The Adventures of Jimmie Dale

Frank L. Packard (1877 - 1942)

Frank Lucius Packard (February 2, 1877 – February 17, 1942) was a Canadian novelist born in Montreal, Quebec. He worked as a civil engineer on the Canadian Pacific Railway. He later wrote a series of mystery novels, the most famous of which featured a character called Jimmie Dale.

Jimmie Dale is a wealthy playboy by day, with a Harvard education and membership to New York City’s ultra-exclusive private club St. James. But at night he puts on a costume and becomes The Grey Seal, who enters businesses or homes and cracks safes, always leaving a diamond shaped, grey paper "seal" behind to mark his conquest, but never taking anything. He was just doing it for "the sheer deviltry of it" at first, but when a woman catches him, she blackmails him to war on certain crime organizations.

Jimmie Dale/The Grey Seal is often credited with greatly influencing and popularizing later pulp and comic book heroes. The foppish playboy-by-day-crimefighter-by-night routine had a precursor in The Scarlet Pimpernel, but it was Jimmie Dale that brought the idea into a contemporary setting and added the idea of a costume and mask for his secret identity, serving as a possible influence for characters like Zorro and The Shadow. He also established the concept of a hero's secret hideout or lair, The Sanctuary, a precersor of the Batcave or the Fortress of Solitude. (Summary by Wikipedia and Maire Rhode)


The sequel to this book, The Further Adventures of Jimmie Dale, can also be found on Librivox.

Genre(s): Detective Fiction

Language: English

Group: Jimmie Dale series

Section Chapter Reader Time
Play 01 P-1 Ch 1-A The Gray Seal Maire Rhode
00:23:22
Play 02 P-1 Ch 1-B The Gray Seal Maire Rhode
00:26:38
Play 03 P-1 Ch 2-A By Proxy Maire Rhode
00:18:34
Play 04 P-1 Ch 2-B By Proxy Maire Rhode
00:19:06
Play 05 P-1 Ch 2-C By Proxy Maire Rhode
00:30:57
Play 06 P-1 Ch 3-A The Mother Lode Maire Rhode
00:20:46
Play 07 P-1 Ch 3-B The Mother Lode Maire Rhode
00:21:48
Play 08 P-1 Ch 3-C The Mother Lode Maire Rhode
00:23:38
Play 09 P-1 Ch 4-A The Counterfeit Five Maire Rhode
00:20:58
Play 10 P-1 Ch 4-B The Counterfeit Five Maire Rhode
00:27:20
Play 11 P-1 Ch 4-C The Counterfeit Five Maire Rhode
00:22:35
Play 12 P-1 Ch 5-A The Affair of the Pushcart Man Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:27:40
Play 13 P-1 Ch 5-B The Affair of the Pushcart Man Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:35:30
Play 14 P-1 Ch 6-A Devil's Work Julia Albath
00:26:37
Play 15 P-1 Ch 6-B Devil's Work Julia Albath
00:27:57
Play 16 P-1 Ch 6-C Devil's Work Julia Albath
00:23:20
Play 17 P-1 Ch 7-A The Thief Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:21:36
Play 18 P-1 Ch 7-B The Thief Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:27:28
Play 19 P-1 Ch 7-C The Thief Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:24:54
Play 20 P-1 Ch 8-A The Man Higher Up Maire Rhode
00:20:06
Play 21 P-1 Ch 8-B The Man Higher Up Maire Rhode
00:28:13
Play 22 P-1 Ch 8-C The Man Higher Up Maire Rhode
00:19:54
Play 23 P-1 Ch 9-A Two Crooks and a Knave webround
00:26:38
Play 24 P-1 Ch 9-B Two Crooks and a Knave webround
00:30:17
Play 25 P-1 Ch 9-C Two Crooks and a Knave webround
00:28:52
Play 26 P-1 Ch 10-A The Alibi webround
00:28:06
Play 27 P-1 Ch 10-B The Alibi webround
00:29:59
Play 28 P-1 Ch 10-C The Alibi webround
00:31:36
Play 29 P-1 Ch 11-A The Stool-Pigeon Roger Melin
00:22:53
Play 30 P-1 Ch 11-B The Stool-Pigeon Roger Melin
00:22:39
Play 31 P-1 Ch 11-C The Stool-Pigeon Roger Melin
00:24:20
Play 32 P-2 Ch 1 Below the Deadline Roger Melin
00:20:17
Play 33 P-2 Ch 2 Call to Arms Roger Melin
00:21:43
Play 34 P-2 Ch 3 The Crime Club Roger Melin
00:28:57
Play 35 P-2 Ch 4 The Innocent Bystander Jacob Cherry
00:19:44
Play 36 P-2 Ch 5 On Guard Wyatt
00:14:07
Play 37 P-2 Ch 6 The Trap Wyatt
00:19:40
Play 38 P-2 Ch 7 The "Hour" Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:22:38
Play 39 P-2 Ch 8 The Tocsin Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:16:38
Play 40 P-2 Ch 9 The Tocsin's Story Maire Rhode
00:35:05
Play 41 P-2 Ch 10 Silver Mag Maire Rhode
00:21:22
Play 42 P-2 Ch 11 The Magpie Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:23:28
Play 43 P-2 Ch 12 John Johansson--Four-Two-Eight Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:29:22
Play 44 P-2 Ch13 The Only Way Roger Melin
00:19:32
Play 45 P-2 Ch 14 Out of the Darkness Roger Melin
00:18:59
Play 46 P-2 Ch15 Retribution Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:23:48
Play 47 P-2 Ch16 "Death to the Gray Seal!" Lars Rolander (1942-2016)
00:21:08