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Calvo, Román. Román Calvo was created by “Miguel de Fuenzalida,” the pseudonym of the Chilean author Alberto Edwards (Julio Téllez), and appeared in six stories in Pacífico Magazine between 1912 and 1920, beginning with “El Tesoro y la Viudita;” the stories were collected in Román Calvo, el Sherlock Holmes Chileno (1946).

Román Calvo is a Great Detective. He is a consulting detective, based in Santiago, Chile. Like Sherlock Holmes, Calvo does not have much respect for the local police, believing that the Santiago police in particular are backwards and dull (especially Federico Rios, Calvo’s Lestrade). Calvo has a hard time finding cases that interest him. He is Watsoned by the ingenuous and faithful Miguel de Fuenzalida. Calvo is an expert in a wide range of fields, from the hard sciences to genealogy and heraldry, and is a butterfly collector. He is also a dandy and is given to dressing extravagantly.

As time passes Calvo becomes increasingly devoted to historical investigations, rather than those which take place in the modern day. He has a wide range of interests, but unlike most detectives modeled on Holmes Calvo never publishes–he is content to stay in his apartment and do his research. For all of that, however, he is a good man and likeable despite his reclusive tendencies. In the final Calvo story, “El Marido de la Señorita Sutter,” Sherlock Holmes visits Santiago and assists Calvo on a case.

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