Encyclopedia Brown is a series of books featuring the adventures of boy detective Leroy Brown, nicknamed "Encyclopedia" for his intelligence and range of knowledge. The 29 books [ 1 ] [ 2 ] in the children's literature series were written one co-written by Donald J.
Sobol , with the first book published in and the last published posthumously in In addition to the main books, the Encyclopedia Brown series has spawned a comic strip, a TV series, and compilation books of puzzles and games.
Sobol's first Encyclopedia Brown book was written in two weeks; subsequent books took about six months to write. Each book in the Encyclopedia Brown mystery series is self contained in that the reader is not required to have read earlier books in order to understand the stories. The major characters, settings, etc. Books featuring Brown are subdivided into a numberβusually ten or moreβof possibly interlinked short stories, each of which presents a mystery.
The mysteries are intended to be solved by the reader, thanks to the placement of a logical or factual inconsistency somewhere within the text. Many of the mysteries involve Brown helping his father, the local police chief, solve a crime; Brown outwitting town bully Bugs Meany, the leader of a gang known as the Tigers; or Brown being aided by Sally Kimball, his partner, close friend, and bodyguard.
Brown, his father, or Sally invariably solves the case by exposing this inconsistency, detailed in the "Answers" section in the back of the book. Often, these books follow a formula where the first chapter involves Brown solving a case at the dinner table for his father, the local police chief in the fictional seaside town of Idaville in an unspecified state. When Chief Brown barely tastes his meal, that is a cue he was handed a difficult case. He pulls out his casebook and goes over it with the family.
