10 h 18 minAudiobook11 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
A murder, a hidden identity, a serpent-shaped jewel: which secret binds them together?
In The Opal Serpent, Fergus Hume brings a murder and a mysterious jewel into a tale of suspicion. People are not what they seem, and discovering who someone really is becomes part of the puzzle. The opal serpent sits at the centre, binding the crime to the secrets around it.
This Victorian mystery asks you to look beyond a respectable face and question the trust a name can earn. Hidden identities keep the suspense alive as secrets emerge slowly. Hume lays out the plot with care, offering the measured pleasure of a crime puzzle rather than the rush of a fast thriller.
What you’ll discover
- A jewel at the centre Follow the opal serpent through a mystery where an ornament binds murder and secrets together.
- People behind their names Look past appearances as hidden identities make trust a difficult thing to give.
- Suspicion that builds slowly Settle into suspense that grows through secrets and the search for who people really are.
- A carefully laid puzzle Enjoy a plot that takes its time, giving you room to weigh what you learn.
- The pull of early detection Explore Hume's crime fiction through a tale shaped by murder, identity, and a distinctive jewel.
Who will love it
Readers who like a Victorian-style crime puzzle with a warm love story, a gallery of lively characters, and a detective who works by careful questions, disguises and good humour.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A son leaves for London
- An old friend and a serpent brooch
- Gwynne Street and its secrets
- A hospital bed and a closed shop
- A night of murder
- A name, a will and a claim
- A detective, a dinner and a dead lady
- Inn, captain and cheating
- Tray, Pash and Mrs. Krill cornered
- What the story is about and how it is told
Who’s who
- Paul BeecotA hot-tempered, honest young writer who leaves his bullying father's house and wants to win fame and marry the girl he loves.
- Sylvia NormanThe gentle, sheltered daughter of a secondhand bookseller, who loves Paul and fears her strange father.
- Aaron NormanA one-eyed bookseller and secret pawnbroker who lives in fear and faints at the sight of an opal brooch.
- Deborah JunkSylvia's loud, loyal maid, who guards her young mistress fiercely and plans to marry the shop assistant Bart.
- Billy HurdA cheerful brown-clad detective who uses disguises and patience to solve the Gwynne Street murder and win the reward.
- Grexon HayPaul's old schoolmate, a smooth, cold man about town who lives by cheating rich young men.
- Mrs. KrillA plump, smiling widow who arrives to claim the dead man's fortune for her daughter Maud.
- Jabez PashA monkey-faced lawyer who handles Norman's business and bends with whoever seems to hold the money.
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 10 h 18 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 11 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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Serpent d'opale
by Fergus Hume · 1905
A broke young author pledges a serpent brooch, and a pawnbroker who sees it falls to the cellar floor in terror.
Medium level10–20 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Opal Serpent is a mystery novel by Fergus Hume, who also wrote The Mystery of a Hansom Cab. It is set in the London of the early 1900s and mixes a murder case with a love story and a good deal of comedy.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A son leaves for London
Simon Beecot is a small-minded country gentleman at Wargrove in Essex. He spends his days snarling at his tired wife and snapping at his son Paul. Paul is twenty-five and wants to be a writer, which his father counts as a crime. When Paul announces that he will go to London, his father threatens to cut him from his will and refuses him money.
Paul is calm about it. He has fifty pounds saved from short stories, and he leaves the next morning. His mother faints, and his father swears at the empty air. Mr. Beecot privately thinks he has been hard on the boy, but pride keeps him from calling Paul back.
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What is The Opal Serpent about?
It follows the poor young author Paul Beecot, whose family brooch in the shape of a serpent links him to the murder of a London pawnbroker. A detective traces the crime back to an older death at a country inn.
Who is Billy Hurd?
Hurd is the Treasury detective in charge of the Gwynne Street case. He wears many disguises, including a workman and a French count, and works with his sister, the actress Aurora Qian.
What does the opal serpent mean in the book?
It is an Indian brooch set with opals and diamonds. Characters call it unlucky, and it links a death at an inn in the past to the murder of the bookseller in London.
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.
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