Written in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Brains Benton Mysteries chronicle the adventures of young teenagers Barclay "Brains" Benton (X) and his friend James "Jimmy" Carson (Operative Three); they together form the "Benton and Carson International Detective Agency." The Brains Benton books are similar in tone to The Mad Scientists' Club books.
The series was originally published by the Golden Press, with reprints being done in the same format by Whitman Books, both imprints of Western Publishing. All six titles appeared in hardback with only two volumes being reprinted in paperback.
Main Characters
Barclay "Brains" Benton is the central character in the series. He is in his early teens at the beginning of the series. Tall and thin, with glasses and red hair, Brains is knowledgeable beyond his years. He talks in polysyllabics and his mind is a warehouse of scientific and social information. He would be regarded by the other boys in school as nerdy, except that he is also the star pitcher for the school baseball team (He's not a sports fan--he is intrigued with the physiology of baseball pitching). His parents, professors at the local college, have allowed him the use of the room over the garage, which he has converted into a crime lab, calling it his "inner sanctum."
James MacDonald "Jimmy" Carson is Brains' partner. He narrates the action in the stories. Together they form the Benton and Carson International Detective Agency, for which they actually have elegant business cards. Jimmy is the opposite of Brains in many ways--average height and build, he has a paper route for the local newspaper, the Crestwood Daily Ledger. Because of his average appearance, he is well suited to tailing suspects. Jimmy adds a dimension of down-to-earth common sense to many of Brains' ideas and theories as they work on various cases.
Secondary characters
Ann Carson is Jimmy's seventeen-year-old big sister.
Mrs. Ray is the Benton's housekeeper. Loud, nosy, and opinionated, she is an excellent cook.
"Stinky" Green is Jimmy's friend, who substitutes for him on his newspaper route when necessary.
"Stony" Rhodes is another boy Jimmy's age, the neighborhood nuisance. He wants to join the detective agency, but neither Brains nor Jimmy think he has the necessary ability.
"Horsey" Peters is the Crestwood School principal.
Chief Hadley is the pompous Chief of Police in Crestwood.
Lew Jarman is the star reporter for the Crestwood Daily Ledger.
Also there are Jimmy's parents and Brains' parents. Jimmy's mother is the typical mother/housewife of the late 1950s, and his father works as an accountant for the gas company. Brains' father is a history professor at Crestwood College, and his mother teaches art there.
The books were written by Charles Spain Verral. However, after book #1, all of the remaining books had the pen name of George Wyatt as author. Verral had turned over the writing to another author but was not pleased with the results; he then took the outlines of each book and rewrote them.[1]
Charles Spain Verral's characters have inspired a generation of twenty-first century authors who endeavor to continue the Brains Benton series. These are unofficial fan fiction and have no connection to the original author and publishers.
By Charles E. Morgan III:
By Fred Rexroad
By Scott Lockwood:
The last two of these are set later in time, when Brains and Jimmy are adults. Brains has taken a position with SwifTech Labs (headed by non-other than Tom Swift Jr.) and has a girlfriend who is an investigative reporter.
By Thomas Hudson:
By Sean Murphy: