An English author who gained fame with a series of novels about a raffish but lovable thief named Arthur J. Raffles, Ernest William Hornung also tried his hand at mystery and detective fiction, perhaps inspired by his brother-in-law, Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of master detective Sherlock Holmes. ..

"Rachel Minchin stands in the dock, accused of murdering the dissolute husband she was preparing to leave. The trial is sensational, and public opinion vehemently and almost universally against her. ...