The Paradise Mystery

In the quiet cathedral town of Wrychester, a stranger falls to his death from a gallery high in the old church, and what looks at first like an accident opens into a mystery reaching back into hidden identities and a decades-old crime. Dr. Mark Ransford, guardian of two young wards, finds himself entangled as suspicion and gossip circle the close, while a determined young man works to clear a name and expose the truth. J. S. Fletcher makes fine use of the shadowed cloisters and cathedral politics, setting careful detection against the hush of an English precinct. First published in 1920, it is one of the tightly plotted mysteries that carried his reputation across Britain and the United States. Read it here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.