Not a lot of mystery in this gem, but a good story full of greed, deceit,jealousy, despair, attempted assassination, true love and perseverance, and finally revenge. A well-told story worthy of a read.

Cleek, Cleek, Cleek! Give me anything Cleek to read!!! With more character than Sherlock Holmes, Cleek is indeed a man of a thousand faces. The Purple Emperor is a precious gem... stunning progression of plot and rich multi-faceted characters.

An intricate plot worthy of Dumas pere, and street characters and scenes a la Dickens, this book is about scamming the rich by using poor, future-less innocents, exploiting them and bringing them into their schemes. The book builds you up and then leaves you hanging, compelling you to read the Champdoce Mystery to discover what it was all done for.

A good read but lacks the richness of language and intrigue of the preceding novels in the series, and is seriously inferior to The Count of Monte Cristo. Characters you wish had perished in the preceding novels return with an annoying vengeance, both literally and figuratively, and the justice Monte Cristo inflicted on his wrong-doers comes back to haunt him where it hurts most dear.

A 19th Century legal thriller which is a must for fans of Grisham. An early morning fire, accompanied by an attempted assassination on a local count draws readers in from the first words, and keeps them enthralled on a roller coaster ride of detective-legal intrigue. Gaboriau was a best-selling author in his day, and inspired the style of Fergus Hume. Excellent read!