9 h 50 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 50 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A fortune is at stake, suspects vanish, and every uncertain story gives the chase a new direction.
In The Million-Dollar Suitcase, Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry put money, clues and pursuit at the heart of a detective mystery. A valuable prize draws attention, while people whose stories do not quite fit leave an investigator to separate truth from bluff. The puzzle matters, but so does keeping up with the hunt.
This is brisk, plot-driven crime fiction, where stolen wealth and disappearing suspects keep certainty out of reach. MacGowan and Newberry build the appeal around clear plotting and forward motion. If you enjoy weighing a doubtful account while the action presses on, the story offers both a mystery to untangle and a chase to follow.
What you’ll discover
- A fortune worth pursuing A valuable prize gives the mystery its pull and the pursuit its stakes.
- Stories that do not fit Follow an investigator sorting truth from bluff among accounts that leave room for doubt.
- Suspects who slip away Vanishing suspects make the hunt as compelling as the puzzle at its heart.
- Clues with forward motion Enjoy a trail of clues woven into brisk action rather than a leisurely investigation.
- Two writers, clear plotting Discover MacGowan and Newberry's shared craft through a mystery built for pace.
Who will love it
Readers who love locked-room puzzles, clever women who out-think the professionals, and a hunt that races between a big city and a blossoming orchard town in the years after the Great War.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Teller and a Suitcase Vanish
- Worth Gilbert Buys the Loss
- Barbara Wallace Takes the Description
- The Room, the Roof and the Hidden Plug
- A Hidden Suitcase and a Gambler Gone
- A Shadow in the Bolted Study
- Seven Lost Days and a Son in Peril
- What the Story Is Really About
- How the Book Is Told
Who’s who
- Jerry BoyneThe veteran detective who tells the story, loves Worth like a son, and trusts plain observation until a girl shows him how much he misses.
- Worth GilbertA reckless young captain home from France who buys the stolen suitcase for the thrill and means to win back his money by hunting for it.
- Barbara WallaceA former child prodigy with a perfect memory who now works as a bookkeeper, hates her old stunts, and solves problems from facts alone.
- A. G. CummingsThe bank's sharp lawyer, who manages Worth's money, distrusts him, and has an eye on Barbara.
- DykemanThe oldest director of the bank, fierce and suspicious, who sets watchers on Worth and wants someone punished.
- Jim EdwardsA grieving ranch owner and old friend of Worth's father, who guards a painful secret about a woman he loves.
- Bronson VandemanA polished young society leader who has just married Ina Thornhill and wants to make the Blossom Festival famous.
- Ina VandemanThe fair, cool bride, once engaged to Worth, who watches Boyne closely and keeps her feelings hidden.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 9 h 50 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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La maleta de millón de dólares
by Alice MacGowan; Perry Newberry · 1922
Worth Gilbert pays eight hundred thousand dollars for a stolen suitcase he has never seen.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Million-Dollar Suitcase is a detective novel by Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry, set in San Francisco and a small orchard town in California in 1920. It was written in the years just after the Great War, and the war hangs over every chapter.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Teller and a Suitcase Vanish
The story opens on a Saturday in San Francisco, a few years after the Great War. In the directors' room of the Van Ness Avenue Savings Bank, twelve frightened men sit around a long table with the blinds drawn. Jerry Boyne, head of the Bankers' Security Agency, tells the story himself, and he begins by reporting to them. A paying teller named Edward Clayte has left at closing time with a brown suitcase full of money and securities.
Boyne followed him fast. A desk clerk at the St. Dunstan apartments on Nob Hill saw Clayte carry the suitcase to the elevator, and a woman tacking carpet on the seventh floor saw him enter his room. Then the trail stops. Boyne found three windows fastened with burglarproof locks, a door on a spring lock, and a tidy room with no Clayte and no suitcase. The directors insist that a man cannot melt into the air, and Boyne has no answer.
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What is The Million-Dollar Suitcase about?
It follows a bank teller who vanishes from a locked apartment with nearly a million dollars. A young captain buys the missing suitcase, a detective hunts the thief, and a gifted young woman solves the clues, which draw them to a death in an orchard town.
Who is Barbara Wallace in the book?
Barbara is a bookkeeper who was once a child prodigy trained by her psychologist father. She remembers everything she sees, works only from facts, and hates being treated as a stunt. Her reasoning drives the investigation.
Why is the suitcase worth eight hundred thousand dollars?
The bank's directors are afraid of a run on the bank, so they sell Worth Gilbert the missing suitcase and its contents for less than the loss. He wants the thrill of the gamble and the chance to recover the whole sum.
The author
Alice MacGowan
1858–1947 · American novelist
Alice MacGowan was an American author who lived from 1858 to 1947. She wrote novels and short stories, sometimes with her sister, Grace MacGowan Cook. She also collaborated with Perry Newberry. Their novel The Million-Dollar Suitcase was published in 1922. She lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and later in Carmel, California.
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