The Corbin Necklace

by Henry Kitchell Webster

The most exciting news surrounding Judy's wedding is the announcement that Grandmother Corbin is going to give the bride her pearl necklace, a family heirloom worth many thousands of dollars, as a wedding present. But before the gift can be presented, it disappears from Grandmother's safe; and amid the frantic speculations that follow, some curious behavior is observed among Judy, her fiancé, and his cousin.

Genres: Mystery

ebook

First published January 1, 1926

About the author

Henry Kitchell Webster was an American author who lived in Evanston, Illinois. He wrote novels and short stories on themes ranging from mystery to family drama to science fiction. He first achieved moderate recognition in 1899 when he co-wrote The Short Line War with fellow Illinois author Samuel Merwin, with whom he later collaborated to write one of his more famous works, Calumet "K".

Reviews

[Bev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Necklace...necklace...who's got the necklace?

When Mr. Corbin passed peacefully away, he left his widow in complete control of his wealth, including a beautiful pearl necklace worth 100,000 dollars. She loved to play the autocrat and she disliked her daughter-in-law, Violet. It was always understood that her son's wife would have the pearls one day, but when Violet's husband joined his father in the great beyond old Mrs. Corbin kept putting off the passing of the pearly torch (as it were).

So, when Violet's daughter Judy is ready to get married, the announcement appears in the paper along with the news that Mrs. Corbin plans to present it to her granddaughter as a wedding present. The matriarch denies having told the papers so...but neither denies nor confirms the papers assertion. As the day of the wedding approaches, Judy's younger brother Punch is just as sure as shootin' that someone is going to steal the necklace. After all, Gran's safe is about a hundred years old and any thief worth his salt should be able to have it open in a matter of minutes. Well...Punch must have second sight because the necklace is stolen--not once, but twice. And nobody seems to want to hold onto it for long. Judy is nervous as well, but not about the necklace. She keeps looking like she's seen a ghost and goes about hiding little notes she receives from her intended's cousin. Punch thinks it's about the necklace...but our narrator is none too sure.

Mr. Ethelbert Smith, long-time family friend to the Corbins and an expert jeweler, arrives for the wedding and is just in time to help solve the mystery of who stole the necklace the first time. And who brought it back? And who stole it the second time? And where is it now? Our narrator, another--unnamed--family friend who is sidelined with a broken leg, is given all the juicy details by Punch and Judy and Mr. Smith and passes them along to the reader so we can follow the action from all sides. A nice little robbery with little in the way of clues (there's no way you'll be able to name the culprit), but it makes for a fun bit of family mystery and drama...and gives us a view of life in the Midwest in the 1920s. ★★★ and 1/2 (rounded up here)

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A family of rich Midwesterners (their grandfather came in and, someone actually says aloud, chased the Indians off a bunch of land and took it) are preparing for a wedding. The grandmother, still alive at an advanced age, is rumoured to be planning to give an heirloom pearl necklace to the young bride as a wedding gift. The young woman doesn't particularly want it, and in fact doesn't particularly want the groom, either, as it turns out, but feels obligated to accept both, for reasons which unfold.

There's a big coincidence at the heart of the plot, but since it's more to set things up than to resolve them I don't mind as much as I otherwise would. The pearl necklace is a classic McGuffin, and both it and its less-valuable duplicate disappear, reappear, and are generally complication and suspicion generators throughout.

The bride's name is Judy, and her younger brother is consequently known to one and all as Punch, though he's officially John Corbin III. He's a clever, loyal and courageous 13-year-old, who takes his responsibilities seriously, and considers preventing the theft of the necklace to be one of them. He's effective, too.

The family's neighbour, never named, is the narrator, mostly an observer of the action because of a broken leg, though he does facilitate a few conversations. There's an older man who seems to have a past as some sort of law enforcement agent, who takes effective action as well, and is one of those characters that you'd like to hear more stories about. (As far as I know, though, there were not any.)

The groom is, without being malicious or villainous, still thoroughly despicable in his adherence to his background's assumptions about what he's owed and who it's right to inconvenience so that he gets it. It's a relief to everyone when he finally departs. Meanwhile, the tyrannical old lady is more flexible and fair-minded than you might expect.

It's a genial mystery in which there are no murders and no police, and all of the characters are distinct, believable, and the possessors of some depth. The author was a prolific producer of fiction, who said once that to make a living from fiction you had to churn out a lot of possibly inferior stuff, but this is decent, by the standards of the time and of today.