The Ivory Snuff Box

Detective Richard Duvall has only moments to savor his newly‑wedded bliss before his wedding night when the Prefect of Police summons him for a sudden, cryptic assignment. A small piece of paper orders him to a dusty curio shop on Rue de Richelieu and then on to London, where the French ambassador has lost an ivory snuff box that could affect the fate of a nation. Duvall’s mind races between thoughts of his wife Grace waiting at the pension and the unsettling feeling that he is being pulled into something far larger than a simple theft.

The shop itself is a cluttered museum of forgotten treasures—ivory figurines, tarnished weapons, cracked portraits—that seems to conceal more clues than it reveals. As Duvall bargains with the eccentric proprietor and boards the train to England, he senses hidden motives and a web of diplomatic intrigue that could test his loyalty and his very sense of purpose.