The North Shore Mystery
by Henry Fletcher
Excrept from Chapter I
THE CRIME
On August 15, 188–, the public of Sydney were aroused to unusual excitement by the following announcement in the Evening Times of that date—
“A NORTH SHORE MYSTERY.
CRIME OR SUICIDE?
SUDDEN AND UNEXPLAINED DEATH OF A
WELL-KNOWN SPORTSMAN.
STABBED TO DEATH IN HIS BED.
HOW WAS IT DONE?"
The usual quiet of North Shore was this morning rudely dispelled by the alarming rumour that a crime of an unusual kind had been committed in the house of Mrs. Delfosse, Lavender Bay.
About the Author
Henry Fletcher was born in London and came to Australia in 1872, living in Tasmania and travelling through the Australian colonies and New Zealand before going to live in Europe. He returned to Australia many years later and began writing fiction, with short stories appearing in the Bulletin from the mid-1890s. His first novel, The North Shore Mystery (1899), was a detective story praised in reviews of the time for being 'distinctively Australian.' His subsequent 'Wayback' series of novels - including The Waybacks: In Town and at Home (1902) and The Waybacks Again, or, Love at Dingo Flat (1910) - were humorous portrayals of a bush family that were successfully adapted for the theatre in 1916.
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