Joseph Smith Fletcher was born in West Yorkshire in 1863. He was one of the most prolific English writers of detective fiction, completing over 230 fiction and nonfiction books in his lifetime. With so many books to his credit, it is strange that he is not more well-known. This could be because Fletcher's style of writing did not fall into the usual detective fiction of the time. While other authors had consistent sleuths that they relied on, Fletchers used various accidental detectives to uncover the plots and solve the mysteries. His books are filled with adventure and intrigue where the characters are in search of a hidden truth as opposed to only fighting criminality. Scarhaven keep is no exception. The
characters are all well-developed and there are lots of lovely twists and turns before we get to the final resolution. Fletcher is sometimes described as a "golden age" author, which is in fact incorrect, as many of his books pre-date this era. Interestingly, he was a contemporary of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Scarhaven Keep is one of his later novels.