to Foyle…

When he made his debut in “One for the Monet,” a 2000 short story, World War II had just broken out, and action-craving young copper JOHNNY HAWKE quits the London police department to enlist in the British Army, intending to give his all  for country and king. His dreams of glory are soon squashed, however, when a rifle training accident costs him an eye, leaving him with an eyepatch and a new and not particularly welcome nickname: “Johnny One-Eye.”

People can be so cruel.

But rather than settle for a desk job with the police, he hangs out a shingle as a private investigator in London, even as the city struggles to survive and the Blitzkreig rages. After several other short stories, Johnny made his book-length debut in Forests of the Night in 2005; the first of several novels, all set during the war, or shortly after (the latest, 2019’s Spiral of Lies, makes it to 1950). As if daily bombings aren’t enough, Johnny also has to deal with serial killers, missing persons, spies, fascists, suspicious suicides and a stolen Greyhound, occasionally aided by his one-time colleague in the police force, former Detective David Llewellyn.

Well researched, and served up with a generous helping of wit, humor and empathy, Johnny’s a likeable enough chap, and the series paints an evocative and compelling portrait of the home front during England’s “finest hour.”

The author was born in 1946, and taught English before becoming a full-time editor, writer, and playwright. He’s written numerous books about Sherlock Holmes, including Holmes of the Movies: The Screen Career of Sherlock Holmes (1977), Starring Sherlock Holmes: A Century of the Master Detective on Screen (2001) and Clued Up on Sherlock (2004), and even more short stories about the Old Fiddler, and has been the editor of Red Herrings, the monthly in-house publication of the Crime Writers’ Association, since 1999.

UNDER OATH

  • “Johnny Hawke breathes new life into the traditional British mystery. He’s a hero with a heart.”
    — Val McDermid

A ROSE BY ANY OTHER NAME

  • Despite the name, Johnny is no relation to Johnny One-Eye, a relatively obscure 1950 noir, directed by Robert Florey, and starring Pat O’Brien, Wayne Morris, Dolores Moran and Gayle Reed, about a wounded gangster in hiding who befriends a little girl and her one-eyed dog with one bad eye. Or to  Edward Y. Breese’s similarly named P.I.,  Johnny Hawk.

SHORT STORIES

  • “One for the Monet” (2000, Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine #37)
  • “Damsel in This Dress” (2001, Sherlock Holmes: The Detective Magazine #41)
  • “Oh Sister, Where Art Thou?” (2002, Sherlock #51)
  • “It’s That Old Black Market” (2003, Sherlock #57)
  • “Look For the Silver Lining” (2005, Sherlock #65; also 2019, The Book of Extraordinary Amateur Sleuth and Private Eye Stories)

NOVELS

RELATED LINKS

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
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