8 h 44 minAudiobook16 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
Who has a right to an inheritance—and what might someone hide to claim it?
In The Herapath Property, J. S. Fletcher draws you into a murder mystery shaped by inheritance, conspiracy, and hidden secrets. Property sits at the heart of the puzzle. Questions of money, trust, and rightful ownership give you reasons to look closely at what people reveal—and what they keep back.
This is a quiet, clue-driven story in the English detective tradition. Fletcher builds his cases step by step, inviting patience rather than a rush toward the answer. Ordinary talk deserves attention: facts can sit in plain sight. The pleasure lies in weighing what you learn and keeping questions open as the puzzle takes shape.
What you’ll discover
- An inheritance under scrutiny Consider who has a rightful claim when property becomes the center of a mystery.
- Money, trust, and secrecy Explore how questions of ownership bring trust and hidden interests into focus.
- Clues in ordinary talk Pay close attention to everyday exchanges, where Fletcher often places facts worth remembering.
- A measured detective puzzle Settle into a case that takes shape gradually, rewarding patience and a watchful eye.
- Fletcher's world of detection Meet the quiet, clue-led approach of an English novelist with a journalist's background.
Who will love it
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.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A host vanishes from his own house
- Barthorpe takes charge and the press arrives
- The sandwich, the glass and the ring
- A will in a secret drawer
- Police, press and a man from Scotland
- A caveat, a rosewood box and a family meeting
- One man refuses to believe it
- What the book is really about
- How the story is told
Who’s who
- Jacob HerapathA busy politician and builder of luxury flats, he is found shot in his private office after a strange night.
- Peggie WynneHis twenty-one-year-old niece, steady and warm-hearted, who inherits his fortune and wants her cousin treated fairly and the murderer found.
- SelwoodHerapath's new secretary, honest and quietly in love with Peggie, who is drawn into the hunt for the truth.
- Mr. TertiusA mild, bespectacled old man who has lived in the house for fifteen years and guards a secret while he gathers evidence.
- Barthorpe HerapathThe dead man's nephew and solicitor, cool and ambitious, who resents Tertius and is determined to learn what he will inherit.
- Frank BurchillHerapath's former secretary, a handsome, theatrical man with a hold over the family and a price for his silence.
- TriffittA young reporter on the Argus who sees his chance to solve the case and writes his own name across it.
- Detective Inspector DavidgeA stolid, genial Scotland Yard man who looks ordinary, listens to everyone and keeps his own counsel.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 8 h 44 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 16 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La propiedad Herapath
by J. S. Fletcher · 1921
Herapath dies at midnight, yet his coachman swears he came home at one, and a sandwich is nibbled.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
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.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
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.
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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.
The author
J. S. Fletcher
1863–1935 · English mystery novelist
Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863–1935) was a British journalist and author who lived in England. He was born in Halifax, Yorkshire. He wrote historical fiction, detective novels and poetry during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His novels include Ravensdene Court, The Herapath Property and In the Mayor’s Parlour.
More by J. S. Fletcher
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