Riddle of the Purple Emperor

The Purple Emperor jewel was stolen from an Indian temple during the Mutiny. Now it hangs around the neck of Lady Margaret Cheyne, returned home on her eighteenth birthday to claim her inheritance and face a house full of secrets. Her embittered aunt resents her. The man she loves lives next door. But someone in the shadows wants that purple gem badly enough to kill for it. Hamilton Cleek, the man of forty faces, must unravel the mystery before the Purple Emperor claims another victim. With his irrepressible cockney sidekick Dollops providing levity and Scotland Yard's Superintendent Narkom lending official weight, this is golden age detection at its finest - where every locked room holds a secret and every family skeleton eventually rattles its bones. The puzzle is elegant, the danger real, and the solution satisfying.