THE DANVERS JEWELS "Look here, Middleton," the old man went on; "I am dying, and I know it. "I'm watched! I know I'm watched!" he said in a whisper, his pale eyes turning slowly in their sockets. "I shall be killed for them if I keep them much longer, and I won't be hurried into my grave. I'll take my own time." Sir John turned the bag inside out upon the table. Such jewels I had never seen. They fell like cut flame upon the marble table -- green and red and burning white. A large diamond rolled and fell upon the floor. I picked it up and put it back among the confused blaze of precious stones, too much astonished for a moment to speak. THE DANVERS JEWELS! Middleton's charge? To deliver this precious bag of jewels from India to a man named Ralph Danvers. But the very next day Sir John was horribly murdered! Would Middleton be able to deliver the bag to its destination safely? What were their dark secret? Here, in a classic late Victorian novel of mystery and suspense lies a surprising -- and delicious answer!

Author Biography

Mary Cholmondeley (1859 - 1925) was an English novelist. She began writing with serious intent in her teens. She wrote in her journal in 1877, "What a pleasure and interest it would be to me in life to write books. I must strike out a line of some kind, and if I do not marry (for at best that is hardly likely, as I possess neither beauty nor charms) I should want some definite occupation, besides the home duties." She succeeded in publishing some stories in The Graphic and elsewhere. Her first novel was The Danvers Jewels (1887), a detective story that won her a small following. It appeared in the Temple Bar magazine published by Richard Bentley, after fellow novelist Rhoda Broughton had introduced her to George Bentley. It was followed by Sir Charles Danvers (1889), Diana Tempest (1893) and A Devotee (1897). The satirical Red Pottage (1899) was a best-seller on both sides of the Atlantic and is reprinted occasionally. It satirizes religious hypocrisy and the narrowness of country life and was denounced from a London pulpit as immoral. It was equally sensational because it "explored the issues of female sexuality and vocation, recurring topics in late-Victorian debates about the New Women." Despite the book's great success, however, the author received little money for it because she had sold the copyright.