Book Summaries
A few summaries to familiarize you with Fletcher:
The Mazaroff Mystery
First published in 1923, by Herbert Jenkins of London
1924, 1928 Grosset & Dunlap
While touring the North of England in a chauffeur driven Rolls Royce, Salim Mazaroff and Mervyn Holt depart from the Great North Road at Marrasdale Moor and reach a solitary inn. Mazaroff mysteriously disappears while walking the moors alone. His dead body is discovered in Reiver’s Den. Was it an accident, or was it murder? Where is the victim’s money, rings, and tie pin? Who killed Salim Mazaroff?
The Charing Cross Mystery
(also published as Black Money, 1922)
1923 G.P. Putnam, 1924 Herbert Jenkins, 1922 Grosset & Dunlap, (also published as Black Money, 1922)
Follows a young lawyer, Hetherwick, who happens on a train alongside a former police inspector who dies suddenly in front of him. The other man in the carriage runs off at the next stop and vanishes Hetherwick takes it upon himself to investigate what turns out to be a murder.
The Green Rope
A. Knopf 1927, Grosset & Dunlap 1927
Do you like twists and turns? This mystery has plenty of them. Just about the time you think you have it figured out there’s another twist. Early one morning a woman’s body is found. She has been strangled by a bright green rope. Some townspeople who know things are keeping quiet.
The Wrist Mark
1928 Alfred A. Knopf, 1928 Grosset & Dunlap, 1929 Herbert Jenkins
The body of an ex-governor of Southmoore prison and archaeologist is found lying on the outskirts of a little Yorkshire town. Who has murdered him and with what motive? Is it revenge, robbery or fear? To protect the guilty person another mysterious murder is committed. The plot thickens as two innocent men are arrested for the crime… Only thanks to the persistence of a young London barrister and his clerk, the killer is discovered and hunted down to a terrible end.
Mr. Poskitts Nightcaps: Stories of a Yorkshire Farmer
1910 Eveleigh Nash, 1935 Eldon Press
The premise for this book is that before retiring to bed each night, Yorkshire farmer Mr Poskitt liked to tell a little tale, or ‘nightcap’. J S Fletcher has thus written down and collected these 14 short stories. Whether or not that part is true, I have no idea, but this is a great collection of stories about rural Yorkshire lives at the start of the 1900s. There’s a spooky tale, stories of money grabbing and arguing over wills, ownerless pigs running through the village causing havoc, broken hearts and jealous sweethearts, and penny pinching misers and men out to make a fortune.
The Three Days Terror
1909 John Long , 1927 Edward J. Clode
A science fiction thriller in which a detective tracks down a group known as the Dictators who use a ray to destroy whole districts in order to hold Britain ransom. Somewhat of a departure from Fletcher’s classic mysteries. However, mystery and intrigue are woven into this tale.