Joseph Smith Fletcher

Half way along the north side of the main street of Highmarket an ancient stone gateway, imposing enough to suggest that it was originally the entrance to some castellated mansion or manor house, gave access to a square yard, flanked about by equally ancient buildings. What those buildings had been used for in other days was not obvious to the casual and careless observer, but to the least observant their present use was obvious enough. Here were piles of timber from Norway; there were stacks of slate from Wales; here was marble from Aberdeen, and there cement from Portland: the old chambers of the grey buildings were filled to overflowing with all the things that go towards making a house-ironwork, zinc, lead, tiles, great coils of piping, stores of domestic appliances. And on a shining brass plate, set into the wall, just within the gateway, were deeply engraven the words: Mallalieu and Cotherstone, Builders and Contractors.

In the whole history of the English people there is no period so absolutely heroic, so full of enthralling interest, as that in which the might of England made itself apparent by land and sea-the period which saw good Queen Bess mistress of English hearts and Englishmen and sovereign of the great beginnings which have come to such a magnificent fruition under Victoria.

oseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) was a British journalist and writer. He wrote about 200 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the "Golden Age". An early book was the 1909 collection, The Adventures of Archer Dawe. His other works include: Andrewlina (1889), The Winding Way (1890), The Wonderful City (1894), In the Days of Drake (1897), At the Blue Bell Inn (1898), The Fear of the Night (1903) and Paradise Court (1908).

Der vor f nf Jahren nach Kanada ausgewanderte Richard Malvery kehrt zur ck in seine Heimat Brychester, einem Kaff in England. Kaum angekommen, verschwindet er noch am gleichen Tag spurlos. Der Kanadier David Blake, ein Freund und Gesch ftspartner, reist an, treibt die Nachforschungen voran und ist dem Geheimnis um "Malvery Hold" auf der Spur. Nicht nur das Wetter ist u erst ungem tlich an der S dk ste Englands. In was f r einen Strudel ger t Blake? Was ist mit Richard Malvery geschehen? Verbrechen, oder nicht Verbrechen, das ist hier die Frage und J. S. Fletcher macht es wieder spannend bis zum berraschenden Schlu .