A dead man is found on Middle Temple Lane and the one clue, a piece of paper with the address of a young lawyer on it, seems to have no connection to the death whatsoever...
This young lawyer however, and Spargo a journalist longing for a big story and an adventure, decide to solve the mystery...more

“‘All stories are quite plain – when they come out,’ observed Spargo.”

Before reading The Middle Temple Murder I had never heard of Joseph Smith Fletcher before but a quick look at Wikipedia told me that the man was an extremely industrious writer in his time and had tried his hand in several genres,

3 1/2 stars. A clever mystery with plenty of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the end. The beginning is a bit slow, written in a wordy style that was common around the early 1900s, but it seemed to become more streamlined as the action picked up--or I was more caught up in the book and d

For something so old this stands up to the modern world. A man is found murdered within the are of middle temple London. not quite first on the scene but a close second or third is Frank Sprago a journalist. The police are represented by a solid but somewhat unimaginative Rathbury. They agree to poo

A mysterious victim...

When young newspaper editor Frank Spargo happens upon a murder scene late one night, his journalistic instincts lead him to follow the story. Fortunately the police detective in charge of the case doesn’t seem to have a problem with sharing all the evidence with a journalist an

As the year-end drive to clean out my e-book pile continues, I came across this one that had mysteriously wormed its way into my possession. "Mysteriously" because, as a general rule, I don't like murder mysteries. I've read a couple and the twists and turns, happenstance, etc., just don't appeal to

Frank Spargo is a young journalist who has just finished his shift as dawn breaks across London and plans to make his way home for breakfast and a good, long sleep. As he passes Middle Temple Lane, home to various barristers and the like, he notices Driscoll, a policeman of his acquaintance, looking

Another intriguing murder mystery by J. S. Fletcher. Nice variety of characters, none of whom was overtly portrayed as a bad guy until late in the story. This time the police department worked hand in hand with a bright young journalist who was investigating the mystery for his newspaper.

First publ

from my Amazon review: What a great find here on Amazon. I only found it as a recommendation due to my taste profile, and the likelihood of ever seeing it at the library would be nil to none. Published 1919. No computerized data banks with information for detectives so all hands on deck to solve the