9 h 50 minAudiobook5 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 50 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A fortune is at stake, suspects vanish, and every uncertain story gives the chase a new direction.
In The Million-Dollar Suitcase, Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry put money, clues and pursuit at the heart of a detective mystery. A valuable prize draws attention, while people whose stories do not quite fit leave an investigator to separate truth from bluff. The puzzle matters, but so does keeping up with the hunt.
This is brisk, plot-driven crime fiction, where stolen wealth and disappearing suspects keep certainty out of reach. MacGowan and Newberry build the appeal around clear plotting and forward motion. If you enjoy weighing a doubtful account while the action presses on, the story offers both a mystery to untangle and a chase to follow.
What you’ll discover
- A fortune worth pursuing A valuable prize gives the mystery its pull and the pursuit its stakes.
- Stories that do not fit Follow an investigator sorting truth from bluff among accounts that leave room for doubt.
- Suspects who slip away Vanishing suspects make the hunt as compelling as the puzzle at its heart.
- Clues with forward motion Enjoy a trail of clues woven into brisk action rather than a leisurely investigation.
- Two writers, clear plotting Discover MacGowan and Newberry's shared craft through a mystery built for pace.
Who will love it
Readers who love locked-room puzzles, clever women who out-think the professionals, and a hunt that races between a big city and a blossoming orchard town in the years after the Great War.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Teller and a Suitcase Vanish
- Worth Gilbert Buys the Loss
- Barbara Wallace Takes the Description
- The Room, the Roof and the Hidden Plug
- A Hidden Suitcase and a Gambler Gone
- A Shadow in the Bolted Study
- Seven Lost Days and a Son in Peril
- What the Story Is Really About
- How the Book Is Told
Who’s who
- Jerry BoyneThe veteran detective who tells the story, loves Worth like a son, and trusts plain observation until a girl shows him how much he misses.
- Worth GilbertA reckless young captain home from France who buys the stolen suitcase for the thrill and means to win back his money by hunting for it.
- Barbara WallaceA former child prodigy with a perfect memory who now works as a bookkeeper, hates her old stunts, and solves problems from facts alone.
- A. G. CummingsThe bank's sharp lawyer, who manages Worth's money, distrusts him, and has an eye on Barbara.
- DykemanThe oldest director of the bank, fierce and suspicious, who sets watchers on Worth and wants someone punished.
- Jim EdwardsA grieving ranch owner and old friend of Worth's father, who guards a painful secret about a woman he loves.
- Bronson VandemanA polished young society leader who has just married Ina Thornhill and wants to make the Blossom Festival famous.
- Ina VandemanThe fair, cool bride, once engaged to Worth, who watches Boyne closely and keeps her feelings hidden.
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- Large print hardcover
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The Million-Dollar Suitcase in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
The Million-Dollar Suitcase
by Alice MacGowan; Perry Newberry · 1922
Worth Gilbert pays eight hundred thousand dollars for a stolen suitcase he has never seen.
Medium level5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Twelve bankers cannot say what color a man's eyes were, yet that man has vanished from a locked room with nearly a million dollars. The Million-Dollar Suitcase, a detective novel by Alice MacGowan and Perry Newberry, begins with this puzzle in San Francisco in 1920.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Teller and a Suitcase Vanish
On a Saturday in San Francisco, twelve frightened directors sit with the blinds drawn. Jerry Boyne, head of the Bankers' Security Agency, tells them that teller Edward Clayte has left with a suitcase full of money and securities.
Boyne traced him to a seventh-floor room at the St. Dunstan apartments. The windows have burglarproof locks and the door has a spring lock. Yet the room holds no Clayte and no suitcase.
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What is The Million-Dollar Suitcase about?
It follows a bank teller who vanishes from a locked apartment with nearly a million dollars. A young captain buys the missing suitcase, a detective hunts the thief, and a gifted young woman solves the clues, which draw them to a death in an orchard town.
Who is Barbara Wallace in the book?
Barbara is a bookkeeper who was once a child prodigy trained by her psychologist father. She remembers everything she sees, works only from facts, and hates being treated as a stunt. Her reasoning drives the investigation.
Why is the suitcase worth eight hundred thousand dollars?
The bank's directors are afraid of a run on the bank, so they sell Worth Gilbert the missing suitcase and its contents for less than the loss. He wants the thrill of the gamble and the chance to recover the whole sum.
The author
Alice MacGowan
1858–1947 · American novelist
Alice MacGowan was an American author who lived from 1858 to 1947. She wrote novels and short stories, sometimes with her sister, Grace MacGowan Cook. She also collaborated with Perry Newberry. Their novel The Million-Dollar Suitcase was published in 1922. She lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and later in Carmel, California.
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