Synopsis
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.
About the Author
J.S. Fletcher English writer Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863 –1933) wrote more than 200 books on a variety of subjects, fiction and non-fiction, and was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the "Golden Age". He was born in West Yorkshire and raised by his grandmother on a farm. He studied law but became a journalist working as a London-based sub-editor. He later worked for the Leeds Mercury and Yorkshire Post covering Edward VII's coronation in 1902. He wrote numerous historical novels, many dealing with Yorkshire and was a fellow of the Royal Historical Society. Fletcher wrote several novels of rural life beginning with The Wonderful Wapentake (1894). Michael Sadleir stated that Fletcher's historical novel, When Charles I Was King (1892), was his best work. In 1914, Fletcher wrote his first detective novel and went on to write more than 100 others, many featuring private investigator Ronald Camberwell.
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