The First Sir Percy The First Sir Percy The First Sir Percy is a 1920 adventure novel by Baroness Orczy featuring Sir Percy Blake, ancestor of Orczy's character The Scarlet Pimpernel. It is a direct sequel to "The Laughing Cavalier", occurring a few months after the events in the first book. It is March 1624 in Holland. Two months earlier, a mercenary/adventurer who calls himself "Diogenes" foiled the plot on the life of the Stadtholder. Now, he has finally met his real father, an English nobleman, and realized his true identity as Sir Percy Blake of Blakeney, heir to a large estate in Sussex.
Sir Henry Merrivale was inspired by Carr: Sir Henry Merrivale Sir Henry Merrivale is a fictional detective created by "Carter Dickson", a pen name of John Dickson Carr (1906–1977). Also known as "the Old Man," by his initials "H. M." (a pun on "His Majesty"), or "the Maestro", he appeared in twenty-two locked room mysteries and "impossible crime" novels of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s, as well as in two short stories. He began as a fairly serious character but became more and more comical, at times even grotesque, as the series went on. When first introduced as a character, he was already