12 h 13 minAudiobook5 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
What if the most reliable witness to a sudden death cannot speak?
In A Silent Witness, R. Austin Freeman draws you into a case of sudden death and strange evidence. Dr. John Thorndyke, a London physician and barrister, looks past hunches and confessions. He studies the small physical facts others overlook, searching for what they can reveal.
Humphrey Jardine tells the story, watching the investigation closely but often missing what the clues mean. You stand beside him as Thorndyke sets out facts and weighs explanations. Objects, marks and traces become witnesses in a mystery that invites you to follow the reasoning, not simply wait for an answer.
What you’ll discover
- A detective who observes Watch Thorndyke bring medical knowledge and legal reasoning to evidence that others pass over.
- Clues within your reach Examine the facts alongside Jardine and consider what each small detail might mean.
- The testimony of objects Discover how marks and traces can bear witness without a single spoken word.
- Science at the center Explore a mystery shaped by Freeman's medical training and interest in physical evidence.
- Room to think Settle into clear conversations that lay out facts and give competing explanations careful attention.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like puzzles built from small physical clues, scenes of narrow escape, and a calm investigator who reasons step by step toward the truth.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A dead man vanishes from Millfield Lane
- Small clues point toward Ken Wood
- A girl with a sketchbox and a strange painter
- A routine death certificate and a watching woman
- The cellar, the gas and the rescue
- Thorndyke reads the traces others miss
- Danger follows Jardine across London
- Father Humperdinck's tale and the lonely woman
- What the story is really about
Who’s who
- Humphrey JardineA young doctor and the teller of the story, who finds a body that vanishes and is hunted for what he has seen.
- Dr. John ThorndykeA lecturer in medical jurisprudence who solves crimes by calm reasoning from small physical facts.
- Dr. JervisThorndyke's lively junior partner, who helps investigate and teases Jardine.
- Sylvia VyneA young painter on Hampstead Heath who becomes Jardine's friend and wears a small gold crucifix.
- Miss VyneSylvia's imposing aunt, who looks stern and speaks with dry wit.
- Mrs. SamwayA striking woman with pale eyes who appears at every turn and shows Jardine unexpected feeling.
- PoltonThorndyke's skilled and precise laboratory assistant, who mends watches and makes disguises.
- Father HumperdinckA Jesuit who comes to Thorndyke because his friend and benefactor has vanished.
Formats and delivery
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 12 h 13 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 5 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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Read and hear Un témoin silencieux in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Un témoin silencieux
by R. Austin Freeman · 1914
A medical student finds a dead man in a rainy lane, then watches the police find nothing there.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
A young doctor shelters from the rain in a dark Hampstead lane and notices what looks like a boot. It is a dead man, and by the time the police arrive, the body is gone.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A dead man vanishes from Millfield Lane
Humphrey Jardine, a newly qualified doctor, takes a late walk along Millfield Lane in Hampstead. Rain drives him to shelter, and he spots what seems to be a stump shaped like a foot. It is the body of an elderly man in clerical dress, cold and without a pulse.
Jardine fetches the police, but the body is gone when the inspector arrives. The sergeant suggests the man only fainted and walked away. Jardine is sure he was dead, yet he cannot prove it, and the police treat him with open suspicion.
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What is A Silent Witness about?
A young doctor, Humphrey Jardine, finds a dead man in a Hampstead lane, and the body vanishes. He is then attacked several times. Dr. Thorndyke investigates and ties these events to a cremation and a missing Jesuit benefactor.
Who is Dr. Thorndyke?
Thorndyke is a lecturer in medical jurisprudence, a doctor and lawyer who solves crimes by observing small physical facts, testing hypotheses and using science. He appears in many of Freeman's books.
What does the gold reliquary mean?
The small gold case is a reliquary, a container for a holy relic. Its letters A.M.D.G. and S.V.D.P. point to the Jesuits and to Saint Vincent de Paul, and its owner becomes a central clue.
The author
R. Austin Freeman
1862–1943 · British detective novelist
Richard Austin Freeman (1862–1943) was a British doctor and writer. He was born in London and died in Gravesend, Kent. He wrote detective novels and short stories featuring the medical investigator Dr John Thorndyke. His first Thorndyke novel, The Red Thumb Mark, was published in 1907.
More by R. Austin Freeman
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