Summary
Summary of The Albert Gate Mystery
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A disappearance makes the case personal
Reginald Brett is enjoying breakfast when a newspaper report draws him toward a guarded mansion at Albert Gate. Soon the Earl of Fairholme arrives with the human cost behind the mystery. Four men have been murdered, the Sultan's diamonds are missing, and Jack Talbot, the official responsible for them, has disappeared.
Fairholme is engaged to Jack's sister Edith, who refuses to marry until her brother is found and cleared. Brett cancels his shooting visit and accepts a case in which private loyalty and public responsibility are already tangled together.
Key idea 2
A tested screen breaks the puzzle
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Key idea 3
The obvious suspect may be staged
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Key idea 4
The diamonds deceive the conspirators
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Key idea 5
Reasoning leads back to the prisoner
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Key idea 6
Edith helps carry the pursuit south
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Key idea 7
Appearances need reasons and tests
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Key idea 8
Explanations keep the chase a puzzle
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Key idea 9
Question what everyone else accepts
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The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
Read the rest freeWho it’s for
You will enjoy this if you like clever amateur detectives, locked-house puzzles, disguises and chases across Europe, and cheerful banter between a gentleman sleuth and a rather stubborn policeman.
What this book is
The Albert Gate Mystery is a detective novel by Louis Tracy, set in the London and Paris of the early 1900s. It follows Reginald Brett, a barrister who solves crimes for pleasure, as he takes on a case that is part murder, part robbery and part affair of state. Four men lie dead in a guarded London mansion, the Sultan's diamonds are gone, and a young Foreign Office official has vanished.
The book gives you a chase that moves by cab, train, steamer and yacht, with disguises, a cabaret full of thieves, and a hero who prefers to reason his way to the truth. Tracy keeps the tone light. Brett jokes with his servant, teases the police and smokes his way through danger, yet the puzzle underneath is a real one: how can anyone carry diamonds out of a house that is searched down to the boots?
You will meet a Scotland Yard man who is sure of the wrong answer, an earl in love, a woman with a quick mind, and a criminal who plans every move. The first key point begins on a bright October morning in a London flat, where a newspaper paragraph catches Brett's eye.
In this summary
- 1A morning paper starts a caseFree
- 2Edith Talbot tells what she knows
- 3The guarded house gives up its first secret
- 4A trail to Paris and a false Talbot
- 5Brett faces the Turks in the Rue Barbette
- 6La Belle Chasseuse and the Cabaret Noir
- 7Reasoning out the plan and finding Talbot
- 8Chase by sea to Palermo
- 9What the story is really about
- 10How the story is told
Key point 1 of 10
A morning paper starts a case
The story opens with Reginald Brett at breakfast in his flat. He is a barrister with a gift for solving crimes, and he is enjoying a quiet spell. He plays a small game with his servant Smith, working out from small signs that Smith's wife's brother is about to stand in for him during a planned shooting visit. It shows how Brett reads people, and the author wants you to see that skill early.
Then he reads a newspaper item about an Albert Gate mansion in the West End. A group of Turkish gentlemen and a dozen Dutch diamond cutters have been working there under police guard. Something has happened in the night. The police have taken the workers to Scotland Yard, and doctors have been called, among them a famous expert on poisons.
Brett cuts out the item. He cuts out another about a relative of the Sultan who has fled to France. He sets the two side by side before a bust of Edgar Allan Poe.
His visitor is the Earl of Fairholme, sent by an Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office. The earl is engaged to Edith Talbot, and her brother Jack Talbot has disappeared. Jack was in charge of the Sultan's envoy and the rough diamonds, one as big as a duck's egg. The envoy, two secretaries and a servant have been murdered, and the stones are gone. Edith will not marry until her brother is found and cleared.
Brett cancels his shooting engagement and takes the case, because it promises to be the most remarkable he has met. He is calm and sure, and the nervous earl feels it at once.
The opening works as a promise. It sets out the puzzle, introduces the main players and shows a detective who finds the right question before he has any answers.
That’s 1 of 10 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
How does Brett approach evidence that others accept?
Right. “Brett's method is to test what everyone else accepts.”Not quite. “Brett's method is to test what everyone else accepts.”
What explains the hotel register naming Talbot?
Right. “The register is a forgery, bold and free, and the signer even gave Talbot a wife.”Not quite. “The register is a forgery, bold and free, and the signer even gave Talbot a wife.”
Why does the Foreign Office urgently want the diamonds recovered?
Right. “Without them, revolution in Turkey is likely.”Not quite. “Without them, revolution in Turkey is likely.”
Questions about The Albert Gate Mystery
What is The Albert Gate Mystery about?
It follows barrister Reginald Brett as he investigates the murder of a Turkish envoy and his staff in London, the theft of the Sultan's diamonds, and the disappearance of Jack Talbot, a Foreign Office official, in a case that spans Paris and Sicily.
Who is Reginald Brett?
Brett is an amateur detective and barrister who solves crimes that baffle Scotland Yard. He is calm, witty and sharp with clues, and he relies on reasoning, disguises and quick action rather than the standard police methods.
Who is Henri Dubois in the book?
Dubois is a French thief known as the Juggler. He is a master of disguise and planning, hired to steal the Sultan's diamonds, and he stays a step ahead of the police until Brett begins to trace his moves.
Is The Albert Gate Mystery a true story?
No, it is a work of fiction by Louis Tracy, written in the early twentieth century. It draws on the period's interest in Eastern politics, Scotland Yard, Paris crime stories and the detective tradition of Poe and Gaboriau.
Is The Albert Gate Mystery easy to read?
It reads easily. The chapters are short, the plot moves quickly from city to city, and the dialogue is lively and often funny, so you can follow the clues and enjoy the chase without any special background.
