The Mystery of the Peacock's Eye

The Hunt Ball at Westhampton glitters with secrets. Sheila Delaney waltzes with a stranger who will give only one name: Mr. X. He vanishes into the night, leaving only an enigmatic promise. Months later, Anthony Bathurst, a private investigator with a taste for the impossible puzzle, receives a visit from the Crown Prince of Clorania, whose reputation hangs on a blackmailer's demand. Somewhere along the coast, a dentist's patient is found dead, injected with cyanide. Three threads, seemingly unrelated, begin to pull taut. What connects a mysterious dancing partner, a foreign royal, and a murdered young woman? Bathurst must untangle a web of deception woven by someone who understands that anonymity is the strongest fortress of all. First published in 1928, this is Golden Age detection at its most elegant: a murder mystery where everyone has something to hide, and the truth lies buried beneath layers of class, scandal, and calculated misdirection.