The New Inn

When a Doctor is called to the bedside of a mysterious sick man by the name of Graves, a strange and sinister plot involving poisoning is uncovered. But who is Graves and who is the villainous Weiss into whose care he has been assigned? Doctor Thorndyke is summoned to help solve the mystery of the thirty-first new inn.

This early work by Richard Austin Freeman was originally published in 1912 and we are now republishing it with a brand new introduction. 'The Mystery of 31 New Inn' is one of Freeman's novels of crime and mystery. The first story featuring his well-known protagonist Dr. Thorndyke – a medico-legal forensic investigator – was published in 1907, and although Freeman's early works were seen as simple homages to his contemporary, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, he quickly developed his own style: The 'inverted detective story', in which the identity of the criminal is shown from the beginning, and the story then describes the detective's attempt to solve the mystery.