Talk:The Markenmore Mystery

Reviews

 * The Nation, 14 Nov 1923: There is something about the presence of a butler on the opening page of a detective story which augurs well for the breathless nature of the ensuing chapters. A butler is symbolic of leisure, and people with leisure have time to be bafflingly murdered; hence the basic elements of a good thriller. Mr. Fletcher has contributed another to his ample list of lively narratives, soundly plotted and adroitly unraveled.


 * "The Bookman Recommends" in The Bookman, Nov 1923: "The Markenmore Mystery" (Knopf) 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 noyels. 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.