The Ivory Snuff Box

Richard Duvall has been married for barely an hour when an urgent police assignment interrupts his honeymoon plans. Sent from Paris toward London, the detective must recover an ivory snuff box belonging to the French ambassador. The task sounds trivial to him, yet the prefect insists that national interests are involved. His companion, the elderly shopkeeper Dufrenne, once repaired the box and can identify it.

Frederic Arnold Kummer builds this detective novel around the gap between an ordinary object and the importance others attach to it. Duvall's frustration with official duty gives the opening a personal stake, while his wife Grace also undertakes work assigned by the prefect. The excerpts move through crowded Paris streets, railway travel, hotel rooms and preparations for an evening engagement. Readers who enjoy mysteries involving diplomatic affairs will find secrecy and watchfulness mixed with the practical problems of keeping a small, much sought object safe.