The Red Seal by Natalie Sumner Lincoln

Description

When James Turnbull, cashier of the Metropolis Trust Company, is marched into the Washington police court as the burglar John Smith and dies of an apparent heart attack two hours later, the police are ready to close the file. The McIntyre twins are not. Helen, his fiancée, insists on an autopsy; Barbara, who set the whole disaster moving with an idle wager, is certain the death was murder — and sure she is somehow responsible.

The case widens through the capital: a letter that makes the dead cashier look like a forger, a lawyer who vanishes, an eavesdropper at the window, and the red-sealed envelope whose contents nobody can bring himself to examine. Set in the Washington of the early twentieth century, the novel introduced Detective Ferguson and remains a finely engineered challenge to the reader to suspect everyone.

Why readers still come back to it

• A death in open court, a disguise stripped off, and a puzzle built to hold to the final page.
• The McIntyre twins give the story two sharp, believable women at its centre.
• An early American crime classic, suddenly readable again.

About this DodaBooks edition

Set for a suspense read: clean professional type, a working table of contents, and crisp chapter breaks that keep the puzzle moving. The case is yours to open the minute your purchase is confirmed and the file arrives.