Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch

Victor Lorenzo Whitechurch (12 March 1868 – 26 May 1933) was a Church of England clergyman and author. He wrote many novels on different themes. He is probably best known for his detective stories featuring Thorpe Hazell, which featured in the Strand Magazine, Railway Magazine, Pearson's and Harmsworth's Magazines. Hazell was a vegetarian railway detective, whom the author intended to be as far from Sherlock Holmes as possible. Another character was the spy Captain Ivan Koravitch. He also wrote religious books, novels set in the church and his autobiography – Concerning Himself, The story of an ordinary man (1909). Whitechurch's stories were admired by Ellery Queen and Dorothy L. Sayers for their "immaculate plotting and factual accuracy: he was one of the first writers to submit his manuscripts to Scotland Yard for vetting as to police procedure." The BBC produced a series of five adaptations of short stories from Thrilling Stories of the Railway which were read by Benedict Cumberbatch.