The Mystery of the Skeleton Key. Bernard Capes
b9c0-8858-51bd-8b19-16614dd0a846">
Published by COLLINS CRIME CLUB
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain as The Skeleton Key
by Wm Collins Sons & Co. Ltd 1919
Published by The Detective Story Club Ltd 1929
Introduction © Hugh Lamb 2015
Cover design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1929, 2015
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780008137144
Ebook Edition © August 2015 ISBN: 9780008137151
Version: 2019-05-30
Contents
Chapter I: MY FIRST MEETING WITH THE BARON
Chapter II: MY SECOND MEETING WITH THE BARON
Chapter IV: I AM INTERESTED IN THE BARON
Chapter V: THE BARON CONTINUES TO INTEREST ME
Chapter VI: ‘THAT THUNDERS IN THE INDEX’
Chapter VII: THE BARON VISITS THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
Chapter XIII: ACCUMULATING EVIDENCE
Chapter XV: THE FACE ON THE WALL
Chapter XVI: THE BARON FINDS A CHAMPION
Chapter XVIII: THE BARON RETURNS
Chapter XX: THE BARON LAYS HIS CARDS ON THE TABLE
All authors, especially fiction writers, have to tread at some time on the edge of the dark slope that leads to obscurity. Some are unlucky enough to miss their step while still alive; many more slide down after their death. Such an unfortunate was Bernard Capes, who published 40 books (in 20 years) but passed into the shadows within three years of dying. He deserved better.
Bernard Edward Joseph Capes was born in London on 30 August 1854, a nephew of John Moore Capes, a prominent figure in the Oxford Movement. He was educated at Beaumont College and raised as a Catholic, though he later gave that up and followed no religion. His elder sister, Harriet Capes (1849–1936) was to become a noted translator and writer of children’s