Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863 – 1935) was an English journalist and author. He is known for his prodigious literary output. He wrote more than 230 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction (Source: Wikipedia). The Golden Age of Detection wiki credits him with 98 mysteries and 25 collections of short mystery fiction. The first was published in 1889 and the last was completed and released posthumously in 1937. The quality of his plots and his writing are not considered outstanding; I’ve seen the word “hack” used more than once when Fletcher is under discussion. For more on Fletcher, see Mike Grost’s thoughtful analysis on the GAD wiki page: http://gadetection.pbworks.com/w/page/7930591/Fletcher%2C%20JBetS

Between 1931 and 1937 Fletcher published 11 mysteries with private investigator Ronald Camberwell. The third was Murder in the Squire’s Pew (George Harrap, 1932; Knopf, 1932) in which Canon Effingham, rector of Linwood, enlists the assistance of Camberwell and his associate Chaney in recovering priceless ecclesiastical relics that have been stolen from the church during the night. The keys were safe in his dressing room which he insisted no one entered, yet the gold paten and chalice and two expensively bound books were gone. When the canon escorted Camberwell and Chaney to the church to see the site of the crime, a brief inspection discovered the body of a man in the squire’s boxed-in pew. The canon identified him as a local lay-about believed to have existed via poaching.

And with this promising start, Camberwell and Chaney were off on another case. Blackmail, bigamy, gambling, fraud, impersonation, another murder, really more malfeasance than any crime fiction reader could ask for. The investigators work cooperatively with Scotland Yard and the local police to sift through a range of suspects and multiple surprises to identify the culprit.

While Fletcher’s style is florid with plenty of dramatics, I found the plot respectable, the characterization reasonable, and overall the book a readable story. Nearly 60 contemporary readers on Goodreads, where some of the toughest critics I can think of hang out, gave the book 4 stars, a more than acceptable rating.

The Spectator, 30 January 1932, did not agree: “A stereotyped detective story on old- fashioned lines. It is difficult to take any interest in the question of who stole the chalice and paten from the vestry and killed the poacher with a spanner. The author handles his few surprises clumsily, and the finish is flat anticlimax.”

On the other hand, TIME magazine, Jan 18, 1932, liked it.

“Joseph Smith Fletcher, methodical English author of methodical English murder stories, well deserves to be considered an Old Hand. His gradual fame spread long ago to the U. S., was fanned when curious newshawks discovered that the late President Wilson, stalwart Fletcherite, was wont to read him into the small hours in the Presidential bed. No extremist, no strainer after gruesome effects or heart-clutching surprises, Author Fletcher tells quietly a plain and fairly plausible tale, introduces no supermen, no omniscient gods of the crime world. If you are tired of Sherlock Holmeses and their attendant Watsons you may find Author Fletcher’s detectives a pleasant change.

Murder in the Squire’s Pew tells more of robbery and intrigue than of murder; you feel Author Fletcher granted a corpse only out of deference to his readers’ taste. When a well-to-do English clergyman discovered that his church had been robbed of some priceless 15th Century church vessels he was naturally upset; when the detectives he sent for found a dead man in the squire’s pew he was struck all of a heap. The murderer was tracked and some of the treasure recaptured in a few days, but before the whole truth came out Canon Effingham had a great many Disturbingly new experiences in a short time.”

Recommended for students of classic crime fiction.