The Square Emerald

Leslie Maughan, recognized for her keen mind, has unofficially been promoted to Scotland Yard's first female investigator. Chancing upon a book of poetry once owned by a Peter Dawlish, convicted forger, Leslie delves into the details of the convict's case and becomes convinced of Peter's innocence. Befriending Peter after his release from prison, Leslie discovers a link between him, a lady of high society, and a princess, after the violent death of a butler who has his employer's valuable emerald in his possession. The trail takes a twist when it's discovered that Peter may have a child he knew nothing about, and that his landlady has been been using her home for more than room and board. Perfect for readers who love pioneering female detectives and classic British mysteries with intricate plots involving high society secrets. Edgar Wallace masterfully weaves together wrongful conviction, murder, and jewel theft in this gripping tale that showcases one of literature's earliest female investigators fighting for justice in a man's world. Fans of vintage crime fiction and strong female protagonists will be captivated by Leslie Maughan's relentless pursuit of truth. The source for this public-domain ebook is Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org). Ebooks from other sources often have typos, inconsistent spelling, missing accent marks, and missing punctuation. Ebooks from Standard Ebooks are proofread line by line against a scan of the original printed pages, then proofread again from cover to cover. They are also formatted and typeset following a professional-grade style manual, resulting in new editions supporting state-of-the-art ereader technology: automatic hyphenation, popup footnotes, complete and consistent metadata, high-resolution and scalable vector graphics, and ereader-compatible tables of contents. All of this makes the finished ebooks accurate, functional, and beautiful, a pleasure to read. (Waking Lion Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by Standard Ebooks.)