9 h 45 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a stolen jewel reveal when respectable names and polite manners hide dangerous secrets?
In The Amethyst Cross, Fergus Hume draws you into a mystery of stolen jewels and hidden identities in Edwardian England. Country houses and drawing rooms form a world where reputation matters, appearances carry weight, and a familiar name may conceal more than it reveals.
At the heart of the puzzle is a cross set with amethysts. Around it gather questions of identity, suspicion and secrets. Hume invites you to read alongside the characters, watching small details and testing what people seem to know. Who is present? Who leaves? Who seems too calm?
What you’ll discover
- A jewel worth watching Follow the amethyst cross into a puzzle shaped by stolen jewels and concealed identities.
- Respectability under suspicion Look beyond polite manners, where respectable families and old secrets share the same rooms.
- An Edwardian world Enter country estates and London houses shaped by strict rules of class and reputation.
- Small details that matter Watch arrivals, departures and quiet reactions as you weigh each person's place in the mystery.
- The pleasure of puzzling Enjoy a plain, old-fashioned mystery that asks you to question what you see.
Who will love it
Readers who love riverside settings, secret identities, jewel thefts and a sweetheart who fights for her man will find a warm companion here, along with anyone who enjoys a classic puzzle with a big family secret.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A proposal beside the Thames
- A father who wants the cross
- The cross vanishes from Medmenham
- Two cold parents and a secret message
- The jewels disappear at Henley
- Two girls fight for one man
- A visit, a lawyer and a family quarrel
- A house party and a masked intruder
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Lesbia HaleA twenty-year-old girl in a riverside cottage who loves George, knows little of her father, and is determined to clear her sweetheart's name.
- George WalkerA fair, honest stockbroker's clerk who wants to marry Lesbia and must prove his innocence after a robbery.
- Walter HaleLesbia's cold, polished father, who hides his business, wants the amethyst cross, and wants her to marry Captain Sargent.
- Tim BurkeA small, crooked Irish servant and cook who guards Lesbia, fears the cross, and knows more than he says.
- Mrs. WalkerGeorge's stern widowed mother, who hates Hale for reasons of her own and hopes to inherit her sister's fortune.
- Maud EllisMichael Tait's clever niece, who loves George and will use any trick to win him from Lesbia.
- CanningA haggard watcher known as the Shadow, who owes Lesbia his life and works to repay her.
- Lord CharvingtonA kindly, wealthy nobleman and Hale's cousin, who sends Lesbia money and seems to carry a heavy secret.
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- Audiobook
- 9 h 45 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 13 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
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- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
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Das Amethystkreuz
by Fergus Hume · 1908
An amethyst cross given in love brings thieves, schemers and a hidden fortune to a Thames cottage.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Amethyst Cross is an Edwardian mystery by Fergus Hume, the Scottish-born writer best known for crime fiction. It is set along the upper Thames, among riverside cottages, rich stockbrokers and country houses.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A proposal beside the Thames
The story opens in May in a neglected garden behind Rose Cottage, near Marlow. A blackbird sings in a chestnut tree while George Walker, a stockbroker's clerk of twenty-five, proposes to Lesbia Hale. She is twenty, brown-eyed and practical, and she says yes.
The two are poor, and they know it. George earns two hundred a year and helps to support a mother who never forgets that his father was the Honourable Aylmer Walker. He gives Lesbia a cheap turquoise ring, and she is moved because he went without tobacco to buy it.
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What is The Amethyst Cross about?
It is a mystery about a young couple, George Walker and Lesbia Hale, whose love is threatened by thefts, plots and a secret family fortune. At its centre is an amethyst cross that many people want to own.
Who wrote The Amethyst Cross and when is it set?
Fergus Hume wrote it. The story takes place in Edwardian England, mostly along the Thames near Marlow, Medmenham, Henley and Maidenhead, among cottages, country houses and the City of London.
What does Refuse and Lose mean on the cross?
The words are the motto cut into the malachite at the centre of the cross. Lesbia explains them as a religious saying, that those who refuse to bear life's cross lose the crown that should be theirs.
The author
Fergus Hume
1859–1932 · English mystery novelist
Fergus Hume (1859–1932) was a British novelist born in England. He grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, and moved to Melbourne, Australia, in 1885. He published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab in 1886. He returned to England in 1888 and continued writing crime novels, including The Green Mummy.
More by Fergus Hume
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