The Middle of Things

The narrative opens with a young gentleman who enjoys reading sensational fiction with his aunt and becomes drawn into a real-life mystery when a man is found dead and a destitute acquaintance is arrested after pawning a ring. The accused protests innocence as a police inquiry and private investigations probe a tangled past, parish records, an international episode, and conflicting claimants. Legal hearings, secret letters, and chance encounters gradually unmask hidden identities and motives; the plot moves between domestic rooms, police stations and foreign cities before the investigators assemble the documentary and eyewitness evidence that disclose what really happened and who must tell the truth.