9 h 45 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 9 h 45 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What can a stolen jewel reveal when respectable names and polite manners hide dangerous secrets?
In The Amethyst Cross, Fergus Hume draws you into a mystery of stolen jewels and hidden identities in Edwardian England. Country houses and drawing rooms form a world where reputation matters, appearances carry weight, and a familiar name may conceal more than it reveals.
At the heart of the puzzle is a cross set with amethysts. Around it gather questions of identity, suspicion and secrets. Hume invites you to read alongside the characters, watching small details and testing what people seem to know. Who is present? Who leaves? Who seems too calm?
What you’ll discover
- A jewel worth watching Follow the amethyst cross into a puzzle shaped by stolen jewels and concealed identities.
- Respectability under suspicion Look beyond polite manners, where respectable families and old secrets share the same rooms.
- An Edwardian world Enter country estates and London houses shaped by strict rules of class and reputation.
- Small details that matter Watch arrivals, departures and quiet reactions as you weigh each person's place in the mystery.
- The pleasure of puzzling Enjoy a plain, old-fashioned mystery that asks you to question what you see.
Who will love it
If you enjoy Edwardian mysteries, riverside settings, young lovers who fight for each other, family secrets and stolen jewels, this book gives you all of it.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A love token becomes a threat
- The missing cross controls their marriage
- A loyal messenger breaks their isolation
- A secret meeting becomes a trap
- Lesbia turns kindness into resistance
- The jewel points toward an inheritance
- Carrying the cross means choosing well
- Fairy tales frame the gathering mysteries
- Love meets the weight of secrets
Who’s who
- Lesbia HaleA brave, practical twenty-year-old who lives at Rose Cottage with a secretive father and wants to marry the man she loves.
- George WalkerA fair, honest stockbroker's clerk who supports his mother and is trapped by suspicion while trying to win Lesbia.
- Walter HaleLesbia's cold, elegant father, who hides his business and wants the amethyst cross at nearly any cost.
- Tim BurkeA small, crooked Irish servant who adores Lesbia, fears the cross and keeps secrets he will not explain.
- Mrs. WalkerGeorge's stern widowed mother, who hates Hale for reasons she will not share and hopes to inherit her sister's fortune.
- Maud EllisMichael Tait's clever niece, who loves George and will use any trap to make him hers.
- Mr. JabezA dry, blue-spectacled lawyer who holds the family fortune and insists that the cross must be produced.
- CanningCalled the Shadow, a thin, sickly watcher who owes Lesbia for her kindness and knows more than he says.
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The Amethyst Cross
by Fergus Hume · 1908
A cheap ring, an amethyst cross and a father who rages: Lesbia's gift to George starts a chain of crimes.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
A blackbird sits in a chestnut tree beside the Thames and watches two lovers. He thinks he knows how their story will go.
The Amethyst Cross at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 35 min4 h 25 min fast, 6 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 79,900 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1908by Fergus Hume
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A proposal, a jewel and an angry father
The story opens in May in a neglected garden beside the Thames at Marlow. George Walker, a fair clerk of twenty-five, has just asked Lesbia Hale to marry him.
Lesbia has a gift for George. It is an amethyst cross of four purple stones set in gold, with a small green cube at the centre that carries a crown and the words Refuse and Lose. Her old nurse, Bridget Burke, gave it to her on her deathbed and said it came from Lesbia's mother.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1908
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 20 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Hume, Fergus. The Amethyst Cross. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-amethyst-cross.
Hume, F. (2026). The amethyst cross. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-amethyst-cross (Original work published 1908)
Hume, Fergus. The Amethyst Cross. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-amethyst-cross.
@book{hume2026amethyst,
author = {Hume, Fergus},
title = {The Amethyst Cross},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-amethyst-cross},
note = {First published 1908}
}
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What is The Amethyst Cross about?
It follows George Walker and Lesbia Hale, who become engaged by the Thames. A jewel she gives him draws thieves and schemers into their lives, and they must clear George's name and uncover a family secret to be together.
What does Refuse and Lose mean in The Amethyst Cross?
It is the motto cut into a green cube at the centre of the cross. Lesbia reads it as a Christian lesson: if you refuse your cross in life, you lose the crown that should be yours.
Who is the Shadow in The Amethyst Cross?
The Shadow is a thin, ghostlike man called Canning, who watches Lesbia's garden on behalf of her father's friend. When she nurses him through an illness, he promises to help her and begins to investigate on her behalf.
The author
Fergus Hume
1859–1932 · English mystery novelist
Fergus Hume (1859–1932) was a British novelist born in England. He grew up in Dunedin, New Zealand, and moved to Melbourne, Australia, in 1885. He published The Mystery of a Hansom Cab in 1886. He returned to England in 1888 and continued writing crime novels, including The Green Mummy.
More by Fergus Hume
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