Barclay “Brains” Benton is a young genius who investigates crimes along with his friend, Jimmy Carson. The two boys live in the town of Crestwood, and they call their detective agency the Benton and Carson International Detective Agency. Brains is the president of the detective agency, and Jimmy is the secretary-treasurer and also does most of the legwork, while Brains is the “brains” of the operation. Sometimes, the two of them refer to each other by code names in their detective work. Brains’s code name is “X”, and Jimmy is “Operative Three” (although, since there are only two of them as partners in their detective business, there is no Operative Two). The headquarters of their detective agency is the old garage behind Brains’s house, where Brains has set up a laboratory. Brains has refurbished the garage (former carriage house with servants’ quarters) with a hidden entrance, a hidden staircase to the second floor where the laboratory is, and a secret room behind a two-way mirror.

Naturally, Brains got his nickname from the other kids at school because everyone knows that he’s really smart. His parents both teach at a local college, which is the explanation for why Brains is so smart. However, Brains isn’t just a nerdy kid. He’s a decent athlete and is also good at baseball, particularly pitching. Being good at sports keeps him from being teased for being too geeky, although Brains isn’t really interested in sports for their own sake. He says that he likes pitching because it’s a study in physics. The Bentons have a housekeeper, Mrs. Ray, who nosy and fussy and refuses to call Brains by his nickname, always referring to him as Barclay. Brains has red hair and glasses. He likes to use big words and often speaks to Jimmy in a superior way, which is a little annoying.

Jimmy tells the stories as a Watson-like narrator. Jimmy regards himself as being a basically average kid. He has brown hair and brown eyes, and in his words, would “never stand out in a crowd,” which is actually a useful quality for someone doing surveillance work.

The books in the series have pen-and-ink illustrations, but they are not in black and white. They are different colors, like red or green, but only one color is used through an entire book.

The series was written by George Wyatt, based on characters created by Charles Spain Verral. (According to Wikipedia, “The books were written by Charles Spain Verral. However, after book #1, all of the remaining books had the pen name of George Wyatt as author. Verral had turned over the writing to another author but was not pleased with the results; he then took the outlines of each book and rewrote them.”)

Books in the Series:

#1 The Case of the Missing Message (1959)

A secret message leads Brains and Jimmy to a strange circus and a possible inheritance for a friend.

Available through Internet Archive.

#2 The Case of the Counterfeit Coin (1960)

Brains and Jimmy track down the counterfeiters of rare coins.

#3 The Case of the Stolen Dummy (1961)

Brains and Jimmy track down the thieves who stole the money that was meant to fund a summer camp for kids.

#4 The Case of the Roving Rolls (1961)

A driverless car chases Jimmy.

#5 The Case of the Waltzing Mouse (1961)

When a friend and his trained mouse disappear, Brains and Jimmy are drawn into a case that involves a hidden stash of money.

#6 The Case of the Painted Dragon (1961)

A strange person is looking for a friend of Brains and Jimmy, a boy of Japanese descent named Mikko. Mikko is an orphan, and the mystery concerns a painting of a dragon that his father made before he died.