Captain Rider Sandman, who returned to his homeland after the end of the Napoleonic Wars, is asked to conduct an investigation into a murder case. The condemned man claims to be innocent, and Sandman can only save him from the noose by finding the real killer. His search leads him from the underworld of London to a narrow circle of members of an aristocratic club. The fascinating narrative of the investigation is imbued with the atmosphere of the Regency era - England of the 1810s. The novels included in this volume are abridged by Reader's Digest Association, Inc. by special agreement with publishers, authors and copyright holders. All characters and events described in the novels are fictitious. Any coincidence with real events and people is an accident