The Hampstead Mystery is written by John R. Watson & Arthur J. Rees. The story starts with inspector Seldon and Flack approaching the Rivers brook mansion. With the large, antique brass knocker, Inspector Seldon forcefully banged on the front door. He waited patiently for a response, but other than the harsh tone of an electric bell, nothing else was heard. Inspector Seldon immediately circled the house's side, checking the windows along the way. On the exterior woodwork, he noticed that one of the catches had been damaged. Inspector Seldon strolled along the corridor, shining his torch into each room as he went. Inspector Seldon carefully examined the hangings and the figure. It was misaligned and on the verge of falling off its pedestal. A door on the right, in the passage just beyond the landing, was thrown wide open. Inspector Seldon found Flack kneeling beside the body of a man who had been dead for hours. He discovered the wound where the blood had come from over his heart. He added, lightly caressing the wound, "It doesn't take a big wound to kill a guy.
Australian author Arthur John Rees (1872-1942) was born in Australia. He was a Melbourne native who briefly worked for the Melbourne Age before switching to the New Zealand Herald. He probably traveled to England when he was in his early 20s. In the preface to Great Short Fiction of Detection, Mystery, and Horror, 1928, Dorothy Sayers attests to his skill as a writer of crime-mystery stories. Two of his pieces were included in a detective story anthology published in the United States. His writings have been translated into German and French, respectively. On January 9, 1878, Watson was born in South Carolina. When John was 13 years old, his drunken father, Pickens Butler Watson, abandoned the family to live with two Indian women, a crime he never forgot. John Watson was given that name by his mother, Emma Kesiah Watson (née Roe), a devout woman who upheld the restrictions against drinking, smoking, and dancing. She did so in the hopes that it would assist her son be called to preach the Gospel. Watson's mother sold their farm in an effort to escape poverty and moved Watson to Greenville, South Carolina to give him a better chance at success.
