A Silent Witness is a detective mystery by R. Austin Freeman, a pioneer of scientific crime fiction. It opens with a student's strange night-time experience near Gospel Oak, drawing him into a case that grows increasingly puzzling. Listen for its careful plotting, period atmosphere, and early forensic detection.
For teachers and schools: paste the code into your site or blog.
Cover of the original edition (Project Gutenberg, public domain).
Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
A SILENT WITNESS BY R. AUSTIN FREEMAN Author of The Red Thumb Mark, The Eye of Osiris, etc. New York DODD, MEAD & COMPANY 1929 [COPYRIGHT] PǼœƯƗǪƒŧŠ Ɨƿ U.S.A., 1929 BΏ DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY, Iƿŕ. CONTENTS
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE MYSTERY
II. THE FINDING OF THE RELIQUARY
III. “WHO IS SYLVIA?”
IV. SEPTIMUS MADDOCK, DECEASED
V. THE LETHAL CHAMBER
VI. А COUNCIL OF WAR
VII. AN UNSEEN ENEMY
VIII. "IT'S AN ILL WIND-"
IX. THORNDYKE TAKES UP THE SCENT
X. THE UNHEEDED WARNING
XI. А CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS
XII. MISS VYNE
XIII. A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER
XIV. A Lonely Woman
XV. EXIT DR. JARDINE
XVI. ENTER FATHER HUMPERDINCK
XVII. THE PALIMPSEST
XVIII. A VISITOR FROM THE STATES
XIX. TENEBRAE
XX. THE HUE AND CRY
XXI. THE FINAL PROBLEM
XXII. THORNDYKE REVIEWS THE CASE
A SILENT WITNESS
CHAPTER I.
THE BEGINNING OF THE MYSTERY
THE history upon which I am now embarking abounds in incidents so amazing that, as I look back on them, a something approaching to scepticism contends with my vivid recollections and makes me feel
Readnara
