The quiet understated detective!This volume, the first of two that collects all the stories of Martin Hewitt, detective extraordinaire who solves cases with the same elan as Sherlock Holmes but in a quieter, less flamboyant way. Hewitt was created at a time when Doyle had killed off Holmes and the void was being filled by others. An artist's work is savagely vandalized, and the artist murdered. Gold bullion mysteriously vanishes from the ill-fated steamship Nicobar as it sinks en route to Plymouth. A clerk disappears from a large London bank along with a huge sum of money. A lunatic Frenchman, found beaten and bloody in the street, screams when offered a loaf of bread. An adopted daughter is at danger of losing all her inheritance. Just some of the mysteries to be unravelled by Martin Hewitt.