Dorcas Dene, detective : Her adventures by George R. Sims
"The romance of the Oxford colleges" by Francis Henry Gribble is a historical account written in the late 19th century. It likely tours Oxford’s constituent colleges, tracing their origins, traditions, notable figures, and architectural charms while weaving in anecdote and legend for general readers. The opening of the narrative provided here instead introduces Dorcas Dene, a former actress turned private detective, through a dramatist-narrator who reconnects with her after years apart. We
learn her backstory, her blind husband Paul, their wry “council of four” (including her mother and a bulldog), and then see two early cases: first, the disappearance of young Lord Helsham, which Dorcas cracks by going undercover at a theatre, deducing his suicidal intent, and uncovering a birth-swapping secret that she resolves discreetly by staging a false death and restoring the rightful succession. Next, posing as a nurse, she unravels the “man with the wild eyes” mystery at Orley Park: Maud Hargreaves has secretly married Victor Dubois, who, now mentally ill, attacks her by a lake and then drowns; Dorcas proves the marriage, traces him via footprints, a hat, and a photograph, and secures a quiet inquest verdict of temporary insanity. The section closes with Dorcas, in yet another disguise, surveilling a trio at Richmond—signaling a fresh case to come. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
Read or download for free
For an overview of the different reading options, see our Reading Guide
| Reading Options | Url | Size | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Read now! | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77243.html.images | 299 kB | |||
| EPUB3 (E-readers incl. Send-to-Kindle) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77243.epub3.images | 303 kB | |||
| EPUB (older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77243.epub.images | 308 kB | |||
| EPUB (no images, older E-readers) | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77243.epub.noimages | 158 kB | |||
| Kindle | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77243.kf8.images | 405 kB | |||
| older Kindles | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77243.kindle.images | 390 kB | |||
| Plain Text UTF-8 | https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/77243.txt.utf-8 | 277 kB | |||
| Download HTML (zip) | https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/77243/pg77243-h.zip | 297 kB | |||
| There may be more files related to this item. | |||||
Similar Books
About this eBook
| Author | Sims, George R. (George Robert), 1847-1922 |
|---|---|
| Title | Dorcas Dene, detective : Her adventures |
| Original Publication | London: F.V. White & Co., 1897. |
| Contents | The Council of Four -- The Helsham mystery -- The man with the wild eyes -- The secret of the lake -- The diamond lizard -- The prick of a pin -- The mysterious millionaire -- The empty house -- The clothes in the cupboard -- The Haverstock Hill murder -- The brown bear lamp. |
| Credits | Payton D. Cooke |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | PR: Language and Literatures: English literature |
| Subject | Criminal investigation -- Fiction |
| Subject | England -- Fiction |
| Subject | Detective and mystery stories, English |
| Subject | Women private investigators -- Fiction |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 77243 |
| Release Date | Nov 16, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 267 downloads in the last 30 days. |
| Project Gutenberg eBooks are always free! | |