Saturday, March 22, 2014

Two Victorian Thrillers

THE MYSTERY OF LINCOLN'S INN.
By Robert Machray (1857-1946).
Chatto and Windus.
1903. 343 pages. 6s.
Reprinted in 2013.
Available on Kindle.
Online HERE and HERE.
A contemporary review, from which we have had to excise the SPOILERS because the critic promises not to give the plot away yet goes right ahead and does it anyway:
Mr. Robert Machray is not a man who believes in half measures; he means a mystery to be a mystery right up to the last chapter, and has evidently written The Mystery of Lincoln's Inn on this admirable principle.
It is a most ingenious story, but it would be a shame to give Mr. Machray away by unfolding the details of his intricate plot.
Suffice it to say that this is a tale of . . . [SPOILERS DELETED] . . . long enough to restore the stolen property. — "Notes on New Books," THE BOOKMAN [U.K.] (October 1903)
THE AMBASSADOR'S GLOVE.
By Robert Machray.
John Long.
1904. 315 pages. 6s.
No e-version seems to be available.

The same goes for this review:
A story that opens with a daring and mysterious midnight robbery of jewels from the bedroom of a great London hotel, and in whose second chapter a British Ambassador, who has suddenly arrived in England, dies mysteriously, and is found to have been poisoned, promises something uncommonly strong in the way of sensational fiction, and in "The Ambassador's Glove" the promise is amply fulfilled. . . . [SPOILERS DELETED] . . . It is, every way, a capital story of its kind, and carries the reader on with unflagging interest through every page to the last. — "Novel Notes," THE BOOKMAN [U.K.] (December 1904)
Category: Detective fiction

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