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Rater, Oliver. Oliver Rater was created by Edgar Wallace (Viola Beech, Brigand, Wireless Bryce, Felix Carfew, Dixon, Elegant Edward, Inspector Elk, Educated Evans, Four Square Jane, Dixon Hawke, Heine, Felix Jenks, Just Men, King Kong (I), Larry Loman, Superintendent Minter, Policy Sleuth, John G. Reeder, The Ringer, Sanders, York Symon, Tam o’the Scoots, Inspector Wade, Kate Westhanger) and appeared in twelve stories in Pall Magazine in 1927 and 1928, beginning with “The Orator” (Pall Mall Magazine, Aug. 1927); the stories were collected in The Orator (1928).

Chief Inspector Oliver Rater is a man of deep thoughts but few words and is known as the “Orator:” “many a criminal had been marched into the Orator’s presence with an alibi so complete that it seemed ridiculous to detain him, but under the deadening influence of his taciturnity had grown desperate and truthful.” Besides his taciturnity, he is grim, thoughtful, usually irritated by other people, a bachelor, successful as a policeman, and a hard man, although the underworld and the savage crimes he has to deal with force him to hardness. But he softens enough to fall in love at the end of the series.

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