J. S. Fletcher 
Middle Temple Murder 

An intrepid young journalist investigates the murder of an unknown man in this spellbinding mystery from the Golden Age of detective fiction On his way home after a long night’s work, newspaper editor Frank Spargo stumbles across a crime scene on Middle Temple Lane in the heart of London’s legal district. An elderly man lies dead in an entryway, his nose bloodied. He wears an expensive suit and a fashionable gray cap, but the police find nothing of value in his pockets, and no identifying documents of any kind.   Unable to sleep, Spargo pays a visit to the mortuary in the early hours of the morning and learns that a crumpled piece of paper has been recovered from a hole in the dead man’s waistcoat. Strangely, the name and address it bears are familiar to Spargo. Succumbing to his reporter’s instincts, he vows to get the story and help Scotland Yard uncover the identities of both victim and killer.   President Woodrow Wilson greatly admired The Middle Temple Murder, and his public praise of the novel helped to popularize J. S. Fletcher’s books in the United States.   This ebook features a new introduction by Otto Penzler and has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.