Blue eyes and diamondsLemuel De BraOmniClassics · Literature
Blue eyes and diamonds
Lemuel De BraA woman who has pawned her wedding diamonds asks an old admirer in the police to arrange a convenient theft.
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About the book
Betty Danford has lost more money gambling than she can admit to her husband. Having pawned the diamond necklace he gave her and substituted an imitation, she devises a further deception: somebody should steal the false necklace, allowing the real stones to be sold without discovery. Detective Harry Milholland, who once hoped to marry her, becomes the reluctant audience for this supposedly simple plan. De Bra builds the short crime comedy around Betty's confidence that charm and careful instructions can control everyone involved. Each practical detail introduces another opportunity for events to escape her management. The story's suspense concerns less the identity of a thief than the moment at which an ingenious evasion may prove more difficult than the confession it was designed to avoid.
- Deception and trust
- Gambling consequences
- Comic miscalculation
Why read it
The premise reverses the usual detective assignment by having a client ask a policeman to help create a crime.
English story from Argosy All-Story Weekly, March 9, 1929