The Middle Temple Murder

The Middle Temple Murder by J. S. Fletcher

Frank Spargo, a young London journalist looking for a great story, stumbles upon a crime scene on Middle Temple Lane. A porter found the body of an elderly man on the steps leading to one of the rooms in the Middle Temple. There is nothing about the man that can help identify him, but a piece of paper with the address of a certain lawyer. Spargo feels that this could be his big story and gets drawn into the mystery. Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1933) was an English author and journalist, one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the golden age. After his career as a journalist, Fletcher began writing poetry, then historical fiction, and finally moved on to writing detective stories he is best known for.

All this led to the appearance of Mr. Aylmore, M. P., on the stand. And Spargo knew and felt that it was that aspect that the crowded court was waiting for. Thanks to his vivid and realistic specials in the Watchman, everyone there had already known well and completely the mass of evidence represented by the nine witnesses who had been in the box before Mr. Aylmore entered it. They also knew the facts that Mr. Aylmore had allowed Spargo to print after the club interview, organized by Ronald Breton. Why, then, the extraordinary interest aroused by the appearance of the parliamentarian?