+ Cleveland p72 Ag ’20 50w Lit D p100 O 23 ’20 1350w + N Y Times 25:25 Jl 11 ’20 390w
“The excellent reputation earned by J. S. Fletcher as a teller of engaging mystery tales is preserved in his latest story, ‘The Paradise mystery.’”
+ Springf’d Republican p11a Jl 18 ’20 240w
FLETCHER, JOSEPH SMITH. Talleyrand maxim. il *$1.75 (2c) Knopf
20–627
Linford Pratt, a young lawyer, is inspired by Talleyrand’s maxim: “With time and patience the mulberry leaf is turned into satin.” He knew that wit and skill were his, and that time and patience, coupled with opportunity, would bring him the fortune he craved. He was not over nice about the opportunity. It came to him in the shape of a will whose existence no one suspected. It was to have been the first rung of the ladder by which he was to rise. Complications set in in the shape of an unknown witness of his theft, and wits as sharp as his. He must rid himself of the first by murder; he must extricate himself from the latter by blackmail, by fraud and intrigue and still another murder. But the net closes in about him till a bullet from his own weapon is his only means of escape. Side by side with this tale of horror goes a perfectly good romance between a good young man and a virtuous young woman.
“A very ingenious and well told mystery story.”
+ Booklist 16:204 Mr ’20
“In the invention and use of the complications, little and big, with which the author weaves and embroiders his plot, advances and delays its movement, and intrigues the reader’s attention, Mr Fletcher works with ingenuity, resource and skill. And he writes with a freshness of touch and an individual quality of style not always possessed by writers of detective fiction.”