The Cruciform Mark: The Strange Story of Richard Tregenna, Bachelor of Medicine

by Riccardo Stephens

"Novel of occultism and crime in Fin-de-Siécle Edinburgh. The first-person narrator, a medical student, describes the rash of strange deaths in the city: all have a cruciform mark at the back of their necks and are reported to have acted hysterically in their final days. The deaths are eventually traced to a woman who has mesmeric powers and kills her victims with a poisoned ring. When she is cornered she falls to her death. An autopsy reveals a giant tumor in her skull in place of the brain." - Glover and Green

342 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1896

About the author

Riccardo Stephens was a Cornish physician, writer and student of the occult who settled in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he frequented Patrick Geddes' University Hall, at Ramsay Garden.

Stephens was secretary of Geddes' Edinburgh Summer School in 1895 and contributed poetry to The Evergreen (1895) and Elizabeth A. Sharp's Lyra Celtica (1896). His first novel, The Cruciform Mark (1896) is a Conan Doyle style mystery thriller which draws on his involvement with the Geddes circle.