Resumen
Resumen de La propiedad Herapath
Para quién es
Readers who enjoy puzzles with fair clues, foggy London streets and grand houses, family quarrels over a fortune, and amateur friends and young journalists racing the police to the truth.
De qué trata este libro
The Herapath Property is a murder mystery by J. S. Fletcher, set in London in the early twentieth century. Its victim is Jacob Herapath, a sitting politician in the House of Commons and the builder of a famous block of luxury apartments in Kensington. One November morning he is missing from his house in Portman Square, and by breakfast he is found dead in his private office.
Fletcher builds the book around a puzzle that he lays out early and plainly. The police surgeon says Herapath died at midnight. The coachman swears he saw him go home at one. A supper tray in the study shows that someone ate and drank after that hour. The rest of the novel asks what those facts can possibly mean, and it lets you follow the clues alongside the characters.
You meet a lively cast: a young secretary who is quietly in love, a gentle old man in tinted glasses, a cold nephew who is also a lawyer, a theatrical former secretary, a hungry young reporter and a calm detective from Scotland Yard. Money hangs over all of them, because Herapath leaves a fortune that his nephew puts at a million and a half pounds. Let us begin with the morning the butler telephones the secretary.
En este resumen
- 1A host vanishes from his own houseFree
- 2Barthorpe takes charge and the press arrives
- 3The sandwich, the glass and the ring
- 4A will in a secret drawer
- 5Police, press and a man from Scotland
- 6A caveat, a rosewood box and a family meeting
- 7One man refuses to believe it
- 8What the book is really about
- 9How the story is told
Idea clave 1 de 9
A host vanishes from his own house
Selwood has worked for three weeks as secretary to Jacob Herapath, a restless and orderly sitting politician in the House of Commons who lives in Portman Square and builds model apartments. One November morning at half past seven, the telephone beside Selwood's bed rings, and it is the butler, Kitteridge, not his master. Selwood runs to the house and finds Kitteridge and the coachman, Mountain, in the hall. Herapath has not slept in his bed and is nowhere in the house.
Mountain tells his story. He fetched Herapath from the House of Commons at a quarter past eleven and drove him to the estate office in Kensington. Herapath stayed there nearly an hour, then came out, said only the word home, and was set down at his own door at one o'clock. Mountain watched him put his key in the lock. Everyone in the house goes to bed by half past eleven, as the master insists, so nobody else saw him come in.
The proof that he did come in lies in the study. The supper tray left out every night shows a glass used and a sandwich nibbled. Peggie Wynne, his niece, a calm young woman of about twenty-one whom he has raised since she was small, joins the men and refuses to panic. Mr. Tertius suggests a telephone call to the estate office, and Peggie agrees at once. Selwood, already half in love with her, admires her steadiness.
Then comes Mr. Tertius, a small, grey-bearded man in dark glasses who lives in the house and whose place in the family nobody can explain. While the others hurry to the telephone, he stays behind with the tray. He holds the glass up to the light, lifts the bitten sandwich with his fingertips, seals it in an envelope and carries it to his rooms. No one sees him do it.
At the estate office, a police inspector meets them. Herapath has been found dead on the hearthrug of his private room, shot through the right temple, with a revolver near his right hand. The inspector calls it suicide or murder, and Peggie rejects suicide at once. The police surgeon adds the fact that drives the whole book. The body has been dead about eight hours, so Herapath died near midnight, an hour before he was seen going home.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Questions about La propiedad Herapath
What is The Herapath Property about?
It is a detective novel about the death of Jacob Herapath, a rich London builder and politician. A doctor, a coachman and a half-eaten sandwich seem to place him in two spots at once, and a disputed will sets his heirs against each other.
Who is Mr. Tertius in The Herapath Property?
Mr. Tertius is a mild, bespectacled old man who has lived in Jacob Herapath's house for fifteen years. He is a friend of the dead man, a witness to his will and a careful gatherer of evidence.
Who wrote The Herapath Property and when is it set?
J. S. Fletcher wrote it. The story takes place in London in the early twentieth century, with horse-drawn carriages, early taxis, telephones and newsboys selling special editions of the evening papers.
Is The Herapath Property easy to follow?
Yes, the chapters are short and lively, with a clear line of events and plenty of dialogue. Fletcher sets out the key facts early and gives each character a distinct voice, so the puzzle is simple to track.
Why does the will matter so much in the story?
The will leaves the whole Herapath fortune to Peggie Wynne, nothing to her cousin Barthorpe, and names two witnesses. Whether it is genuine becomes the centre of a quarrel that shapes who is suspected.