The son of a farmer, he was born in Ballymacnab in County Armagh, Ireland. McLevy later moved to Edinburgh, Scotland, and became a builder's labourer before joining the police force in 1830. In 1833 he became Edinburgh's first detective and handled 2,220 cases during his 30-year career, almost always securing a conviction. His fame was such that the UK Parliament asked for his advice on dealing with criminals and Mary Carpenter, the great social reformer, quoted him in her paper on dealing with convicts. McLevy published a series of extremely popular books in the 1860s, including Curiosities of Crime in Edinburgh, Sliding Scale of Life and The Disclosures of a Detective. It is sometimes suggested that his writings helped to inspire Arthur Conan Doyle. McLevy sought forensic advice from members of the medical faculty at the University of Edinburgh, where Conan Doyle later studied. McLevy died in Edinburgh on 6 December 1873. In the late 1990s, the James McLevy Trophy, named after him, was donated by former Detective SuperintendentJohn McGowan to recognise outstanding achievement in crime detection in Scotland.
As part of its Afternoon Drama programme, BBC Radio 4 has broadcast to date twelve series of dramas written by David Ashton and starring Brian Cox as McLevy, Siobhan Redmond as Jean Brash, Michael Perceval-Maxwell as Constable Martin Mulholland and David Ashton as Lieutenant Robert Roach. In the 1999 pilot play, Phyllis Logan played Jean and John Paul Hurley played Mulholland. Lieutenant Roach was not introduced until the actual first episode of Series One; in the pilot play, McLevy's superior was Lieutenant Moxey, with the change in command explained as Moxey having been "elevated" to The Haymarket. Other recurring characters include:
Jessie Nairn, Jean Brash's right-hand woman and "Keeper of Keys" of "The Happy Land" and "The Just Land" until she was stabbed to death by a hired killer.
Hannah Semple, who took over as Jean's "Keeper of Keys"; in Series 9, she had to flee Leith after killing a deranged sword-wielding "client" to protect Jean but returned in Series 11.
Constable Miller, a rather inept constable who was killed in the line of duty preventing an assassination attempt on Queen Victoria; unfortunately, to McLevy's fury, because of the would-be assassin's identity, higher authorities swept the attempt under the carpet and the "official" version of Miller's death was that he had been stabbed to death by "a sneak thief". His stationhouse duties were taken over after his death by Constable Ballantyne, played by Finlay McLean.
"The Countess", Jean Brash's chief rival in the brothel trade. During a power struggle between herself and Jean, she tried to have Jean framed for murder but was ultimately jailed herself as an accomplice to that murder; it was revealed in Series 5 that she died in prison.
Donald McIver, Hannah Semple's former boyfriend and an inveterate gambler who married Hannah in Series 5, but sadly was later shot and killed when a high-stakes card game he was playing in was held up by two men with a pistol.
Inspector Adam Dunsmore of the Haymarket district, later transferred to Princes Street; McLevy despises him as both an inefficient investigator and being more interested in furthering his own career than in solving crimes.
Chief Constable Murray Craddock, a self-righteous and intolerant man who is determined to purge Edinburgh of what he considers immorality.
While some of the series contain a thread connecting all of that series' stories into one storyline, the elements of each of the stories remain constant:
McLevy's single-minded pursuit of and for justice on his beat no matter which class of people are involved;
His frustration with and contempt for "respectability" and its hypocrisy, especially when the truth about a crime is covered up to protect upper-class people involved but a crime committed by lower-class people is severely punished;
His often-stormy but complex relationship with Jean Brash, the owner and operator of "The Happy Land" and later "The Just Land", the "best bawdy-hoose" in Edinburgh;
His equally complex working relationship with Irish-born Constable Mulholland, McLevy's partner in investigations;
His clashes with his long-suffering, class- and politically-conscious and wife-dominated superior Lieutenant Roach.
The historicity of the series is not always faultless. For example, an episode on 24 March 2015 involved a robbery of the British Linen Bank, although that bank did not obtain that title until 1906. Pilot 1999 ' 1st Series 2000/01 2nd Series 2002 3rd Series 2003 4th Series 2006 5th Series 2009 6th Series 2009/10 7th series 2011 8th series 2011 9th series 2012 10th series 2014 11th series 2015/16 12th series 2016''' All episodes of each series are currently available on both CD and audio download.
Books
David Ashton has continued McLevy's story in his 2006 book Shadow of the Serpent ; following volumes include Fall From Grace , Trick of the Light , featuring a young Arthur Conan Doyle, and most recently Nor Shall He Sleep , featuring Robert Louis Stevenson; all four novels are currently available in audio download format, read by David Ashton. McLevy's "nemesis" Jean Brash currently has two mysteries of her own to solve, with McLevy in a supporting role: Mistress of the Just Land and The Lost Daughter, both currently available in both paperback and e-book format as well as audio recordings narrated by Siobhan Redmond.
Short stories
Two short stories, "No Rest for the Wicked" and "A Child is Born", were published in The Scotsman. Two more short stories, "End of the Line" and "The Painted Lady", are available for purchase in Amazon Kindle e-book format. All of these are also by David Ashton.
