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Preed, Havlock. Havlock Preed was created by Ladbroke Black (Coverley Gutch) and appeared in sixteen stories and serials in The Thriller and three novels from 1929 to 1939, beginning with "The Society of the Snake" (The Thriller, Sept. 7, 1929).

Havlock Preed is a solicitor modeled on J.G. Reeder. Preed is a solicitor and is the only surviving partner of Manson and Preed, Solicitors, of Lincoln's Inn Fields. Preed is something of an eccentric, given to strange behavior (in and out of court), unusual dress (top hat, morning coat, striped trousers, gloves, and a tightly rolled umbrella--this is all he wears, all the time), and a taste for adventure that many who deal with him find not quite respectable. But his success rate cannot be quibbled with, both as a solicitor and as a solver of crimes. Preed is "eminently respectable," has a "rather wooden face" and a voice "like the crinkling of old parchment." His former partner, Manson, is dead, and Preed’s son turns out to be a rotter (his brain was warped by having been blown up during an anti-submarine campaign during World War One). But Preed is also a good friend of Sexton Blake.

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