Inspector Mackenzie is a fictional Scottish police officer. He is a recurring character in the Raffles stories written by Ernest William Hornung. Mackenzie is a Scotland Yard detective, on the trail of a Gentleman thief who has committed a number of burglaries on members of British High Society.
Mackenzie is continually frustrated by Arthur Raffles whom he has suspected for many years, but has never been able to provide a shred of evidence in proof of Raffles' presumed crimes. Despite the mutual antipathy, there is a cordial relationship and a grudging respect between the two. While Mackenzie is constantly outwitted by Raffles, it is suggested that he is a very diligent and effective policeman when it comes to other cases.
Occasionally he and Raffles work together, such as in the short story The Gift of the Emperor in which the two cooperate to recover a pearl from a German emissary on the orders of the Foreign Office, thereby saving the British government from an embarrassing scandal.
In the latest novel, Mackenzie was caught red handed with a diamond of insurmountable value and the tables are changed.
Famous quotes containing the words inspector and/or mackenzie:
“One thing’s sure: Inspector Clay’s dead. Murdered. And somebody’s responsible.”
—Edward D. Wood, Jr. (1922–1978)
“People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.”
—Kenneth MacKenzie Clark, Baron of Saltwood (1903–1983)