The Corbin Necklace

A shattered leg and a house fire leave the narrator sidelined just as the Corbin family hurtles toward a wedding shadowed by a famous pearl necklace, old resentments, and whispered scandal. From his sickbed and through the sharp eyes of thirteen-year-old Punch, he watches The Oaks—a vast, fortified house where wealth, secrecy, and control have long ruled the family. At the center stands the formidable grandmother, whose grip on the Corbin fortune has shaped every marriage, rivalry, and compromise, especially Victoria's uneasy life with her daughter-in-law and her daughter Judy's reluctant betrothal to Bruce Applebury. When Judy visits, bright, blunt, and disturbingly detached, she hints at hidden damage beneath the polished preparations, even speaking of her grandmother's secret morphine use. Then the necklace itself becomes the focus: a rumored wedding gift, a possible theft, and perhaps the key to something far darker. As Mr. Smith investigates, suspicion deepens into a chilling theory that the real jewel may have vanished, and that murder may be part of the story. But the clues are tangled in family loyalties, evasions, and Judy's own strange, controlled behavior, making The Oaks feel less like a home than a trap closing in. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.