The Riddle of the Purple Emperor

Description

This book published in 1919 is a detective with surprise elements and a hard-to-predict scenario, but also full of adventure and suspense, where feelings of love and hate are entangled intricately in a plot that is worked out step by step.

The story starts by introducing young Lady Margaret Cheyne (18 years old), who settles with her aunt a few years after her father dies and after spending several years at the convent of Notre Dame in Paris. According to the will left by her father, she is to inherit all family jewels, including the most important of them – the Purple Emperor, a sizeable diamond, stolen from an Indian temple during the Indian Mutiny.

Her aunt, Miss Cheyne lives a solitary, confined life in a lonely house on the Themes. Being a maiden, and having suffered from previous disappointments in love, she wants to impose the same lifestyle upon her niece. Despite this fact, Lady Margaret, falls in love with Sir Edgar Brenton, whom she initially came to know during his and his mother’s visit to Paris and who reciprocates with strong feelings. The new relationship, however, finds itself in a delicate context, considering that Sir Edgar’s father is the very person who abandoned Miss Cheyne after a former relationship, leaving her heart broken.

The intrigue starts after the return of Lady Margaret, when a series of strange negative events happen including the sinister disappearance of people and the occurrence of mysterious flames at night. These events are being actively investigated by Hamilton Cleek (who is also the protagonist of “Cleek: The Man of the Forty Faces”), his friend and protégé Dollops, superintendent Maverick Narkom of Scotland Yard, and several other secondary characters like the superintendent’s chauffeur Lennard, detective sergeants Hammond and Petrie, constable Roberts.
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