The Borough Treasurer

Two of the most respected men in a Yorkshire moorland town, a mayor and his business partner, have spent thirty years burying a shared secret from their youth. When a quiet newcomer who knows the truth turns up dead on the moor, suspicion settles close to home, and a visiting barrister sets out to discover what really happened. J. S. Fletcher builds his mystery on the theme of respectability bought with a lie, following blackmail, a second death, and a chain of small-town evasions toward an unhurried solution. First published in 1921, it is a solid example of the Yorkshire crime writing that made him a fixture of the golden-age detective boom. Read it here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.