Captain Shannon

Captain Shannon by Coulson Kernahan

Coulson Kernahan's "Captain Shannon" opens as a sensational tale of Anarchist-Fenian terror gripping England and Ireland, where a shadowy figure known only as "Captain Shannon" signs a string of atrocities "By order." After bombings culminate in the destruction of New Scotland Yard and a catastrophic explosion beneath Blackfriars station that kills the Chief Secretary for Ireland along with hundreds of commuters, Captain Shannon issues a inflammatory manifesto proclaiming a "World Federation of Freedom," a global union of Anarchists, Nihilists, and Fenians sworn to overthrow monarchy, capitalism, and clergy, beginning with Ireland's liberation from England. The "Daily Record" and the "Dublin News" offer enormous rewards for information leading to the conspirators' capture, and a captured assassin turns informer, naming James Mullen, an Irish-American, as Captain Shannon and providing a photograph—before promptly murdering the editor of the "Daily Record" in London. The narrator, a restless writer named Max Rissler, recognizes Mullen's disguised photograph as a fellow passenger he once shared a train carriage with to Southend, distinguished by a memorable, hawk-like expression triggered by irritation. Convinced the official description (dark, bearded, lame) is a deliberate false trail, Rissler deduces the real Mullen is fair-haired, clean-shaven, and sound of limb, and sets out privately to track him, hiring a detective named Green to research Mullen's past while he himself investigates around Southend with help from his friend Hardy Muir and Muir's boatman, Quickly. Suspecting Mullen is hiding aboard a boat, Rissler eventually focuses on the dynamite hulks moored off Canvey Island, particularly the "Cuban Queen," where a keeper named Hughes seems to be sheltering a "wife" who never goes ashore and orders suspiciously fine provisions. Rissler stages a fake drowning to get aboard the hulk while "Mrs. Hughes" is away, but finds the cabin scoured of clues except for a sliver of soap bearing shaving-brush bristles—proof the mysterious visitor is a disguised man. Meanwhile Quickly, sent to shadow the departing figure, vanishes without a trace, evidently murdered. A letter arrives from Green announcing he has found evidence valuable enough to claim the reward himself and asking to be released from Rissler's service. Traveling to find him, Rissler discovers Green's drowned body on a beach near Baxenham, a note reading "By order.—Captain Shannon" hidden in a bottle tied to his wrist. Searching the corpse's cigar-case, Rissler recovers two crucial documents: a heartrending letter from Mullen's half-sister, Mrs. Flora Burgoyne, revealing that Mullen is the illegitimate son of the notorious Lord Dungannon and pleading with him to abandon his confederates in exchange for her help escaping the country aboard her husband's yacht; and a genealogical memorandum confirming Mullen's true parentage and family connections. Piecing together that Mullen is having correspondence redirected through hairdressers' shops used as covert letter-drops, Rissler traces the trail through Cotley and Stanby, bribing and outwitting a disreputable barber-cum-bookmaker called "Professor" Lawrance to intercept and forge letters, and narrowly misses capturing Mullen (posing as "Henry Jeanes") at a hotel. Learning that Mullen has obtained his brother-in-law's small yacht, the "Odd Trick," under a false telegram, Rissler and his ally Grant hunt down the boat—now repainted and reflagged to erase its trail—anchored off Southend. Shadowing a red-bearded stranger from the suspicious vessel through a chain of trains and streets, Rissler and Grant pursue him into London, finally trailing him alone at night into a deserted lane behind the General Post Office, where the man plants and ignites an infernal machine. Rissler attacks him in a fury just as the bomb detonates, wrecking the Post Office and knocking Rissler unconscious for three weeks. He wakes to learn the bomber escaped in the chaos and that his own involvement remains unknown to the police. Torn between duty and fear of public censure for having pursued Captain Shannon secretly and unsuccessfully, Rissler resolves to conceal his prior suspicions and continue the manveslim hunt alone, driven now as much by revulsion at what he witnessed as by the promise of reward.

By Coulson Kernahan · First published 1897 · Genre: Crime Thriller, Mystery, Political Thriller · 31 chapters · 66,119 words

First lines

The year 18 -- will be memorable for the perpetration in England and in Ireland of a series of infamously diabolical outrages. On the scene of each crime was found -- sometimes scrawled in plain rough capitals upon a piece of paper which was pinned to the body of a victim, sometimes rudely chalked in the same lettering upon a door or wall -- this inscription -- "By order. -- Captain Shannon."

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Victorian-era thriller · Detective fiction mystery · Anarchist conspiracy · Irish revolutionary protagonist · London Underground bombing · Serial killer narrative · Political unrest and upheaval · Master of disguise antagonist · Police investigation narrative · Socialistic ideology exploration · Urban crime and danger · Multiple murders in series

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