Audiobook · read by volunteers
Dead Men's Money
J. S. Fletcher (1863–1935)
Read by Esther, Lucy Burgoyne (1950-2014), J. M. Smallheer, Stephanie König, Alan Chant, Hazel Chant, Lizzie Driver, Gesine, Ian Skillen, Nichole Karl · 37 chapters · 7 h 39
About the book
It begins with a midnight meeting that ends in a death. From that first scene, nothing is quite what it seems in J. S. Fletcher's detective story, and the title already hints that money lies at the heart of the matter. Clues turn up in unexpected places, trustworthy characters become suspect, and a good deal of ingenuity is needed to find a way through the tangle. Fletcher keeps the pace brisk and the atmosphere shadowy, as a good mystery should. It is a good example of the English detective story in the years after the First World War, built for readers who like to follow the trail and weigh the suspects for themselves. A team of volunteer readers shares the thirty-seven chapters, and every voice adds a little more suspicion. Plot twists, red herrings and a tightening puzzle will keep you guessing right to the closing pages.
Introduction
Joseph Smith Fletcher, who lived from 1863 to 1935, was an English journalist and author who wrote a very large number of books, among them histories of Yorkshire and, most of all, detective novels. At the height of his popularity in the 1920s, he was among the most widely read crime writers in Britain and the United States. He was born in Halifax, in Yorkshire, and his big success in the detective field began with The Middle Temple Murder in 1919, after which a stream of mysteries followed. Dead Men's Money, which appeared in 1920, is one of them.
It belongs to the classic English mystery tradition, an age when the puzzle was the main attraction and the reader was invited to guess along. Fletcher relies on a steady series of discoveries, misleading appearances and neat twists, and he writes in a straightforward, readable style. The pace is steady and the style plain.
This LibriVox recording lasts nearly eight hours and is divided into 37 chapters. It is read by a team of volunteers, which gives the many characters a pleasing variety of voices. Mysteries of this kind invite the listener to keep a running list of suspects and to be proved wrong. It is a good choice for fans of vintage whodunits, and for anyone who likes a story that keeps its secrets until the very end.
The detective story of this period was often built on small observations and slow reveals, and Fletcher is a patient craftsman. The mixture of small-town manners and hidden crime gives the novel its character, and the changing voices help to tell the many suspects apart.
Public domain
J. S. Fletcher died in 1935: the work is in the public domain in Switzerland, more than 70 years after the author’s death.
The LibriVox volunteers dedicated this recording to the public domain.
Sources : LibriVox page · Files at the Internet Archive · Original text