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The Riddle of the Night
Excerpt from The Riddle of the Night
It was half-past eleven on the night of Wednesday, April 14th, when the well-known red limousine of Mr. Maverick Narkom, superintendent of Scotland Yard, came abruptly to the head of Mulberry Lane, which, as you may possibly know, is a narrow road skirting one of the loneliest and wildest portions of Wimbledon Common.
Lennard, the chauffeur, put on the brake with such suddenness that the car seemed actually to rise from the earth, performed a sort of buzzing and snorting semicircle, and all but collided with the rear wall of Wuthering Grange before coming to a halt in the narrow road space which lay between that wall and the tree-fringed edge of the great Common.
Under ordinary circumstances one might as soon have expected to run foul of a specimen of the great auk rearing a family in St. Paul's churchyard, as to find Mr. Narkom's limousine in the neighbourhood of Mulberry Lane at any hour of the day or the night throughout the whole cycle of the year.
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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
It was half-past eleven on the night of Wednesday, April 14th, when the well-known red limousine of Mr. Maverick Narkom, superintendent of Scotland Yard, came abruptly to the head of Mulberry Lane, which, as you may possibly know, is a narrow road skirting one of the loneliest and wildest portions of Wimbledon Common.
Lennard, the chauffeur, put on the brake with such suddenness that the car seemed actually to rise from the earth, performed a sort of buzzing and snorting semicircle, and all but collided with the rear wall of Wuthering Grange before coming to a halt in the narrow road space which lay between that wall and the tree-fringed edge of the great Common.
Under ordinary circumstances one might as soon have expected to run foul of a specimen of the great auk rearing a family in St. Paul's churchyard, as to find Mr. Narkom's limousine in the neighbourhood of Mulberry Lane at any hour of the day or the night throughout the whole cycle of the year.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
329 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1916
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 25, 2023
The Riddle of the Nightis a mystery novel by Thomas W. Hanshew first published in 1915, on January 1st for that matter. Hanshew was an author and also an actor. He went on the stage when only 16 years old, playing minor parts with Ellen Terry's company. Subsequently he played important roles with Clara Morris and Adelaide Neilson. I don't know who those people are, actors I guess. Later he was associated with a publishing house in London, where he resided at the close of his life. He wrote more than 150 novels, I don't know what happened to all of them but I can't find them. He also wrote as Charlotte Mary Kingsley, I don't know why. I never know why authors write in other names, but they do. He wrote some books in collaboration with his wife, Mary E Hanshew, as far as I know she didn't change her name while writing. He was an American author (so was his wife as far as I know) best known for his stories of Hamilton Cleek, known as the man of the forty faces, who through his talents for disguise solves crime and mystery in London. And with that I'm moving on to the book.
Hamilton Cleek and all his forty faces is the main character in the story. I really liked this book, it was so much fun. It was silly and it was fun. This guy can change his face in seconds, which is really dumb but amusing. This is how he is first described:
Hamilton Cleek, The Man of the Forty Faces and once known to the Police as "The Vanishing Cracksman," now the great Detective in his various disguises as Monsieur Georges de Lesparre, Philip Barch, George Headland.
As for Cleek and his many faces we have this:
"Shall I tell you? Then listen. I meant at first to keep it to myself, but——" His voice dropped off; there was a second of silence, then a faint clicking sound, and a blob of light struck up full upon his face. "Look here," he said suddenly, "do you know this man?"
Clavering looked up and saw in the circle of light a face he had never seen in life before—a hard, cynical face with narrowed eyes and a thin-lipped, cruel mouth.
"No," he said, "if that is what you look like. I never saw such a man before."
"Nor this one?"
In the circle of light the features of the drawn face writhed curiously, blent, softened, altered—made of themselves yet another mask. And young Clavering, pulling himself together with a start, found himself looking again into the living countenance of Monsieur Georges de Lesparre.
"Good heavens above!" he said with a catch in his voice. "Then you were that man—you? And Mr. Narkom knew all the time?"
"Oui, m'sieur—to both questions—oui. It shall again be I, mon ami; and I shall remember me last night vair well. And now since m'sieur shall haf so good a recollection of zis party—voilà! He may tell me what he remembers of this one also."
Then in a flash the face was gone, and another—changed utterly and completely—was there.
"Barch!" exclaimed young Clavering, shrinking back from the man as though he were uncanny. "And you are that man—Philip Barch, Ailsa Lorne's friend? You are that man, too?"
"Yes, I am that man, too," replied Cleek. "
At one time when everyone knows him as the gentlemen Philip Barch he changes into a waiter no one can recognize just by changing his tie and waistcoat. I was wondering if we were going to go through the entire forty faces in the book, but we didn't. The story begins with the murder of Count Franz de Louvisan, one of those rich Counts that show up from nowhere. He just popped up one day, know one knows where he came from, but he had one meeting with Lady Katharine Fordham's father and she is suddenly engaged to him. She is not happy about this, neither is the man who loves her who she was to marry that very day, Geoffrey Clavering. But now our Count is going to have a hard time marrying anyone because he has been found in an abandoned cottage nailed to the wall.
So who killed him? First, there is a shot, a police whistle and a cry of murder heard. Then a chase of a man who seems to disappear in the night. Next a woman, "young and fair, with a scarf of lace thrown over her head, from beneath which fell a glory of unbound hair, thick and lustrous, over shoulders that were wrapped in ermine" was seen leaving the property. Then we find out there was a scene between our dead Count and Geoffrey Clavering earlier that evening. He challenges the Count, but he responds telling him that "one doesn't fight a fallen foe, he merely pities him". Geoffrey responds by telling him to pity himself if he ever meets him, and now there he is dead on the wall. Then a bracelet is found in the same room as the body, a fragment of pinkish material, another woman spotted, but this lady is wearing a green gown. Eventually I come to the conclusion that everyone in the book wanted this guy dead. There are more of the ladies who were in the cottage, or on the grounds that may have killed him, and wanted him dead at least, you could have arrested any of them, although how they would have got him on to the wall I don't know. Then there are all the husbands and men who love them who could have killed him to save their wives from him. And there a whole bunch of bad guys who want him dead too, it seems he wasn't always a Count. I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone, except maybe our man of forty faces, who doesn't want to kill him. And this, "if a man has a love affair when he is young, well that's just boys being boys, but if a woman has an affair when she is young, she is ruined for life", is dumb and not fair. But a lot of things are dumb and not fair. So who killed him? Keep my he wasn't always a Count comment in mind, there are other people in this book who aren't quite who we think they are, forty if you count our detective. I liked this book, I would read more by the author if I could find them. Somehow I doubt I could find them, but I haven't looked. This book was illustrated, I'm going to see if I can find the illustrations and I'll be done with this book.
Hamilton Cleek and all his forty faces is the main character in the story. I really liked this book, it was so much fun. It was silly and it was fun. This guy can change his face in seconds, which is really dumb but amusing. This is how he is first described:
Hamilton Cleek, The Man of the Forty Faces and once known to the Police as "The Vanishing Cracksman," now the great Detective in his various disguises as Monsieur Georges de Lesparre, Philip Barch, George Headland.
As for Cleek and his many faces we have this:
"Shall I tell you? Then listen. I meant at first to keep it to myself, but——" His voice dropped off; there was a second of silence, then a faint clicking sound, and a blob of light struck up full upon his face. "Look here," he said suddenly, "do you know this man?"
Clavering looked up and saw in the circle of light a face he had never seen in life before—a hard, cynical face with narrowed eyes and a thin-lipped, cruel mouth.
"No," he said, "if that is what you look like. I never saw such a man before."
"Nor this one?"
In the circle of light the features of the drawn face writhed curiously, blent, softened, altered—made of themselves yet another mask. And young Clavering, pulling himself together with a start, found himself looking again into the living countenance of Monsieur Georges de Lesparre.
"Good heavens above!" he said with a catch in his voice. "Then you were that man—you? And Mr. Narkom knew all the time?"
"Oui, m'sieur—to both questions—oui. It shall again be I, mon ami; and I shall remember me last night vair well. And now since m'sieur shall haf so good a recollection of zis party—voilà! He may tell me what he remembers of this one also."
Then in a flash the face was gone, and another—changed utterly and completely—was there.
"Barch!" exclaimed young Clavering, shrinking back from the man as though he were uncanny. "And you are that man—Philip Barch, Ailsa Lorne's friend? You are that man, too?"
"Yes, I am that man, too," replied Cleek. "
At one time when everyone knows him as the gentlemen Philip Barch he changes into a waiter no one can recognize just by changing his tie and waistcoat. I was wondering if we were going to go through the entire forty faces in the book, but we didn't. The story begins with the murder of Count Franz de Louvisan, one of those rich Counts that show up from nowhere. He just popped up one day, know one knows where he came from, but he had one meeting with Lady Katharine Fordham's father and she is suddenly engaged to him. She is not happy about this, neither is the man who loves her who she was to marry that very day, Geoffrey Clavering. But now our Count is going to have a hard time marrying anyone because he has been found in an abandoned cottage nailed to the wall.
So who killed him? First, there is a shot, a police whistle and a cry of murder heard. Then a chase of a man who seems to disappear in the night. Next a woman, "young and fair, with a scarf of lace thrown over her head, from beneath which fell a glory of unbound hair, thick and lustrous, over shoulders that were wrapped in ermine" was seen leaving the property. Then we find out there was a scene between our dead Count and Geoffrey Clavering earlier that evening. He challenges the Count, but he responds telling him that "one doesn't fight a fallen foe, he merely pities him". Geoffrey responds by telling him to pity himself if he ever meets him, and now there he is dead on the wall. Then a bracelet is found in the same room as the body, a fragment of pinkish material, another woman spotted, but this lady is wearing a green gown. Eventually I come to the conclusion that everyone in the book wanted this guy dead. There are more of the ladies who were in the cottage, or on the grounds that may have killed him, and wanted him dead at least, you could have arrested any of them, although how they would have got him on to the wall I don't know. Then there are all the husbands and men who love them who could have killed him to save their wives from him. And there a whole bunch of bad guys who want him dead too, it seems he wasn't always a Count. I'm having a hard time thinking of anyone, except maybe our man of forty faces, who doesn't want to kill him. And this, "if a man has a love affair when he is young, well that's just boys being boys, but if a woman has an affair when she is young, she is ruined for life", is dumb and not fair. But a lot of things are dumb and not fair. So who killed him? Keep my he wasn't always a Count comment in mind, there are other people in this book who aren't quite who we think they are, forty if you count our detective. I liked this book, I would read more by the author if I could find them. Somehow I doubt I could find them, but I haven't looked. This book was illustrated, I'm going to see if I can find the illustrations and I'll be done with this book.
December 21, 2018
This is the best book
May 1, 2020
To many just-so-happens and unlikelihoods. I’m not even sold on the detective Cleek being able to change his face enough that other characters think he’s three different people.
June 22, 2016
I received this book from my BookBub subscription and read it as a Kindle edition. It has been converted by a team of volunteers to an eBook, which is really nice for those Kindle lovers. I prefer a book in my hand, but I'll never scoff at a good book on my Kindle.
While this is a relatively short story at 116 pages, it is not lacking in entertainment or suspense. "Riddle of the Night" starts off and centers around the mystery of a foreign aristocrat that has been spiked to a deserted cottage wall with a mysterious code written on his chest. This story will keep you guessing at the identity of the murderer until the very end. You will meet plenty of characters ranging from respectable to despicable, and might even have those opinions flipped a few times as you follow the clues to solve the aristocrat's murder.
It is up to our unlikely hero - Detective Cleek, AKA The Man of Forty Faces, AKA The Vanishing Cracksman, to solve this mystery with the hope of saving his friend, Ailsa Lorne's, companions chance at love. A love that had been formerly ripped from them by the now dead aristocrat. Have they murdered this man so they could finally be together? You'll have to read the book to find out!
This isn't the first story to feature Detective Cleek. To get a more in depth history of his former exploits with the Apache gang and their leader - Margot, you can read the following stories written also by Thomas W. Hanshew:
Cleek of Scotland Yard Detective Stories
Cleek: The Man of the Forty Faces
Cleek, The Master Detective
All of these have been converted to eBook for convenience and availability purposes, and thank goodness because they are really great stories. However, if you don't feel like going back and reading the previous books, I will provide you with a brief background on Cleek.
Cleek is a man searching for redemption after meeting Miss Ailsa Lorne on one of his cases. He wants only to wipe out his criminal ledger in order to be worthy of the woman he loves. Don't get me wrong, the love displayed by Detective Cleek is wonderful, but if this is the sort of thing that puts you off, you really shouldn't worry. It is a subtle and quiet admiration kind of love. The author, Mr. Hanshew, portrays Cleek's love as a great respect for the value of a good woman. A woman, as he has written, that has the strength to withstand many trials and still retain the femininity and compassion for which women are known. For his time, Hanshew's views on women are extraordinary. He most certainly was a feminist; never putting the strength, wisdom, or love of the supporting character of Ailsa Lorne below the protagonist, Cleek.
Cleek does show some similarities to the greatest detective of ALL time: Mr. Sherlock Homes. He does this by his ability to disguise himself, solve easily the most impossible cases, and consult with Scotland Yard on an unofficial level. I find Cleek a bit more relatable as a character because of the aforementioned ability to love, and more so the love story woven into his life of crime and redemption. We all want to feel deserving of the love of the people we desire, and Mr. Cleek's journey to attain such is fascinating, and I highly recommend the books listed in this post to anyone who is a fan of detective stories.
While this is a relatively short story at 116 pages, it is not lacking in entertainment or suspense. "Riddle of the Night" starts off and centers around the mystery of a foreign aristocrat that has been spiked to a deserted cottage wall with a mysterious code written on his chest. This story will keep you guessing at the identity of the murderer until the very end. You will meet plenty of characters ranging from respectable to despicable, and might even have those opinions flipped a few times as you follow the clues to solve the aristocrat's murder.
It is up to our unlikely hero - Detective Cleek, AKA The Man of Forty Faces, AKA The Vanishing Cracksman, to solve this mystery with the hope of saving his friend, Ailsa Lorne's, companions chance at love. A love that had been formerly ripped from them by the now dead aristocrat. Have they murdered this man so they could finally be together? You'll have to read the book to find out!
This isn't the first story to feature Detective Cleek. To get a more in depth history of his former exploits with the Apache gang and their leader - Margot, you can read the following stories written also by Thomas W. Hanshew:
Cleek of Scotland Yard Detective Stories
Cleek: The Man of the Forty Faces
Cleek, The Master Detective
All of these have been converted to eBook for convenience and availability purposes, and thank goodness because they are really great stories. However, if you don't feel like going back and reading the previous books, I will provide you with a brief background on Cleek.
Cleek is a man searching for redemption after meeting Miss Ailsa Lorne on one of his cases. He wants only to wipe out his criminal ledger in order to be worthy of the woman he loves. Don't get me wrong, the love displayed by Detective Cleek is wonderful, but if this is the sort of thing that puts you off, you really shouldn't worry. It is a subtle and quiet admiration kind of love. The author, Mr. Hanshew, portrays Cleek's love as a great respect for the value of a good woman. A woman, as he has written, that has the strength to withstand many trials and still retain the femininity and compassion for which women are known. For his time, Hanshew's views on women are extraordinary. He most certainly was a feminist; never putting the strength, wisdom, or love of the supporting character of Ailsa Lorne below the protagonist, Cleek.
Cleek does show some similarities to the greatest detective of ALL time: Mr. Sherlock Homes. He does this by his ability to disguise himself, solve easily the most impossible cases, and consult with Scotland Yard on an unofficial level. I find Cleek a bit more relatable as a character because of the aforementioned ability to love, and more so the love story woven into his life of crime and redemption. We all want to feel deserving of the love of the people we desire, and Mr. Cleek's journey to attain such is fascinating, and I highly recommend the books listed in this post to anyone who is a fan of detective stories.
April 22, 2016
A page turner.
This is the first Hamilton Cleek novel that i have read. Being a SH fan I never thought I would enjoy any other detective story so much. While the Cleek short stories are somewhat far fetched (his perfect-to-life disguises etc) but nevertheless good, this novel surpassed all of them and is a must have for all the detective stories' lovers! The book is a page turner And you won't be able to guess the real murderer atleast till the second last chapter.
This is the first Hamilton Cleek novel that i have read. Being a SH fan I never thought I would enjoy any other detective story so much. While the Cleek short stories are somewhat far fetched (his perfect-to-life disguises etc) but nevertheless good, this novel surpassed all of them and is a must have for all the detective stories' lovers! The book is a page turner And you won't be able to guess the real murderer atleast till the second last chapter.
April 24, 2016
Amazing!
Being a Sherlock Holmes fan I never thought I would enjoy any other detective plot so much! While Holmes is cold and distant, Cleek is full of life. Both have a lot in common too (the intelligence and their love for dramatics for ex.). If you love Holmes then you are going to love Cleek too.
Being a Sherlock Holmes fan I never thought I would enjoy any other detective plot so much! While Holmes is cold and distant, Cleek is full of life. Both have a lot in common too (the intelligence and their love for dramatics for ex.). If you love Holmes then you are going to love Cleek too.
March 16, 2011
Cleek is called in to assist the police in investigating a particularly gruesome murder. A woman is involved - but which woman ?
March 12, 2011
Sherlock Holmes lite! note: Have found on eBook only at www.feedbooks.com
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews