Russell Thorndyke

When this story opens there were two things of paramount interest in Dymchurch. One was Romney Marsh - visited, so the villagers whispered, by flaming Demon Riders and Jack O'Lanterns. The other was Doctor Syn, their genial, kindly, well-loved vicar. To be sure it was a little incongruous at times to hear this godly man break out into the most ungodly refrain from the favourite song of the redoubtable Clegg. But Clegg had been hanged as a pirate - so it was said - full ten years before. How Syn's real identity was finally revealed when the King's men came to Dymchurch, and the strange part he played in the mystery of Romney Marsh, make this a decidedly unusual and thrilling story.