Joseph Smith Fletcher was a British journalist and writer. He wrote about 200 books on a wide variety of subjects, both fiction and non-fiction. He was one of the leading writers of detective fiction in the "Golden Age". An early book was the 1909 collection, The Adventures of Archer Dawe. His other works include: Andrewlina (1889), The Winding Way (1890), The Wonderful City (1894), In the Days of Drake (1897), At the Blue Bell Inn (1898), The Fear of the Night (1903) and Paradise Court (1908).