The Chestermarke Instinct

Betty Fosdyke is a thoroughly modern, up-to-date young woman who has no compunction about calling a couple of respectable bankers liars, in the latest slang of the 1920s. It helps that she's rich and her own boss. Her uncle, Mr. Horbury, manager of the Chestermarke bank, has disappeared, and the bankers claim he went off with securities and jewels.Mr. Horbury is such a principled, trustworthy person that no one but these unpleasant bankers can believe evil of him. There has to be another explanation. Two detectives from the Yard and the local police chief investigate, aided by the press, a handsome young bank clerk, the local townspeople, a cranky old antiquarian, and a shrewd traveling tinker, among others.Part of the fun of reading a Fletcher mystery is that we think we've guessed at the truth of the matter, and we have, partially, but the whole truth is incredibly complex and unexpected.The hero of this novel is the handsome young bank clerk, Wallington Neale. He gets himself into a tight spot that will make your blood pressure spike. The heroine is Miss Fosdyke, who is refreshingly brassy and pushy. She's not even conventionally pretty, just a force to be dealt with. Neale finds her captivating.The two bankers, the Chestermarke uncle and nephew, are two of the most unforgettable creeps in the literature of detection.The Chestermarke Instinct was first published in 1921. The setting is delicious - a gossipy old English town beside a rural wasteland full of dangerous abandoned mine shafts.By Patto