Joseph Smith Fletcher (7 February 1863 - 30 January 1935) was an English journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction, and was one of the most prolific English writers of detective fiction. Fletcher was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, the son of a clergyman. His father died when he was eight months old, and after which his grandmother raised him on a farm in Darrington, near Pontefract. He was educated at Silcoates School in Wakefield, and after some study ...
Read More
Joseph Smith Fletcher (7 February 1863 - 30 January 1935) was an English journalist and author. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction, and was one of the most prolific English writers of detective fiction. Fletcher was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, the son of a clergyman. His father died when he was eight months old, and after which his grandmother raised him on a farm in Darrington, near Pontefract. He was educated at Silcoates School in Wakefield, and after some study of law, he became a journalist. At age 20, Fletcher began working in journalism, as a sub-editor in London. He subsequently returned to his native Yorkshire, where he worked first on the Leeds Mercury using the pseudonym A Son of the Soil, and then as a special correspondent for the Yorkshire Post covering Edward VII's coronation in 1902. Fletcher's first books published were poetry. He then moved on to write numerous works of historical fiction and history, many dealing with Yorkshire, which led to his selection as a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Michael Sadleir stated that Fletcher's historical novel, When Charles I Was King (1892), was his best work. Fletcher wrote several novels of rural life in imitation of Richard Jefferies, beginning with The Wonderful Wapentake (1894). In 1914, Fletcher wrote his first detective novel and went on to write over a hundred more, many featuring the private investigator Ronald Camberwell. Fletcher is sometimes incorrectly described as a "Golden Age of Detective Fiction" author, but he is in fact an almost exact contemporary of Conan Doyle. Most of his detective fiction works considerably pre-date that era, and even those few published within it do not conform to the closed form and strict rules professed, if not unfailingly observed, by the Golden Age writers. (wikipedia.org)
Read Less
Add this copy of The Middle Temple Murder to cart. $25.11, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2020 by Indoeuropeanpublishing.com.
When he's drawn into the investigation of a dead body found on the steps of the highly respectable chambers of Middle Temple Lane, near London?s law courts, Spargo, a journalist for the Watchman, ends up unraveling a mystery that stretches back many decades and involves not one but two wrongly convicted criminals, a well-known politician with a secret past and a good friend with a surprising unknown identity. I enjoyed listening to this book - it is a great example of early detective fiction in America. I could just imagine it as a black and white movie starring Humphrey Bogart!! My only complaint is that the mystery is solved almost too easily at the end - Spargo suddenly sees it all come together and the book is quickly wrapped up, leaving the reader with a sense of incompleteness. The rest of the book is well-written with a plot that is just convoluted enough to keep the reader's interest without becoming too confusing. I would definitely recommend it.
