Summary
Summary of The Clue
Key ideas
Key idea 1
A fortune makes affection look suspicious
Madeleine Van Norman has a grand house, a proud manner and a marriage ahead of her. Her uncle’s fortune will become hers when she marries, or when she reaches twenty-three. If she dies before either, her cousin Tom Willard inherits instead. Tom loves her, while her fiancé, Schuyler Carleton, has little money and shows little warmth. As Madeleine uses Tom’s attention to stir Carleton’s jealousy, affection and financial interest become tangled. The household already holds several reasons for resentment.
Key idea 2
The wedding eve brings hidden worries
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Key idea 3
A note offers an apparent answer
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Key idea 4
Clean hands change the investigation
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Key idea 5
A pencil exposes a false appearance
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Key idea 6
Carleton leaves crucial minutes unexplained
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Key idea 7
Each new suspicion meets another secret
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Key idea 8
Love and loyalty distort the evidence
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Key idea 9
Small objects test the larger story
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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
For readers who enjoy a closed circle of suspects, a locked house and a trail of small physical clues, and for anyone who likes to guess the culprit alongside an amateur sleuth in love.
What this book is
The Clue is a detective novel by Carolyn Wells, an American writer who produced many mysteries in the early twentieth century. It opens in the quiet New Jersey village of Mapleton, where the richest and proudest young woman in town is about to marry. Then the wedding eve ends in a killing inside a house that seems locked up tight against any outsider.
What you get here is the whole shape of the puzzle. A dagger lies on a library table. A note speaks of despair. A cousin, a fiancé, a secretary, a stranger who arrived that very day, and a lawyer with a sharp eye for small things all have something to hide or something to prove. The clues are small and everyday, and the book keeps asking you to look closely at them.
We begin with the old house and the family money that hangs over it, because every later suspicion grows out of who loves whom and who gains.
In this summary
- 1A proud house and a vast fortuneFree
- 2The eve of the wedding
- 3A cry for help at half past eleven
- 4Two doctors and a clean white hand
- 5A soft pencil and a copied hand
- 6Locked doors and a missing quarter hour
- 7Suspects, a burned paper and a cachou
- 8Love, money and the power of appearances
- 9How the puzzle is built and solved
Key point 1 of 9
A proud house and a vast fortune
The story begins with the Van Norman mansion, the finest house in Mapleton, a white Colonial building set back among tended lawns. Its mistress is Madeleine Van Norman, twenty-two years old, beautiful, haughty and an orphan. Villagers admire her but do not love her, and she keeps even close friends at a distance.
Her late uncle Richard left her the house at once. His great fortune would come to her when she married, or at the age of twenty-three if she stayed single. If she died before either, the whole estate would pass to her distant cousin Tom Willard. That one clause shapes everything that follows.
Tom is large, merry and fond of spending. He quarreled with his uncle years ago, left for abroad, and has now come back for the wedding. He has loved Madeleine for years and has asked her to marry him more than once. His temper flares fast and fades fast, and he makes friends wherever he goes.
Madeleine is to marry Schuyler Carleton, a handsome man from one of the oldest families in Mapleton, though he has little money. He is polite to the point of coldness, and the housekeeper, Mrs. Markham, wishes he would show a warmer feeling. Gossips whisper that he may love her fortune more than her.
The opening chapters work like a map of motives. Madeleine flirts with Tom to make Carleton jealous, Tom teases Carleton for the pleasure of it, and Carleton burns quietly. The two men quarrel over a teacup and a cousinly arm. A reader who watches this household closely already sees how many people stand to win or lose by what happens next.
That’s 1 of 9 key points.
The rest of the summary, written and spoken, and the whole book: free to start.
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Check yourself
Why does Madeleine’s death give Tom Willard a financial motive?
Right. “Richard Van Norman's fortune passes at once to Tom Willard, since Madeleine died before marrying.”Not quite. “Richard Van Norman's fortune passes at once to Tom Willard, since Madeleine died before marrying.”
What makes Doctor Leonard abandon his belief in suicide?
Right. “There are dried bloodstains on the dagger's handle, but no trace of blood on either of Madeleine's hands.”Not quite. “There are dried bloodstains on the dagger's handle, but no trace of blood on either of Madeleine's hands.”
Why does Carleton become a major suspect at the inquest?
Right. “That leaves fifteen minutes before the alarm, and Carleton answers only that he declines to say.”Not quite. “That leaves fifteen minutes before the alarm, and Carleton answers only that he declines to say.”
About this edition
Every format is free to start, and print and large print are at cost.
- LengthAbout 68,000 words
- Reading timeAbout 4 h 30 min
- Listening time7 h 30 min
- FormatseBook, large-print eBook, audiobook, 15-minute summary
- LanguagesEnglish and 11 other languages
Questions about The Clue
What is The Clue by Carolyn Wells about?
It is a detective novel about the murder of Madeleine Van Norman, a rich young woman in Mapleton, on the eve of her wedding. An amateur lawyer-detective and a famous investigator try to find who killed her.
Who is Fleming Stone?
Fleming Stone is a celebrated detective, nearly fifty, with a kind face and quiet manner. Carolyn Wells used him as the hero of many mysteries, and in this book he is called in when the local investigation stalls.
What is a cachou in The Clue?
A cachou is a tiny silver-coated sweet with a spiced centre, which some men used to freshen their breath after smoking. A single one found on the floor becomes the small object at the heart of the investigation.
Is The Clue easy to follow for a modern reader?
Yes, the book is told in clear, short scenes, mostly through conversation, with chapter titles that signal each step. The inquest chapters and the lively banter of Kitty and Fessenden keep the clues easy to track.
