John Gillam was a gambler. John Gillam faced financial ruin and was the victim of a sinister blackmail attempt. John Gillam is now dead. In this exceptional mystery, Dr Thorndyke is brought in to untangle the secrecy surrounding the death of John Gillam, a man not known for insanity and thoughts of suicide.
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'This man Austin Freeman is a wonderful performer -- Raymond Chandler
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About the Author
R. Austin Freeman is the doyen of the scientific division of detective writing, is best known for his character Dr John Thorndyke. A close and careful investigator and the outstanding medical authority in the field of detective fiction, R. Austin Freeman not only tested the wits of the reader but also inspired many modern detective forensic methods. Much of his long life was spent as a physician and surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, London. He also held posts in West Africa and later was a medical officer at Holloway Prison. The most famous of the Edwardian detective writers, he rescued the detective story from "thrillerdom" and made it acceptable to a more discerning class of reader.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Classic Mystery Writer-Still Readable?,
By drkhimxz (Freehold, NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Felo de Se (Paperback)
I should have answered my question with a qualified, "yes, of course", for about three-quarters of the book, as one and then another narrator described the action from his own viewpoint. Somewhat stilted in language for a contemporary reader (Freeman-1862-1943) but nothing that would interfere with one's enjoyment.A puzzling mystery was set out, the Legal Forensics Specialist (as he would be called in today's book of similar type) called in to resolve certain aspects of the crime, he questioned, poked around, collected evidence with his trusty helpmates, analyzed in his laboratory, spoke scientific to his associate, and cogitated. Then he began to unveil his solution, at considerable length and in considerable detail. That is the point at which I decided to leave the question mark in the title of the review. For some readers, I know, the detailed analysis will be chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and whipped cream on top. Others will have their eyes glaze over. I fell more into the latter than the former category; however, I could not understand how the elaborate unraveling of symbolism in the DaVinci Code could hold readers, who, like I, surely wanted the author to get ahead with his story and stop all that jabbering. For some reason, nevertheless, for a sufficient numbers of readers to make the author a millionaire, I don't know how many times over, all that jabbering was fascinating.
Go figure. At any rate, despite my misgivings, I can give it qualified approval, it is a well conceived, and mostly well-written story, for some it will be first rate, for others it will be an eye-closer. Since it is available as an ebook online free of charge, with kindle downloading Freeman books (I did not check whether it has this one) for a buck a batch (and similar devices probably doing something about the same), I would urge the average reader, for whom the price of this edition gives pause (as it did me save for a bargain rate,) to take the appropriate alternative way to start with an author, who, if he pleases you, is available inexpensively in increasing numbers of books.
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