Story summary
Samenvatting van De Zilveren Kogel
- 8 min. leestijd
- 10 parts
- Binnenkort te beluisteren
Two weary walkers find a mansion blazing with light and a dead man in its tower.
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De Zilveren Kogel in het kort
Samenvatting: 8 min leestijd
- Leestijd
- Ongeveer 7 h 15 min5 h 45 min fast, 8 h 40 min slow
- Lengte
- 104.100 woorden
- Bibliotheekniveau
- Gemiddeld longer sentences, everyday words
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De Zilveren Kogel in short
The Silver Bullet is the story of one murder and the many people who believe they know who did it. A rich, feared Colonel is found shot in a tower at the heart of a blazing, empty house. A young doctor finds the body, stays in the village, and sets out with a clever girl reporter to learn the truth.
What De Zilveren Kogel is about
What would you do if you crossed a dark moor and found a mansion with every window blazing and no one at home? Two friends face exactly that on a summer night. Jim Herrick is a big, calm doctor. Robin Joyce is a frail writer with jangling nerves. They find a table laid for one, and a dead man in a tower room.
The Silver Bullet is a murder mystery by Fergus Hume, a writer of Victorian detective novels. A doctor lingers in the village of Saxham, makes friends, falls in love, and tries to learn who shot the wicked Colonel Carr.
Voor wie is het?. Readers who enjoy Victorian detective stories, country houses with secrets, ciphers and old pistols, and an amateur sleuth who falls in love, with a touch of the uncanny.
The story in 10 parts
Key idea 1 · free to read
Two walkers find a lit empty house
On a summer night on Southberry Heath, Robin Joyce, a frail writer still grieving for his mother, sits down in the heather and says he cannot go another step. His friend Jim Herrick, a big doctor with a steady head, soothes him with tobacco and ordinary talk.
They cross the moor and enter a pine wood where a low swish fills the air. A white light burns high above the trees. Then the wood opens, and they see a gray Tudor mansion with a slender new tower, standing alone on a mown lawn. Every window blazes, yet there is no fence, no path, and no sound of life.
The front door stands ajar, so they walk in. In the dining room a table is laid for one, with withered flowers and stale bread. Only the tower is left to search. A lit house with an open door and no master is the first riddle.
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A dead man lies in the tower
Herrick leads Robin up a narrow stair to a bare room at the top.
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The village names him the wicked Colonel
Saxham is a small village around a green, with a copper-sheathed spire that glows at sunset.
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The inquest finds two pistols and a verdict
At the inquest, Dr. Tiler says the Colonel died on Tuesday night from a shot through the heart.
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A fierce patient and a strange will
Stephen's stepmother lies ill in a tall house in Beorminster, nursed by her old Italian servant, Petronella.
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A boy who sees death before it comes
Sidney Endicotte, sixteen, is called the Changeling.
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Small lies, coded warnings, and an old pistol
In London, Herrick learns that Colonel Carr paid Robin's mother five hundred pounds a year, and the payments stopped when she died.
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Silence kept for the sake of others
One thread runs through the book: people say nothing in order to protect someone.
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Money, a hidden past, and true love
The second theme is the cost of money.
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How the story is told
Hume tells the story in the third person, close to Herrick, with a narrator who sometimes comments with a smile.
Read all 10 key ideas now
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Characters, plot and themes
Main characters
- Jim Herrick A big, calm, kind doctor on a walking holiday who stumbles on a body and becomes an amateur detective.
- Robin Joyce Herrick's frail, nervous friend, a writer in mourning, who is quick to complain and quicker to lie.
- Bess Endicotte A quick-witted young reporter for the Beorminster Chronicle who believes the Colonel's servant is innocent and sets out to prove it.
- Stephen Marsh The Colonel's gentle poet nephew, who inherits a fortune with strange conditions and needs a friend and protector.
- Ida Endicotte Bess's calm, beautiful sister, who loves Stephen quietly and sees more clearly than Herrick does.
- Sidney Endicotte The pale, otherworldly youngest brother, called the Changeling, who seems to see things that have not happened yet.
- Frisco The Colonel's scarred, red-haired servant, who vanishes the night his master dies and becomes the chief suspect.
- Don Manuel Santiago A smooth, dangerous Mexican adventurer who says he once hunted treasure in Peru with the Colonel and now wants his share.
How it ends (spoiler)
Petronella, Mrs. Marsh's old Italian servant, shot Colonel Carr. She believed he had the evil eye and would ruin her mistress's son, so she melted a stolen silver cup into bullets. Petronella confesses to Herrick as she lies gravely ill, saying that she is dying of cancer. Frisco is cleared. Herrick marries Bess, and Stephen marries Ida. Robin, Frisco and Santiago die on a treasure hunt in Peru.
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Vragen over De Zilveren Kogel
What is The Silver Bullet by Fergus Hume about?
It follows a young doctor, Jim Herrick, who finds a dead man in a lit but empty mansion and stays in a village to learn who killed him. Clues include a strange will, a cipher, and an old pistol.
Who is Frisco in The Silver Bullet?
Frisco is Colonel Carr's scarred, red-haired servant, an American sailor with a past nobody can name. He disappears on the night of the murder, so the police and the jury blame him, but Bess Endicotte doubts it.
What does the silver bullet mean in the story?
The Colonel is shot with an odd round bullet, and Bess and the Inspector find that it is cast from silver. In old folk belief only silver can kill a witch or a devil's friend, so it becomes a key clue.
Is The Silver Bullet a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by the Victorian novelist Fergus Hume. The village of Saxham, the house called The Pines, and the Colonel's treasure are invented, though the story uses real places such as London and Peru as settings.
Is The Silver Bullet easy to follow?
Yes is not needed here, because the plot is clear. Short chapters, lively talk, a friendly doctor as guide, and a steady trail of clues make the mystery easy to follow from the first page to the last.
Verwijs naar deze uitgave
Hume, Fergus. The Silver Bullet. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-silver-bullet.
Hume, F. (2026). The silver bullet. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-silver-bullet
Hume, Fergus. The Silver Bullet. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-silver-bullet.
@book{hume2026silver,
author = {Hume, Fergus},
title = {The Silver Bullet},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-silver-bullet}
}
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