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The Curious Cases of Detective Richard Duvall #1
The Ivory Snuff Box
This book is a result of an effort made by us towards making a contribution to the preservation and repair of original classic literature. In an attempt to preserve, improve and recreate the original content, we have worked towards: 1. Type-setting & Reformatting: The complete work has been re-designed via professional layout, formatting and type-setting tools to re-create the same edition with rich typography, graphics, high quality images, and table elements, giving our readers the feel of holding a 'fresh and newly' reprinted and/or revised edition, as opposed to other scanned & printed (Optical Character Recognition - OCR) reproductions. 2. Correction of imperfections: As the work was re-created from the scratch, therefore, it was vetted to rectify certain conventional norms with regard to typographical mistakes, hyphenations, punctuations, blurred images, missing content/pages, and/or other related subject matters, upon our consideration. Every attempt was made to rectify the imperfections related to omitted constructs in the original edition via other references. However, a few of such imperfections which could not be rectified due to intentional\unintentional omission of content in the original edition, were inherited and preserved from the original work to maintain the authenticity and construct, relevant to the work. We believe that this work holds historical, cultural and/or intellectual importance in the literary works community, therefore despite the oddities, we accounted the work for print as a part of our continuing effort towards preservation of literary work and our contribution towards the development of the society as a whole, driven by our beliefs. We are grateful to our readers for putting their faith in us and accepting our imperfections with regard to preservation of the historical content. HAPPY READING!
- GenresMystery
120 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1912
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 18, 2020
Not up to snuff.
Detective Duvall has his honeymoon interrupted by a mission of great importance to the safety and honour of France - to recover the ambassador's snuff box. As Duvall is on his way to London the authorities unaccountably enlist his wife to enter the sanitarium of a Belgian doctor, the suspected mastermind of the robbery, by pretending that she is suffering from somnambalism. Really.
Duvall soon joins her at the sanitarium, recovers the snuff box then makes a hash of things and is tortured by ultraviolet light while Grace watches on after a spell of bogus sleepwalking. The authorities know where they are, know that Duvall has the item they so badly need, yet do nothing to help beyond giving Grace a phonograph record to play which might comfort her husband!
Writing a decent mystery is nothing to sneeze at but The Ivory Snuff Box is a total hack job.
Detective Duvall has his honeymoon interrupted by a mission of great importance to the safety and honour of France - to recover the ambassador's snuff box. As Duvall is on his way to London the authorities unaccountably enlist his wife to enter the sanitarium of a Belgian doctor, the suspected mastermind of the robbery, by pretending that she is suffering from somnambalism. Really.
Duvall soon joins her at the sanitarium, recovers the snuff box then makes a hash of things and is tortured by ultraviolet light while Grace watches on after a spell of bogus sleepwalking. The authorities know where they are, know that Duvall has the item they so badly need, yet do nothing to help beyond giving Grace a phonograph record to play which might comfort her husband!
Writing a decent mystery is nothing to sneeze at but The Ivory Snuff Box is a total hack job.
April 28, 2021
Monsieur Lefevre calls upon his young friend Richard Duvall to help him in a matter of extreme importance. Never mind that Duvall just that day got married and is planning to embark on his honeymoon. The honor of France is at stake! Duvall isn't happy about leaving his new bride Grace so soon, but he does owe Lefevre his loyalty. BUT when he learns the object of his mission he thinks the Prefect of Police has lost his marbles. It appears that the ivory snuff box of the French ambassador in London has gone missing. Quelle horreur! He's about ready to grab his bags, join his wife, and leave when he realizes that there must be more to this than meets the eye. Surely Lefevre wouldn't request his help in a matter of pure theft.
So, trusting his friend and mentor, he leaves Grace behind, joins up with Monsieur Dufrenne, an elderly expert in ivory antiques who can identify the heirloom, and heads to London to get the details from Ambassador de Grissac. The box was stolen while the ambassador was in his dressing room--alone save for his valet. It seems obvious that the gentleman's gentleman must have taken it but the box was nowhere to be found: not on his person and not among his things. Since the theft happened the valet has been kept locked in his room, and Duvall insists on interviewing him. When the room is unlocked, the man is found dead, with writing implements about him, but no sign of any written documents. It's soon discovered that Noel (the valet) wrote a note to a friend by the name of Oscar Seltz, cancelling an engagement for the evening. Duvall's instincts tell him that Seltz is the key to the whereabouts of the missing box. He and Dufrenne set out on Seltz's trail--a trail that will lead them to a nerve specialist in Belgium.
Meanwhile, Grace is not left pining in France for her new husband. Oh, no. Monsieur Lefevre calls on her to explain why she and Duvall cannot set sail on the honeymoon just yet and she demands to help in some way. So, she is sent to Dr. Hartmann's ostensibly to be cured of sleepwalking (a condition more easily faked than most nervous disorders). She is to keep a watching brief and if Duvall fails in his mission to recover the snuff box before it reaches the doctor, then her job will be to steal it back.
This is very much a thriller with a romantic touch thrown in and very little mystery. We know immediately who the bad guys are. The only question is how many hair-raising adventures will our heroes and heroine have before the grand finale? There is the obligatory evil genius scene at the end where it looks for all the world like Dr. Hartmann has won and Duvall is sent back to France in disgrace. The only real mystery is how did Duvall manage to get the upper hand after all. But for all the standard thriller qualities, this was a fun read. I do wish Grace could have continued to be the strong heroine throughout the entire novel. She starts strong, does well in her "sleepwalking" role and observation duties, and then falls apart when Hartmann gets his hands on Duvall. I can see how that was made necessary for the plot to work as it did, but would have liked to see a better solution that allowed Grace remain heroic to the end. I am also curious as to how old our elderly expert is. If he really is the frail, old man that he's depicted in certain scenes, I can't see him managing as well as he does in others when he needs must play the hero. But overall, a grand adventure and worth the day's reading.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
So, trusting his friend and mentor, he leaves Grace behind, joins up with Monsieur Dufrenne, an elderly expert in ivory antiques who can identify the heirloom, and heads to London to get the details from Ambassador de Grissac. The box was stolen while the ambassador was in his dressing room--alone save for his valet. It seems obvious that the gentleman's gentleman must have taken it but the box was nowhere to be found: not on his person and not among his things. Since the theft happened the valet has been kept locked in his room, and Duvall insists on interviewing him. When the room is unlocked, the man is found dead, with writing implements about him, but no sign of any written documents. It's soon discovered that Noel (the valet) wrote a note to a friend by the name of Oscar Seltz, cancelling an engagement for the evening. Duvall's instincts tell him that Seltz is the key to the whereabouts of the missing box. He and Dufrenne set out on Seltz's trail--a trail that will lead them to a nerve specialist in Belgium.
Meanwhile, Grace is not left pining in France for her new husband. Oh, no. Monsieur Lefevre calls on her to explain why she and Duvall cannot set sail on the honeymoon just yet and she demands to help in some way. So, she is sent to Dr. Hartmann's ostensibly to be cured of sleepwalking (a condition more easily faked than most nervous disorders). She is to keep a watching brief and if Duvall fails in his mission to recover the snuff box before it reaches the doctor, then her job will be to steal it back.
This is very much a thriller with a romantic touch thrown in and very little mystery. We know immediately who the bad guys are. The only question is how many hair-raising adventures will our heroes and heroine have before the grand finale? There is the obligatory evil genius scene at the end where it looks for all the world like Dr. Hartmann has won and Duvall is sent back to France in disgrace. The only real mystery is how did Duvall manage to get the upper hand after all. But for all the standard thriller qualities, this was a fun read. I do wish Grace could have continued to be the strong heroine throughout the entire novel. She starts strong, does well in her "sleepwalking" role and observation duties, and then falls apart when Hartmann gets his hands on Duvall. I can see how that was made necessary for the plot to work as it did, but would have liked to see a better solution that allowed Grace remain heroic to the end. I am also curious as to how old our elderly expert is. If he really is the frail, old man that he's depicted in certain scenes, I can't see him managing as well as he does in others when he needs must play the hero. But overall, a grand adventure and worth the day's reading.
First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting portions of review. Thanks.
May 17, 2013
If you like early examples of the detective genre, Kummer is worth a read. This book is very much of its time. The heroine is lovely, rich, and by current standards rather insipid. She is not totally inactive but most of what she does must be cloaked in a guise of helplessness. Duvall's discovery of what the ivory snuffbox really stands for is handled somewhat clumsily. Nevertheless as an historical example of the genre, it is entertaining.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews