The Corbin necklace by Henry Kitchell Webster

"The Corbin Necklace" by Henry Kitchell Webster is a mystery novel written in the early 20th century. It follows a prominent Midwestern family on the eve of Judith Corbin’s wedding, when an infamous pearl necklace becomes the center of danger, pride, and intrigue. Narrated by a nearby family friend confined with a broken leg, the story watches sharp-eyed young Punch, reluctant bride Judy, their formidable grandmother, their strained mother Victoria, and returning Uncle Alec as a vanished heirloom exposes hidden loyalties and fault lines. The opening of the novel sets the scene: Punch frets that newspapers have announced the pearls as Judy’s wedding gift, the neighbor-narrator sketches the Corbin dynasty and its iron-willed matriarch, and Judy arrives home ambivalent about her marriage to Bruce Applebury. At The Oaks, Punch discovers the safe once left unlocked; tensions flare between Victoria and Mrs. Corbin over who should have the necklace; Judy hints at her grandmother’s morphine use; and Uncle Alec reappears from the Philippines. On the day the guests arrive, Judy abruptly feigns a sprained ankle after a jolting encounter, and that evening Mrs. Corbin invites her to wear the pearls—but the case proves empty, prompting Victoria to urge secrecy while Alec argues for detectives. The party continues: Judy hides a hastily delivered note in a vase, Punch keeps a nocturnal watch, glimpses a man in torn, pale pajamas heading upstairs, and encounters Miss Digby in the hall, until morning brings Punch a sudden idea about where to look, cutting the opening on a taut cliff. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

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About this eBook

Author Webster, Henry Kitchell, 1875-1932
Title The Corbin necklace
Original Publication New York: A. L. Burt Company, 1926.
Credits Susan E., David E. Brown, Edo Reich, Mary Fahnestock-Thomas, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive)
Reading Level Reading ease score: 83.5 (6th grade). Easy to read.
Language English
LoC Class PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature
Subject Detective and mystery stories
Subject Jewelry theft -- Fiction
Subject Families -- Fiction
Subject Weddings -- Fiction
Category Text
eBook-No. 76546
Release Date
Copyright Public domain in the USA.
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