The Master Mystery

"The Master Mystery" by Arthur B. Reeve and John W. Grey is a serialized mystery novel written in the early 20th century. The narrative unfolds around the character of Peter Brent, a wealthy businessman involved in dubious dealings with inventors, while also highlighting the conflicts he faces with his partner, Herbert Balcom. The book weaves themes of betrayal, greed, and the supernatural, featuring a strange automaton that plays a central role in the unfolding mystery. At the start of the story, Peter Brent's internal struggle is palpable as he deals with a confrontational inventor demanding justice for the suppression of his invention. Amidst this tension, we are introduced to several other key characters, including Quentin Locke, a young manager in Brent's lab, and Eva Brent, Peter's daughter, who remains blissfully unaware of the darker dealings of her father. As the plot develops, ominous warnings surface about a "Madagascar madness," hinting at peril and insanity. The opening chapters set the stage for a thrilling mix of corporate intrigue, personal conflicts, and mysterious threats that suggest a larger conspiracy is at play. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Arthur Benjamin Reeve was an American mystery writer. He is known best for creating the series character Professor Craig Kennedy, sometimes called "The American Sherlock Holmes", and Kennedy's Dr. Watson-like sidekick Walter Jameson, a newspaper reporter, for 18 detective novels. Reeve is famous mostly for the 82 Craig Kennedy stories, published in Cosmopolitan magazine between 1910 and 1918. These were collected in book form; with the third collection, the short stories were published grouped together as episodic novels. The 12-volume publication Craig Kennedy Stories was released during 1918; it reissued Reeve's books-to-date as a matched set.