J. S. Fletcher Books in Order (Updated February 25, 2026)

J. S. Fletcher (Joseph Smith Fletcher, 1863-1935) wrote a huge range of fiction and nonfiction, but readers today usually come for the detective and mystery work. The tricky part is that Fletcher didn’t write one neat, modern “series universe.” Instead, he wrote several different detective lines, plus a large set of standalone mysteries.

Use this page to pick the lane you want, then follow the correct order inside that lane.

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Pick your Fletcher in 30 seconds

If you want one classic that stands on its own:

• The Middle Temple Murder (1919): A journalist stumbles onto a body near the Inns of Court, and a tight London investigation unfolds through legal clues, hidden identities, and pressure from every side.

If you want Fletcher’s most “series-like” run:

• Start Ronald Camberwell (Book 1) and read straight through.

If you want short, snackable detection stories (no long commitment):

• Start with The Adventures of Archer Dawe, Sleuth-Hound (1909).

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The “read this, then decide” starter pack

1. The Middle Temple Murder (1919): A dawn discovery pulls a newspaperman into a case where the victim’s past is the real locked room.
2. The Murder at Wrides Park (1931): A private investigator takes a country-house killing that refuses to stay simple once the witnesses start rearranging the truth.
3. The Adventures of Archer Dawe, Sleuth-Hound (1909): An older amateur sleuth solves compact, twisty cases where observation beats force.
4. The Paradise Mystery (1921): A town’s respectability becomes the camouflage, and the investigation has to cut through social performance to find motive.
5. The Charing Cross Mystery (1923): Money moves like a weapon, and the case tracks the human cost of financial deception.

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Ronald Camberwell (Read in Order)

Ronald Camberwell is Fletcher’s clearest recurring-series detective. These books are designed as a case-book sequence, and later entries assume you already know the setup and working relationships.

1. The Murder at Wrides Park (1931): A seemingly contained murder scene opens into a web of status, secrets, and leverage that won’t stay on the estate.
2. Murder in Four Degrees (1931): A case tied to power and publicity widens fast, and Camberwell has to separate editorial noise from evidence.
3. Murder in the Squire’s Pew (1932): A church theft turns lethal, and the investigation becomes a test of who had access, and who had reason to hide it.
4. Murder of the Ninth Baronet (1932): A title, a family, and a death collide, forcing Camberwell to map inheritance pressure into real-world violence.
5. Murder of the Only Witness (1933): The one person who could clarify the case is gone, and the investigation becomes a reconstruction job under time pressure.
6. The Mystery of the London Banker (1933): Finance and fear overlap, and Camberwell follows the paper trail into a motive that doesn’t look emotional until it is.
7. Who Killed Alfred Snowe? (1933): A name becomes the puzzle’s hinge, and the case turns on proving which story about the victim is actually true.
8. Murder of the Secret Agent (1934): A national-security angle raises the stakes, where missing truth is treated like a weapon.
9. The Ebony Box (1934): An object-centred mystery tightens into obsession, as possession and knowledge become equally dangerous.
10. The Eleventh Hour (1935): A late-breaking case forces hurried conclusions, and Camberwell has to keep speed from replacing certainty.
11. Todmanhawe Grange (1937): A final, posthumously published case that leans into legacy and long memory, where the past keeps dictating present danger.

Best starting point: The Murder at Wrides Park (1931) (Book 1).

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Archer Dawe (Short story collection)

Archer Dawe is best read as a single story-collection experience: you get the voice, the method, and the variety without needing a long sequence.

• The Adventures of Archer Dawe, Sleuth-Hound (1909): A retired businessman turns amateur detective, solving compact puzzles built around small details that most people walk past.

How to read it: front to back, or dip in anywhere, there’s no ongoing plot.

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Paul Campenhaye (Short story collection)

This is another “read-anytime” collection built around a specialist-in-criminology lens.

• Paul Campenhaye, Specialist in Criminology (1914): A set of cases framed by method and expertise, where the solution often comes from how the crime had to work rather than who looked suspicious.

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Inspector Skarratt (Loose series)

These are not numbered like Camberwell, but they share a continuing police-detective lead.

1. Marchester Royal (1909): A Yard man’s work meets a city’s private pressures, where official authority still has to negotiate local power.
2. The Wolves and the Lamb (1914): A case built around predation and vulnerability, where the social pecking order becomes the motive map.
3. The Secret of Secrets (1929): A late entry that leans into concealment as the core engine, where what’s withheld matters more than what’s said.

Practical order: read them in the order above.

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Sergeant Charlesworth (Two titles)

1. The Borgia Cabinet (1932): A dangerous object and a dangerous history intersect, and the investigation follows the shadow it casts on the living.
2. The Burma Ruby (1932) (novella): A tighter, faster case where a prized item becomes the excuse for violence and deception.

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Mr. Poskitt (Short stories)

A lighter, character-led pocket of Fletcher’s work that sits apart from the detective-heavy lanes.

1. Mr. Poskitt (1907): A Yorkshire farmer’s misadventures play as short, local tales with a comic edge.
2. Mr. Poskitt’s Nightcaps (1910): More short pieces in the same mode, built around rural life and character humour.

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Standalone mysteries: how to read them without a master list

Fletcher wrote dozens of standalone mystery novels and story collections, and editions often shuffle titles, subtitles, and reprint years. If you want a clean approach that doesn’t require tracking everything:

• Pick a theme (law-courts London; country-house crime; small-town secrets; money and fraud).
• Choose a single title that matches it.
• If you like it, read two more from the same decade (1920-1924 is a particularly dense run for his classic mystery style).

A few reliable standalone entry points many readers use:

• The Middle Temple Murder (1919): Legal London mystery with a journalist pulled into the hunt.
• The Paradise Mystery (1921): A town mystery where reputation is part of the cover story.
• The Markenmore Mystery (1922): A classic “what’s really going on in this place?” puzzle with steadily tightening suspicion.
• The Charing Cross Mystery (1923): Money, motive, and a London-centred investigation that keeps revealing hidden transactions.

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FAQs

Do I have to read J. S. Fletcher in publication order?
No. Only the Ronald Camberwell sequence really behaves like a modern series where order strongly matters.

Why do some editions show different titles for the same book?
Fletcher’s work has been heavily reprinted, especially in the public-domain era, and alternate titles are common. When you see “also published as…,” treat it as the same story in a different jacket.

What’s the simplest “correct” reading plan?
Start with The Middle Temple Murder (1919). If you want more, commit to Ronald Camberwell from Book 1.

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Bottom line

For one definitive starting point, read The Middle Temple Murder (1919). If you want the closest thing Fletcher has to a long-running, orderly series, follow Ronald Camberwell from The Murder at Wrides Park (1931) straight through to Todmanhawe Grange (1937).