$13.95
Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime FREE Returns
FREE delivery May 22 - 23 on orders shipped by Amazon over $35
Or fastest delivery May 19 - 20
Usually ships within 2 to 3 days
$$13.95 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details
Price
Subtotal
$$13.95
Subtotal
Initial payment breakdown
Shipping cost, delivery date, and order total (including tax) shown at checkout.
Ships from
Amazon.com
Ships from
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Sold by
Amazon.com
Returns
30-day easy returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Returns
30-day easy returns
This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt.
Read full return policy
Payment
Secure transaction
Your transaction is secure
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Payment
Secure transaction
We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

J. S. Fletcher
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Middle of Things Paperback – September 20, 2005

by J S Fletcher (Author), 1stworld Library (Editor)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 479 ratings
See all formats and editions
{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$13.95","priceAmount":13.95,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"13","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"95","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"r47uaxcobOJCMZ0ojaiA1laDzAn3NS7GVVmckYs2WfnnEhU7%2FLDGyMG8kZEZdmwILGMRXhU02D0o6Y62J0uQZoht4j63EbSL9iGqI6fGnaDph7dWkIi1GTfZB5CsyzPFyLlQYgOUd5Y%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

Purchase one of 1st World Library's Classic Books and help support our free internet library of downloadable eBooks. Visit us online at www.1stWorldLibrary.ORG - - On that particular November evening, Viner, a young gentleman of means and leisure, who lived in a comfortable old house in Markendale Square, Bayswater, in company with his maiden aunt Miss Bethia Penkridge, had spent his after-dinner hours in a fashion which had become a habit. Miss Penkridge, a model housekeeper and an essentially worthy woman, whose whole day was given to supervising somebody or something, had an insatiable appetite for fiction, and loved nothing so much as that her nephew should read a novel to her after the two glasses of port which she allowed herself every night had been thoughtfully consumed and he and she had adjourned from the dining-room to the hearthrug in the library. Her tastes, however, in Viner's opinion were some-what, if not decidedly, limited. Brought up in her youth on Miss Braddon, Wilkie Collins and Mrs. Henry Wood, Miss Penkridge had become a confirmed slave to the sensational. She had no taste for the psychological, and nothing but scorn for the erotic. What she loved was a story which began with crime and ended with a detection - a story which kept you wondering who did it, how it was done, and when the doing was going to be laid bare to the light of day. Nothing pleased her better than to go to bed with a brain titivated with the mysteries of the last three chapters; nothing gave her such infinite delight as to find, when the final pages were turned, that all her own theories were wrong, and that the real criminal was somebody quite other than the person she had fancied.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    272 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    1st World Library - Literary Society
  4. Publication date
    September 20, 2005
  5. Dimensions
    5.5 x 0.61 x 8.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1421811499
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1421811499
  8. See all details
Next page
All the Little Raindrops: A Novel
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ 1st World Library - Literary Society (September 20, 2005)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 272 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1421811499
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1421811499
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.3 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.61 x 8.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 479 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
J. S. Fletcher

J. S. Fletcher

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
479 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

V
5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining early-20th century mystery that's still fun to read today
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is an entertaining early-20th century mystery with a lot of the "standards" of the genre, that's still fun to read today. It slows down a bit in the middle, I thought, but then picks up pace and delivers several twists in the final chapters.
(Btw, in response to a previous reviewer: Viner's first name is Richard).
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining mystery listening 🎶🔰
Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2022
Verified Purchase
Another will written British 🏰 murder mystery family relationships adventure thriller pulp fiction from the 1920s by J. S. Fletcher. About a man 🚹 coming back from Australia to his ward in London. He is murdered and the investigation begins leading to 👍 an unexpected conclusion. I would recommend this novel to readers of murder mysteries please note that European pulp fiction mysteries from the early 1900s is not American pulp fiction. I recommend it for a change of pace. Enjoy the adventure of reading or listening to Alexa. 2022 👒😊👑
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Milton or Gloria
5.0 out of 5 stars Nice getaway!
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2024
Verified Purchase
Enjoyed being transported to Old England. Reading words in the UK version instead of the US version. First J. S. Fletcher, I've read. Will look for another.
Helpful
 Report
Julie
4.0 out of 5 stars OK Tom
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2021
Verified Purchase
Clues come easy, class prejudice, often used devices but well framed characters keeps moving, and most of all polite respectful interesting without being crude, graphic, and morally bankrupt. I read for relaxation. If I want the other I'll switch on the boob tube.
Helpful
 Report
Tilly
3.0 out of 5 stars Not bad but no masterpiece and not Golden Age either
Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2017
Verified Purchase
Not bad for a rainy afternoon. Fletcher is by no means a distinguished writer of the 'Golden Age' as stated, neither distinguished (alhough prolific) nor even Golden Age by either chronology (he is in fact an almost exact contemporary of Conan Doyle) or by style: his writing methods don't adhere to the closed forms and strict rules professed (if not not always observed) by Golden Age writers. This particular book suffers from an immense amount of repetition whereby the characters keep explaining the plot to each other, and then generally come to an amazing cliff-hanger conclusion at the end of the chapter that you had already deduced many pages ago, but the story is a good one, and interesting, and the characters and locale reasonably well-drawn.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Fantasyman
5.0 out of 5 stars Another great read from J. S. Fletcher, one of his best!
Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2014
Verified Purchase
Fletcher really delivers in this mystery. This is a great read, the plot is original, the story line moves right along, there is lots of mystery, red herrings galore, and a wonderful windup at the end. You will not guess who done it until the very last pages. I believe this is one of Fletcher's best efforts, on par with The Middle Temple Murder, and, The Chestermarke Instinct.

Very rewarding, well worth the time.
Helpful
 Report
J&KN in NC
5.0 out of 5 stars Loved this book!
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2015
Verified Purchase
What a great reprint of a fine old English mystery writer! Yes, you can detect that it is dated, but it's so well written that it doesn't stop a reader from getting really involved with the story. And how nice that the police, lawyers, and private individuals are willing to work together for the greater good. And fine, sharp Aunt Penkridge is the one to solve the mystery, although you have to wait until the end for her to put all the clues together. So-o-o many twists and turns. I just loved this book and want to read more by J. S. Fletcher.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Glynn Young
4.0 out of 5 stars Still an entertaining story
Reviewed in the United States on August 25, 2016
Verified Purchase
Viner (whose first name we never do learn) is a young gentleman of leisure who lives with his aunt in a comfortable house in the Bayswater. They have at least two daily rituals – after dinner, he reads a murder mystery aloud to his aunt. When they’re finished and she retires, he takes a short walk before returning home and going to bed.

One evening, the reading finished, he chides his aunt as to her preference for mystery stories he considers wildly improbably. She counters with real-life examples of situations – disappearances and murders – that were even wilder than those in the stories they read. He smiles knowingly, she retires to bed, and he goes on his walk.

And runs smack into exactly one of those wildly improbable murders he has been admonishing his aunt about. He sees a young man run running from the alley behind his row house, and then he finds what the young man is running from – a body. A neighbor has been stabbed to death and apparently robbed. The police investigate, and the next day the young man is arrested trying to pawn one of the dead man’s rings. Yet what seems like an open-and-shut case turns out to be something else, something as wildly improbable as one of the aunt’s stories – long-ago disappearances, a possible impersonation, a young woman who may or may not be an heiress, and a considerable amount of general skullduggery.

This is “The Middle of Things” by J.S. Fletcher (1863-1935), originally published in 1922 (when automobiles were still called motorcars). Fletcher was one of the best-known writers during mystery’s Golden Age (roughly 1920-1950), and this mystery novel helps explain why – numerous twists and turns, witnesses suddenly turning up, and the reader left guessing until almost the very end.

The son of a clergyman, Fletcher was raised by his grandmother on a farm in Yorkshire. He became a journalist and extremely prolific author of some 237 works. He first published poetry, and eventually began writing mysteries. Amazon Kindle has Fletcher’s “The Complete Works” (15 mystery novels) for $2.99.

Viner teams up with the dead man’s lawyer to investigate what the police won’t. He’s convinced that the man charged with the crime didn’t do it; as it turns out, Viner attended school with him (and an old school boy would never commit a murder). Viner and the lawyer travel to the middle of England and track down witnesses and evidence. And they begin to uncover a nefarious plot.

A product of its era, “The Middle of Things” is still a highly entertaining story.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Ron
5.0 out of 5 stars Good read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 18, 2024
Verified Purchase
A very nice mystery thriller worth keeping to read again.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read
Reviewed in Australia on December 15, 2017
Verified Purchase
It may be an oldie, but boy, it's a goodie. Such an intriguing plot with so many twists and turns, the solution was never obvious.
Report
Aletheuon
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining cosy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
This is the first JS Fletcher mystery novel that I have read and I enjoyed it thoroughly. One reviewer says that it is not his best, which encourages me to read others, since this one was more than passable. Miss Penkridge, an unmarried lady past the first flush of youth, lives with her nephew, Viner, in a London square. An inveterate reader of mystery novels, she tries to persuade him that they are more realistic than he is prepared to admit. He pooh poohs the idea - then goes out for a walk and is thrown right into the middle of a full-blown murder mystery. The story moves at a good pace from one unexpected event to another before the murderer is found and complicated affairs relating to inheritance are resolved, to the satisfaction of all. This isn't great literature but is well-written and contains many twists and turns, an entertaining cosy mystery with which to while away a few hours of leisure. As another reviewer has pointed out there are few female characters and although Miss Penkridge comes to life, the other women are mere shadows. A woman writer would have dealt with the story differently, but then one can hardly criticise JS Fletcher for being a man!
3 people found this helpful
 Report
Mr. G. Lawrence
5.0 out of 5 stars Classic age of whodunit/mystery
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 1, 2024
Verified Purchase
I love these old detective stories. People dress for dinner and are polite. There's no gore (or as little as possible) and zero brutality and zero bad language. They just entertain in a civilized manner. (It's perfectly possible for modern writers to have standards as well - not everyone realizes that in the original Lee Child Jack Reacher books, there is no use of obscenities, absolutely none, unlike virtually every one of his contemporaries, while the books are still heroic, entertaining and interesting. It's just much less of a gamble with a writer from the 1920s or 30s. It's also nice to read about a world without mobile phones or social media as well - even if they did have to put up with the rise of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia!)
One person found this helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
4.0 out of 5 stars Old fashioned story-telling
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2016
Verified Purchase
Great old fashioned mystery. JS Fletcher certainly churned them out. This one's another on the theme of on inheritance. A dreadful murder on a London street sets off a chain of events, involving a missing peer, a claimant to the title who reappears after 35 years and a wrongly accused actor. It's just a shame JS couldn't write women characters. All the protagonists are male, and the women are reduced to wringing their hands on the sidelines. Despite a rushed ending, it's a great period read - and it's free.
3 people found this helpful
 Report