10 h 18 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 10 h 18 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A murder, a hidden identity, a serpent-shaped jewel: which secret binds them together?
In The Opal Serpent, Fergus Hume brings a murder and a mysterious jewel into a tale of suspicion. People are not what they seem, and discovering who someone really is becomes part of the puzzle. The opal serpent sits at the centre, binding the crime to the secrets around it.
This Victorian mystery asks you to look beyond a respectable face and question the trust a name can earn. Hidden identities keep the suspense alive as secrets emerge slowly. Hume lays out the plot with care, offering the measured pleasure of a crime puzzle rather than the rush of a fast thriller.
What you’ll discover
- A jewel at the centre Follow the opal serpent through a mystery where an ornament binds murder and secrets together.
- People behind their names Look past appearances as hidden identities make trust a difficult thing to give.
- Suspicion that builds slowly Settle into suspense that grows through secrets and the search for who people really are.
- A carefully laid puzzle Enjoy a plot that takes its time, giving you room to weigh what you learn.
- The pull of early detection Explore Hume's crime fiction through a tale shaped by murder, identity, and a distinctive jewel.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy Victorian sensation novels, puzzles with false names, warm comedy in servants' speech, and a detective who gathers clues in disguise.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Paul leaves home to write
- An old friend wants the brooch
- The jewel breaks Norman's composure
- Questions gather around the missing jewel
- The brooch returns as a message
- A claim threatens Sylvia's future
- An earlier murder shadows the present
- Loyalty stands against names and money
- Follow the jewel and its seekers
Who’s who
- Paul BeecotA hot-headed young writer who leaves his bullying father to win fame in London and to marry the girl he loves.
- Sylvia NormanThe shy, gray-eyed daughter of a bookseller, raised in seclusion and eager to marry Paul and leave her frightening home.
- Deborah JunkSylvia's large, loud and endlessly loyal maid, who guards her young mistress and speaks her mind to everyone.
- Aaron NormanA nervous one-eyed bookseller and secret pawnbroker who fears some unnamed danger and looks over his shoulder constantly.
- Grexon HayPaul's smooth, well-dressed old schoolmate, who seems friendly and generous but badly wants the opal brooch.
- Billy HurdA cheerful brown-suited detective who uses disguises and patient questions to hunt down a clever murderer.
- Jabez PashThe dead man's solicitor, a chattering little man who looks like a monkey and watches where the money goes.
- Mrs. KrillA handsome white-haired widow with hard blue eyes who arrives to claim a fortune for her daughter Maud.
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The Opal Serpent
by Fergus Hume · 1905
A young writer tries to pawn his mother's jeweled snake brooch, and a London pawnbroker collapses at the sight of it.
Medium level5–10 hours to readEnglish
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In short
What would make a quiet pawnbroker faint at the sight of a brooch? In The Opal Serpent, a penniless young writer named Paul Beecot shows an Indian jewel to Aaron Norman, a one-eyed London bookseller.
The Opal Serpent at a glance
- Reading time
- About 5 h 55 min4 h 40 min fast, 7 h slow
- Length
- 84,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1905by 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 fiery son leaves home to write
Simon Beecot is a country gentleman at Wargrove in Essex with a small income and a very large temper. He snarls at his worn-out wife and snaps at his son Paul. Paul is twenty-five, quick-witted and proud, and he wants to make a name as a writer.
Paul announces his plan to go to London. His father wants an heir who sits still and waits for the estate. He swears he will give Paul no shilling. Paul answers calmly that he has saved fifty pounds from short stories, and that his ancestors sound to him like cabbages.
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- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1905
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 6 h 40 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Hume, Fergus. The Opal Serpent. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-opal-serpent.
Hume, F. (2026). The opal serpent. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-opal-serpent (Original work published 1905)
Hume, Fergus. The Opal Serpent. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-opal-serpent.
@book{hume2026opal,
author = {Hume, Fergus},
title = {The Opal Serpent},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-opal-serpent},
note = {First published 1905}
}
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What is The Opal Serpent about?
It follows Paul Beecot, a young writer in London, and Sylvia Norman, the shy daughter of a pawnbroker. A jeweled serpent brooch frightens her father and leads to a murder, a missing name in a will, and a hunt through an old family secret.
Who is Deborah Junk?
Deborah Junk is the Norman household's red-armed maid, who has raised Sylvia since babyhood. She is loud, funny and fiercely loyal, and she guards Sylvia, checks Paul's character, and eventually starts her own laundry with Bart Tawsey.
What does the opal serpent brooch mean in the story?
It is a jeweled Indian brooch of opals, diamonds and gold, scratched with the initial R. Opals are said to bring bad luck, and in the book the brooch links several people to a crime from the distant past.
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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