The Melody of Death

The Melody of Death is a novel about a young man who starts behaving strangely upon hearing a certain melody. The smashing of the great jewel safe of Gilderheim, Pascoe and Company was plainly the work of skilled professionals. At nine-forty in the evening Gilderheim, after classifying the stones, had locked 60,000 worth of diamonds in the safe. But in spite of the precautions taken against cracksmen, when the office was opened the following morning it was found that the safe had been forced and that valuable contents were missing. Gilbert Standerton, nephew of irascible old General Standerton, might have cleared up the matter by telling what he knew of the affair to the police. For reasons of his own he preferred not to, and for even better reasons George Wallis, a criminal well-known to Scotland Yard, kept his knowledge of the affair secret. And then begins a long series of extraordinary crimes, so baffling that they defy detection until, in a startling manner, the dual mystery is unexpectedly solved.