"Suspicion Is Directed Here, There, and Everywhere!"

THE MARKENMORE MYSTERY.
By J. S. Fletcher (1863-1935).
Knopf.
1923 (1922 in U.K.). 320 pages. $2.00

Online at Project Gutenberg (HERE).

In this one, J. S. Fletcher threatens to transcend the genre:

[Full review] "The Markenmore Mystery" seems to me to be the best of recent Fletcher stories. As usual it is dry, precise, carefully plotted, and cunningly woven to its precise end. As usual the love story is thrown in with a sort of genial gesture, in a few paragraphs, as if Mr. Fletcher said, "Well—here you are—you who must have sentiment—here it is!"

But in the case of the Markenmores Fletcher has created a set of characters who are a bit more of flesh and blood than those in some of his novels. They have passions and revolts. They, and the exotic Mrs. Tretheroe, seem real.

Fletcher too often seizes on a picturesque name and expects that to make his character. What annoying names he does corral: Braxfield, Fransemmery, Blick, Eckhardstein, Walkinshaw.

The net of mystery in this latest story is even more complicated than usual. Suspicion is directed here, there, and everywhere! Yet the murder—yes, there is a murder—is quite satisfactorily explained. — J. F., "The Editor Recom-mends," THE BOOKMAN (November 1923)

Lady Bluestocking image

Resource:
- Our last visit with Fletcher was HERE.

Category: Detective fiction