5 h 36 minAudiobook7 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 woman is dead, her husband stands to gain, and the evidence arrives one document at a time.
In Charles Felix's The Notting Hill Mystery, insurance investigator Henderson must decide whether a suspicious claim deserves payment. Madame R has died in her Notting Hill home. Her husband, the Baron R, stands to gain from large policies on her life. Henderson gathers letters, statements, diary pages and notes, looking for proof strong enough to put before his employers.
The case reaches into poison, money and mesmerism—the Victorian fascination with hypnotic influence. The Baron takes an interest in this strange practice, but what can the papers actually prove? Rather than follow a hero through a series of scenes, you examine Henderson's sources. Each document asks you to weigh what people say against what anyone can know.
What you’ll discover
- A file to examine Read letters, diary pages and statements, and take your own measure of the evidence.
- Money behind the mystery Follow an insurance inquiry where a death leaves a large financial question unanswered.
- The uncertainty of mesmerism Explore a Victorian fascination that brings troubling questions of influence into the case.
- Proof under pressure Consider where suspicion ends and evidence begins as Henderson lays out his findings.
- Detective fiction taking shape Discover a work many readers count among the earliest detective novels in English.
Who will love it
Readers who love puzzles built from documents, fans of early detective fiction, and anyone who enjoys checking dates, comparing witnesses and drawing their own verdict before the author does.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- An insurer's agent sends an uneasy report
- A pair of twins is born into grief
- The sisters share every ache until one vanishes
- The Andertons find a mesmerist in Notting Hill
- Mrs. Anderton's journal records a growing unease
- A joke about eating by proxy lands badly
- A rope dancer, a circus owner and a will
- Two women fall sick on the same night
- Dates, doctors and fortnightly attacks close in
Who’s who
- Ralph HendersonA private inquiry agent who gathers the evidence for the insurers and cannot decide whether it points to crime or coincidence.
- Baron R**A short, stout foreign mesmerist with unforgettable eyes, who has insured his wife's life with several offices.
- Madame R** (Rosalie)A young clairvoyante, once a tightrope dancer, who works for the Baron and seems afraid of him.
- Gertrude AndertonA delicate young woman, born a twin, who seeks health through mesmerism and keeps a journal.
- William AndertonHer devoted, nervous husband, proud of his family name and eager to see her well.
- Frederick MortonAnderton's old school friend, an army officer, who witnesses the evening when the Baron hears the twin story.
- Dr. MarsdenA physician who rents rooms at Russell Place, befriends the Baron and attends Madame R through her illness.
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Il mistero di Notting Hill
by Charles Felix · 1862
A detective lays dates and sworn statements before insurers, and a mesmerist Baron stands at the centre.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Five insurance offices, one dead wife and a foreign Baron who claims to be a mesmerist. How do you test a crime that seems impossible?
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
An insurer's agent sends an uneasy report
The book opens with a letter from Ralph Henderson, a private inquiry agent, to a life assurance office in January 1858. He has been hired to look into the death of Madame R, the wife of a foreign Baron, who dies suddenly in March 1857 after swallowing a powerful acid. The Baron holds five policies on her life, taken out between November 1855 and February 1856, which add up to twenty-five thousand pounds.
Henderson is unusually frank with his clients. He says the evidence forms a chain so complete that he cannot ignore it, yet the only explanation he can find runs against the laws of nature. Because he cannot decide between these two choices, he sets out the depositions as a lawyer would and asks the insurers to judge.
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What is The Notting Hill Mystery about?
The question is whether a series of matching dates and illnesses is coincidence or crime.
Who is the Baron in The Notting Hill Mystery?
He is a short, stout foreign mesmerist who treats Mrs. Anderton with the help of his clairvoyante, Rosalie. Witnesses describe his piercing eyes and polite manner, and he holds insurance policies on his own wife.
Is The Notting Hill Mystery a true story?
No, it is fiction. It appeared in the magazine Once a Week and is often called an early detective novel, written in the form of a real inquiry file with letters and depositions.
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