[1] Bailey began working as a journalist for The Daily Telegraph, writing war journalism, drama reviews, and editorials for the newspaper.

Fortune's mannerisms and speech put him into the same class as Lord Peter Wimsey but the stories are much darker, and often involve murderous obsession, police corruption, financial skulduggery, child abuse and miscarriages of justice.

A second series character, Joshua Clunk, is a sanctimonious lawyer who exposes corruption and blackmail in local politics, and who manages to profit from the crimes.

He appears in eleven novels published between 1930 and 1950, including The Sullen Sky Mystery (1935), widely regarded as Bailey's magnum opus.

His first historical novel, My Lady of Orange (1901) revolves around William the Silent, and his involvement in the Dutch Revolt.