Dorcas Dene, detective : $b Her adventures
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2025-11-16 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77243 |
Description
"The romance of the Oxford colleges" by Francis Henry Gribble is a historical account written in the late 19th century. It likely tours Oxford’s constituent colleges, tracing their origins, traditions, notable figures, and architectural charms while weaving in anecdote and legend for general readers. The opening of the narrative provided here instead introduces Dorcas Dene, a former actress turned private detective, through a dramatist-narrator who reconnects with her after years apart. We learn her backstory, her blind husband Paul, their wry “council of four” (including her mother and a bulldog), and then see two early cases: first, the disappearance of young Lord Helsham, which Dorcas cracks by going undercover at a theatre, deducing his suicidal intent, and uncovering a birth-swapping secret that she resolves discreetly by staging a false death and restoring the rightful succession. Next, posing as a nurse, she unravels the “man with the wild eyes” mystery at Orley Park: Maud Hargreaves has secretly married Victor Dubois, who, now mentally ill, attacks her by a lake and then drowns; Dorcas proves the marriage, traces him via footprints, a hat, and a photograph, and secures a quiet inquest verdict of temporary insanity. The section closes with Dorcas, in yet another disguise, surveilling a trio at Richmond—signaling a fresh case to come. (This is an automatically generated summary.)