7 h 32 minAudiobook4 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 32 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if one small gold bag holds the key to a crime—and everyone nearby has something to protect?
In The Gold Bag, Carolyn Wells places a crime inside a small social world where secrets shape suspicion. A closed circle of suspects gives the investigation its boundaries. At its center sits an everyday object: a gold bag whose meaning must be worked out. The question is not simply who is responsible, but what this apparently ordinary clue can reveal.
This 1911 detective novel treats mystery as a contest between writer and reader. Wells invites you to weigh the evidence, consider the suspects, and follow the reasoning as confusion slowly becomes clear. Early twentieth-century American manners frame an old-fashioned whodunit, where a small detail carries great weight and the pleasure lies in making sense of what first seems uncertain.
What you’ll discover
- One object, many questions Follow the gold bag as its meaning becomes the central problem of the investigation.
- A circle of suspects Consider people drawn together by a crime, each with something they want to protect.
- A fair-play challenge Test your own reasoning against a mystery built as a contest with its reader.
- Secrets beneath the manners Explore a small social world where private concerns give you reasons to question appearances.
- The pleasure of order Watch a disturbing event become a puzzle that careful reasoning can begin to untangle.
Who will love it
For readers who love classic whodunits, fair-play puzzles and the manners of early twentieth century America, with secrets among suspects and a single clue whose meaning must be worked out.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A puzzle built on the fair-play rules
- A single object carries the whole case
- Secrets among the suspects
- Why this kind of mystery still works
Formats and delivery
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- Audiobook
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- 15-minute summary
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- 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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Read and hear Le sac d’or in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
Le sac d’or
by Carolyn Wells · 1911
A gold bag stands at the center of a crime, where every suspect has something to hide and one clue can mislead.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
The Gold Bag is a detective novel by Carolyn Wells, an American writer who published dozens of mysteries in the early twentieth century. It appeared in 1911, when readers were hungry for puzzles in the manner of Arthur Conan Doyle, and it was written to give them one: a crime, a circle of people who might have done it, and an object whose meaning must be worked out.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A puzzle built on the fair-play rules
Carolyn Wells belonged to the generation of writers who treated the detective story as a contest between author and reader. The idea was simple. The author sets out the facts, hides nothing important, and challenges you to name the guilty person before the detective does. The Gold Bag follows this tradition closely.
That means the pleasure lies in attention. Each conversation, each description of a room and each remark about who was where may matter later. A novel like this rewards the reader who keeps a mental note of times, places and small oddities, and who does not assume that the most obvious suspect is the right one.
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What is The Gold Bag by Carolyn Wells about?
It is a detective novel about a crime and a group of people who may be responsible. A gold bag, named in the title, is central to the puzzle, and the story follows the effort to understand what it really proves.
When was The Gold Bag written?
It was published in 1911. That places it in the early golden age of American detective fiction, after Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories and before the better known mystery writers of the 1920s.
Is The Gold Bag a true story?
No. It is a work of fiction, a puzzle mystery invented by Carolyn Wells. It uses a believable social setting but its events and people are imagined.
The author
Carolyn Wells
1862–1942 · American humorist and mystery writer
Carolyn Wells (1862–1942) was an American writer born in Rahway, New Jersey. She later lived in New York City, where she died. She wrote poetry, humor, children's books, and mystery novels. Her works include the Patty and Marjorie series, The Clue (1909), and The Gold Bag (1911).
More by Carolyn Wells
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