Nigel Moss - The Middle Temple Murder

‘THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB is a clearing house for the best detective and mystery stories chosen for you by a select committee of experts. Only the most ingenious crime stories will be published under the THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB imprint. A special distinguishing stamp appears on the wrapper and title page of every THE DETECTIVE STORY CLUB book—the Man with the Gun. Always look for the Man with the Gun when buying a Crime book.’

Wm. Collins Sons & Co. Ltd., 1929

Now the Man with the Gun is back in this series of COLLINS CRIME CLUB reprints, and with him the chance to experience the classic books that influenced the Golden Age of crime fiction.

COLLINS CRIME CLUB

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

This Detective Club edition published 2019

First published in Great Britain by Ward Lock 1919

‘The Contents of the Coffin’ published in The Adventures of Archer Dawe (Sleuth-Hound) by Digby, Long & Co. 1909

Introduction © Nigel Moss 2019

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2019

J.S. Fletcher asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.

Source ISBN: 9780008283049

Ebook Edition © January 2019 ISBN: 9780008283056

Version: 2018-11-28

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Introduction

I. THE SCRAP OF GREY PAPER

II. HIS FIRST BRIEF

III. THE CLUE OF THE CAP

IV. THE ANGLO-ORIENT HOTEL

V. SPARGO WISHES TO SPECIALISE

VI. WITNESS TO A MEETING

VII. MR AYLMORE

VIII. THE MAN FROM THE SAFE DEPOSIT

IX. THE DEALER IN RARE STAMPS

X. THE LEATHER BOX

XI. MR AYLMORE IS QUESTIONED

XII. THE NEW WITNESS

XIII. UNDER SUSPICION

XIV. THE SILVER TICKET

XV. MARKET MILCASTER

XVI. THE ‘YELLOW DRAGON’

XVII. MR QUARTERPAGE HARKS BACK

XVIII. AN OLD NEWSPAPER

XIX. THE CHAMBERLAYNE STORY

XX. MAITLAND alias MARBURY

XXI. ARRESTED

XXII. THE BLANK PAST

XXIII. MISS BAYLIS

XXIV. MOTHER GUTCH

XXV. REVELATIONS

XXVI. STILL SILENT

XXVII. MR ELPHICK’S CHAMBERS

XXVIII. OF PROVED IDENTITY

XXIX. THE CLOSED DOORS

XXX. REVELATION

XXXI. THE PENITENT WINDOW-CLEANER

XXXII. THE CONTENTS OF THE COFFIN

XXXIII. FORESTALLED

XXXIV. THE WHIP HAND

XXXV. MYERST EXPLAINS

XXXVI. THE FINAL TELEGRAM

THE CONTENTS OF THE COFFIN

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The Detective Story Club

About the Publisher

THE year 2019 marks the centenary of The Middle Temple Murder by J.S. Fletcher (1863–1935), first published in 1919 in the UK (Ward Lock) and US (Knopf). Well received by literary critics on both continents, it attracted lavish praise from US President Woodrow Wilson as the best detective story he had read. The book quickly became a bestseller, especially in the US, where Fletcher was even heralded as the literary successor to Arthur Conan Doyle, and it later entered the Haycraft-Queen Cornerstone list of landmark mysteries. Though Fletcher was already an established author, he was now propelled to literary fame and commercial success, and during the 1920s and early 1930s his vast output was rivalled only by Edgar Wallace and E. Phillips Oppenheim. His influence contributed significantly to the growth in popularity, social acceptance and respectability of crime fiction and was of historical importance to the genre.