Helen Vardon’s Confession by R. Austin Freeman

Description

R. Austin Freeman invented the inverted detective story and made Dr. John Thorndyke the model of the scientific sleuth. In this novel he hands the narrative to Helen Vardon herself — a young woman whose quiet life is disturbed at a fixed and fateful moment, and who must confess a good deal, none of it chosen freely. Freeman builds the book as Helen’s own testimony, which makes the reader’s helplessness, and Thorndyke’s patience, all the more compelling.

The crime at the heart of the book turns on a scheme of unusual subtlety — a studied misuse of law and medicine rather than violence — and only Thorndyke’s method of endless exact observation can undo it. Freeman’s fascination with the details of professional practice, from the lawyer’s office to the physician’s consulting room, gives the mystery its texture; his fairness gives it its power, for every clue the great detective uses has been placed squarely in the reader’s way.

Why readers still come back to it

• One of the finest of the Dr. Thorndyke novels
• An ingenious crime of scheme rather than violence
• The fair-play scientific detection Freeman made his own

About this DodaBooks edition

This edition gives you the complete text with clean, professional typesetting, a working table of contents, and careful chapter navigation — designed for comfortable reading on phones, tablets, and e-readers. Instant download after purchase.