Thomas Burke Bibliography

Thomas Burke Biography
Thomas Burke was born in England in 1886 and passed away in 1945. He was of course best known for the Limehouse short stories based in Chinatown. Although he did write many other books, we have, given the nature of the site, confined ourselves solely to his mystery fiction work. His series character was Quong Lee, who appeared in the Limehouse tales. His work had a complicated publishing history, with continual publisher changes, alternative titles and reissues. He remains a hugely important figure in the history of the genre and, in particular, his story The Hands of Mr Ottermole is regarded as an absolutely classic piece of mystery writing. He is also featured in the lists Haycraft Queen Cornerstones and Queen's Quorum.

Synopsis from Dark Night
THOMAS BURKE'S Limehouse stories, from Limehouse Nights onwards, are world famous. That his stories remain absolutely unique is proved by this latest volume in which, against the fascinating background of Limehouse and the Thames waterfront, are depicted the comedy, tragedy, romance, poverty and sometimes harsh realism of a colourful, cosmopolitan population. Of this volume might be said the same that Truth wrote of Abduction: "All the 'qualities for which he is famous are here as marked as ever—an intense sense of the genuine, dramatic, swift and vivid drawing of character, biting phrases and poetic paragraphs. The author has probably not written a line which has not been first well considered and then brilliantly executed."