
In the bustling heart of London, the flamboyant Home Secretary Topham Vinson is as famous for his daring reforms as he is for his occasional brushes with the city’s underbelly. One crisp autumn night he discovers his pocket watch missing, only to be confronted by a swift, hat‑tipping stranger who has already retrieved it from the thief and offers a cheeky explanation. Vinson, impressed by the young man’s audacity, invites him into his opulent drawing‑room for champagne, oysters, and a promise of gratitude.
The stranger, a physician with an uncanny knack for untangling the human mind as deftly as he does a wound, soon finds himself drawn into Vinson’s world of political intrigue and criminal puzzles. Together they begin to tackle a series of baffling cases, where medical insight becomes the key to catching culprits who think they are untouchable. Their partnership promises a blend of sharp wit, high‑society glamour, and a fresh approach to solving the mysteries that lurk behind the polished veneer of Victorian society.
Language
en
Duration
~5 hours (327K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Malcolm Farmer, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)
Release date
2011-09-08
Rights
Public domain in the USA.

1866–1921
Best known for creating the gentleman thief A. J. Raffles, this English writer brought a sly charm to crime fiction and helped shape the modern antihero. His work also ranged widely, from novels and short stories to war writing drawn from personal loss and experience.
View all books