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The Riddle of the Purple Emperor

Mary E. Hanshew and Thomas W. Hanshew

Book Overview: 

Orphan Lady Margaret Cheyne returns home on her eighteenth birthday to live with her embittered maiden aunt and to take up her inheritance of the family jewels. The Cheyne jewels include a pendant featuring the Purple Emperor, a priceless jewel looted from a temple during the Indian Mutiny.

During her time at school in Paris, Lady Margaret has met and fallen in love with Sir Edgar Brenton, the son of an old flame of her aunt and a neighbour in the village of Hampton, where Cleek's adored Ailsa Lorne has also taken up residence.

Lady Margaret's return leads to a mysterious and sinister chain of events, which Cleek and Superintendent Maverick Narkom of Scotland Yard attempt to unravel, with, of course, the help of the irrepressible and ever-hungry Dollops, Cleek's cockney sidekick.

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Book Excerpt: 
. . .Review the facts however calmly, he could still find no fitting solution. Sure he was that a dead woman had stared at him from the floor of that house, but he was also just as sure that the same woman had driven him out from it. And what of Lady Margaret herself? He had not a shadow of right to insist on[Pg 44] seeing her. She was in the hands of her natural guardian, and yet, and yet——! The shadow of doubt hung over him.

He stopped short suddenly and sniffed in the air, much to the open-mouthed astonishment of Constable Roberts, whose grumbling remonstrances died away.

"Good Lord man, sir, I mean," he exclaimed, agitatedly, "but what's in the wind now?"

"Scent and sense, my good fellow," said Cleek. "There is a distinct odour of jasmine in the air and an artificial scent, Huile de jasmin at that. It is a woman's scent, too, and some woman has been here to-night. She's been on these very stone steps."

"Well, what if she has? That don't excuse. . . Read More

Community Reviews

"Загадка Пурпурного Імператора" - це класичний детектив із циклу про "людину з тисячею облич" - Ґамільтона Кліка. Так, він дещо перегукується з "Місячним каменем" Вілкі Коллінза та "Собакою Баскервілів" Артура Конан Дойля, але мені сподобався.

Цікаві персонажі (чого тільки вартує головний герой, кол

This book is such fun, in spite of the clichéd language, plagiarism, unprofessional and even criminal acts by the police department, that it's a riot all the way. In a weird way, it holds your interest despite all its drawbacks, mainly because of Inspector Cleek and the breathless excitement on each

Look, it could just be me...

...but the ending of this makes no sense at all, now does it? Is it that I'm an Australian? I don't think it is. I think the ending is clver in the sense you'll never guess it, but a problem in the sense that no normal criminal would consider it because in the real world

So wild and twisty. I would recommend it if you like Sherlock Holmes. But a tiny bit more modern.

Re-reading a classic mystery/romance. Love the series and characters. Non offensive and enjoyable (each reading). Well performed by Ruth Golding (her usual). Highly Recommended.

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