Publisher's Synopsis
Matrimony, money . . . and murder!
Aaron Norman, the miserable-looking bookseller with but a single, melancholy eye, lay stone-cold upon the floor -- with his mouth tightly closed beneath what seemed to be a glittering jewel.
As the housekeeper bent down in fascinated horror, she saw gleams of blue in that stone . . . then sparkles of red -- like sharp rays from the setting sun --
It was an opal serpent brooch fastening together those dead lips!
With the bizarre murder of Aaron Norman, everything changed for the worse, for the young aspiring writer, Paul Beecot, who had come to London in search of his fortune. As strange and mysterious a creature as Aaron Norman was, Paul had found in him and his daughter the possibility of financial security -- and love! Yet by a strange twist of fate everything was stolen away!
Fergus Hume (1859-1932) was author of novels of mystery and detection including The Mystery of a Hansom Cab, The Secret Passage and The Silent House.
