A mystery/ adventure book with a twist at the end. Not my fav, but engaging.
There’s Tim Jordan sort of investigating. He follos the story and tells everything to the Scotland Yard people, because he was a captain of police in South Africa, not here.
He’s come to speak with Mr Awkright, the man who manages his money and gives him a some, as per old Jordan’s will, I guess. Anyway, now Tim would like to stay here in London, and Mr Awkright arranges with the lawyers to transfer to him custody of his money, so that they need not meet any more.
At Mr Awkright’s house, Tim meets Mary Grier who works for him, apparently, and falls in love. But her behaviour is as weird and mysterious and Stoker’s, the butler.
Shortly after Tim’s arrival at the house, his driver Jelf is stabbed and dies. He manages to say to Mary that it was the same man who attacked her once. She’s scared, of course, but won’t satisfy Tim’s curiosity and says nothing.
Tim doesn’t know this Jelf, he just hired him since he’s new in the Country. Other things happen, like Stoker always keeping an eye on Mary, as if to protet her, but also Mrs Daney calling and seeing Tim to tell him stuff against her husband, the famous criminal.
There’s two criminals of interest to this story: Harry Stone was a cop in South Africa but he was dirty, so Tim send him out of his Country - like, because he was a cop, he wasn’t jailed but sent away, as a kindness or something, but I guss he didn’t think of what ‘kindness’ he was doing to the other Countries that would come in contact with him…
Harry is in Scotland, he’s a con-man, trying to sell a fake gold mine to credulous people, when he sees that Lew Daney has made a job at ta bank. Lew Daney is a famous criminal, smart and ruthless. He’s stolen lots of money in various Countries.
We see Daney meeting Harry, knowing that the other knows about his last bank robbery, before we start following Tim’s story.
Mrs Daney comes to Tim to tell him about her husband, because Lew told her that he fell in love with Mary Grier and she’s quite pissed about that.
There’s many things that puzzle Tim: there’s the mysterious Mr Ledbetter, Stoker’s real employer, the man who let Mr Awkright rent the house for a small sum; there’s the tractor that Ledbetter bought but never used, according to Stoker, which should be always locked but isn’t. There’s mysterious movement around there, and Tim even sees a man in a frenzy, with a knife. The man runs away, but Tim is sure he’s Jelb’s murderer.
Tim learns that Mary once stole 70£, and also that she was once attacked, and is alive only thanks to two men who helped her. One of those men was Daney, the time when he saw her and fell for her, and the other man was Jelf.
Awkright will die of an accident, falling by chance into a secret staircase and badly hitting his head, or something. This leads to the discovery that the house was one of the places used by Daney to store his money. The tractor was useful in opening and closing the entrance.
Stoker leaves the house driving a van, having taken the money, and they wonder that he tried to betray Daney. Sure, it was a lie that they’re brothers, Stoker was just one of the men working for him.
Anyway, Stoker is found dead, shot.
Another mystery was the woman that entered the hosue one day, drunk and desperate, yelling she couldn’t stand it anymore. Now Tim meets her in London, where he’s taken Mary after all that happened. She’s Martha, and her job is to look after Willie Awkright, Mr Awkright’s son, quite touched in the head. She’s tired of looking after him, she says he tried twice already to kill her, and he’s the one who attacked Mary years ago. Mr Awkright playd her, she needed money to help her mother and her little sister, but he denied her his help and then left money around, waiting for her to yield and steal something. When he finally caught her, he blackmailed her into marrying his son, in exchange for his silence and also money for her mother. Since then, she’s lived in that house. Away from Willie, but never free of his existence.
Martha knows that the old man left everything to his son, even the money he promised Mary, he left it to Willie to give to her… so Martha wants Mary to act normal, like Willie is normal, until they get the money. Willie is dangerous though, and one night Mary finds herself alone with him and runs away.
Tim finds her and helps her taking her to a hospital, and with the police, he will find Willie’s body, murdered.
Mrs Daney tells Tim that poor Harry Stone left all his money to her in his will. Daney killed him and he was the heir of a man who died abroad, or something, and it’sa lot of money.
A bad mix of drugs and alcohol seems to be his end.
Lew Daney’s body is seen somewhere, come out of the water, and the truth is that all this time it was Harry. He had shot Daney before the other had a chance, and then Harry took all his papers and decided to get all his money, lettng everyone believe he was dead, and blaming it all on Lew - like, leaving clues that lead directly to Lew.
Now Harry dies of a heart attack, or something, so there’s nobody’s left. Only Mrs Daney, who will get lot of money.
Tim goes back to Mary, now she’s not marries anymore…
ITA Il bandito misterioso
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