The three glass eyes: A story of to-day

The Three Glass Eyes by William Le Queux is a mystery-thriller novel written in the early 20th century. It follows upright estate agent Arthur Hudson as he collides with the ruthless American financier Ventris Blake, whose polished public image hides a predatory will, while Arthur’s love for Winifred Pontifex is imperiled by scandal and intrigue. Expect a blend of society drama, crime, and conspiracies as Arthur and his journalist friend Paul Renishaw fight to clear his name and unmask Blake’s designs.

The opening of the novel sets up a web of menace and deception: Blake strong-arms Arthur into letting a peculiar garret with a sloping roof, then news breaks that Blake’s wife has been murdered near Scarborough. Blake bursts into a family dinner and produces a marriage certificate naming Arthur as the dead woman’s husband, which Arthur vehemently denies as Langford forbids him from seeing Winifred; Paul alone stands by him, and Winifred affirms her faith. A parallel plot shows Vera Langford’s jealous entanglement with actor Jules Prendergast: desperate for money and enraged by his flirtation with star Flora Kaufmann, she chloroforms a telegraph boy to read a message and then secures £5,000 from Blake in exchange for helping drive Winifred away from Arthur. Meanwhile, Arthur and Paul split their investigation—Paul to Peterborough to probe the supposed marriage witnesses, and Arthur to the rented room, where he finds an eerie, early-Victorian setup dominated by three uncanny glass eyes and crosses paths with a hostile caretaker whose wife’s name matches a witness on the certificate, deepening the mystery.