Spargo, reporter extraordinaire for the Watchman, stumbles over a murdered man in London's Middle Temple Lane, and, based on a journalistic hunch, decides to investigate. As the circle of interest widens, strange connections start to emerge ; connections that lead towards an unsuspected conspiracy of twenty years before. The Middle Temple Murder is one of the prolific J. S. Fletcher's most popular works. It builds on his earlier short story "The Contents of the Coffin, " and was published in 1919 as one of three novels he wrote that year. President Woodrow Wilson publicly praised the work, which helped Fletcher earn U. S. acclaim and eventually a publishing deal.