The Talleyrand Maxim
A sharp, ambitious solicitor’s clerk named Linford Pratt lives by a cynical rule borrowed from Talleyrand: that a cool head and a ready lie can turn any chance to advantage. When a wealthy Yorkshire manufacturer dies and Pratt learns of a suppressed will that would redirect a fortune, he sees the opening of his life and sets about bending other people’s secrets to his own profit. J. S. Fletcher makes the schemer rather than a detective his center here, following greed, blackmail, and quiet manipulation toward a reckoning. First published in 1919, it mixes crime with character study in the brisk Yorkshire manner that made him one of the era’s bestselling storytellers. Read it here as a free PDF and EPUB edition.
About the Author
Joseph Smith Fletcher (1863-1935) was an English journalist and one of the most prolific authors of his generation, credited with well over two hundred books. A Yorkshireman who began in poetry and regional history, he turned to detective fiction in his fifties and won a…
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