The Chinese Jar

A man is found poisoned at the foot of Cleopatra's Needle on London's Embankment, apparently having taken his own life. His identity is a mystery that Octavius Rixton (alias Octavius Fanks, detective) is determined to solve. A mysterious cryptogram leads Fanks to believe that oriental antiquities may provide the clue to the dead man's story. But what is the mystery of the Chinese Jar?

Originally published in 1893, this is the second novel to feature Fergus Hume's gentleman-detective Octavius Fanks and is a must for all fans of Victorian crime fiction.