The Bandbox

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Pages: 171

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About this book

Homesick in London and distracted by love, Benjamin Staff decides to leave his unfinished play and book passage to New York. At the steamship office, a small, mischievous fellow named Iff catches his attention by teasing the clerk and taking an interest in Staff's arrangements. The encounter gives Louis Joseph Vance's novel its opening mixture of romantic impatience, suspicion and comedy, with ordinary travel plans becoming the entrance to an adventure.

A later scene finds Staff waiting through the night for Miss Searle to arrive with a necklace, which he intends to take to Miss Landis. Iff's jokes continue even as Staff prepares for possible trouble and struggles to stay awake. Brisk exchanges sit beside descriptions of city sounds and the uneasy stillness before dawn. Readers drawn to mysteries with a comic voice will find a story that brings romance, guarded conversations and anxious practical decisions into close company.

About the author

Louis Joseph Vance

Louis Joseph Vance (1879-1933) was an American novelist and a prolific writer of popular adventure and crime fiction. He is best remembered for creating the Lone Wolf, the gentleman-thief Michael Lanyard, whose exploits ran through many novels and were adapted into numerous silent and sound films.