The Incident of the Wife’s Double and the Tragedy at the Masked Ball

By Percy Andreæ and John Betanocurt

Percy Andreae (1858–1924) was an English-American brewer and influential anti-prohibitionist during the early part of the 20th century. He was born in Clapham, London to a German father, Carl Andreæ of Frankfurt, and an English mother, Emilie Sillem. During the 1890s, Andreae published short stories and novels, many of which first appeared in The Windsor Magazine. His fiction drew on his roots, incorporating international mystery and suspense with adventure, set in the height of the Victorian era. The hero of “The Emperor’s Detective” series is a British man-for-hire who finds himself working for a very interesting employer, one who has no qualms about assigning him impossible cases.

"The Incident of the Wife’s Double and the Tragedy at the Masked Ball" is the fourth in the The Emperor's Detective series.

Includes a new introduction by John Betancourt.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wildside Press
• Release date: Aug 3, 2021
• ISBN: 9781479461363

Book preview

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

INTRODUCTION

THE INCIDENT OF THE WIFE’S DOUBLE AND THE TRAGEDY AT THE MASKED BALL

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

Copyright © 2021 by Wildside Press LLC.

Introduction copyright © 2021 by John Betancourt

Language and punctuation has been modernized when necessary.

Originally published in The Windsor Magazine (1898).

INTRODUCTION

Percy Andreæ (1858–1924) was an English-American brewer and influential anti-prohibitionist during the early part of the 20th century. He was born in Clapham, London to a German father, Carl Andreæ of Frankfurt, and an English mother, Emilie Sillem. During the 1890s, Andreae published short stories and novels, many of which first appeared in The Windsor Magazine.

His fiction drew on his roots, incorporating international mystery and suspense with adventure, set in the height of the Victorian era. The hero of The Emperor’s Detective series is a British man-for-hire who finds himself working for a very interesting employer, one who has no qualms about assigning him impossible cases.

Andreæ immigrated to the United States in 1896. He settled in Cincinnati before moving to Chicago, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1914. Shortly after his immigration, Andreæ abandoned fiction writing for a career in brewing. He soon became involved in politics when the rising temperance movement threatened his livelihood. After the Anti-Saloon League made sweeping victories in the 1908 Ohio state elections, Andreae formed a resistance group, The National Association of Commerce and Labor, which fought temperance organizations on the national level. (It largely employed former state Senators and Representatives to further its work.) Andreæ died in Winnetka, Illinois, aged 65.

But back to our interests, his books include:

Stanhope of Chester: A Mystery (1894)

The Mask and the Man: A Novel (1894)

The Signora: A Tale (1895)

The Vanished Emperor (1896)

A Life at Stake (1902)

I am pleased to present the 6-part series The Emperor’s Detective which ran in The Windsor Magazine in 1898. Enjoy!

—John Betancourt

Cabin John, Maryland

THE INCIDENT OF THE WIFE’S DOUBLE AND THE TRAGEDY AT THE MASKED BALL

PERCY ANDREÆ.

THE masked ball given in commemoration of the wedding of their Majesties the present Emperor and Empress of Arminia is, I am told, the first and, so far, the only instance of its kind recorded in the history of European court festivities. But the Emperor Willibald II.