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March, Tertius. Tertius March was created by H. Bedford-Jones (John Bradford, James Bronson, Denis Burke (I), Denis Burke (II), Burket & O’Neill, Peter J. Clancy, Dick Clews, Vincent ConnorCosgrave & Lundgren, Crawford, Riley Dillon, Colin Haig, Pinky JenkinsJungle Girl, Say-and-See Smith, John Solomon, Sphinx (II)Strato-Shooters, Hugh Tyrone) and appeared in five stories in Clues and Clues Detective Stories in 1934 and 1935, beginning with “March 3rd Mystery” (Clues, Sept. 1934).

Tertius March is the hotel dick for the Hotel Terminus in Chicago. He suffers from depression and angst, because he suffers from amnesia: “he had not the least idea of his past or even of his real name. His firm, pleasant features with their trim mustache often had a blank air.” He was picked up in the street with no form of identity and sent to a hospital, which discharged him. He wandered into the Hotel Terminus and solved a crime which led to his being hired by the Hotel as their detective. But his skill at crime solving worries him deeply:

He had extraordinary deductive powers, and yet at times these seemed to spring rather from an intimate, intuitive acquaintance with every phase of crime. His position as investigator here at the hotel, where he had accomplished some marvelous feats, had proved of untold value to the house. Yet all this apparent familiarity with illegal activity caused him the most intense worry. He had become inspired with the fixed terror that his own blank past must have been a criminal one. Absurd as the idea seemed, it had a firm grip on him.

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