In every story Clyde Clason has written he has woven his mystery around an unusual background of subject, and in this book, he surpassed himself. Nobody but he could so convincingly have woven into a modern American mystery story the strange customs and weird rites of colorful Tibet.

Adam Merriweather, a Chicago collector, buys an eighth century sacred Tibetan manuscript. This act sets in motion a series of events so strange and so weird that the reasoning of that practical homicide lieutenant, John Mack is substantially challenged, and only the calm intelligence and amazing cultural background of Theocritus Lucius Westborough, the mild little professor who meddles in murder, can save the day for justice.

When the seller of the manuscript was found murdered in a small hotel, one bit of evidence at the scene of the murder led to the house of Merriweather, so Mack had Westborough establish himself in that household. A second murder occurred, a murder which Westborough described later as having occurred between three “Heegh’s” and an “Oom” and although Lieutenant Mack was highly skeptical, Westborough showed wisdom in investigating the secret of the thunderbolt—because, had he not done so, he could not have proved that an eighth century manuscript was the agency employed to kill Adam Merriweather!Excitement, suspense, and an amazingly ingenious plot combine with the color and mystery of Tibet to make this one of the most surprising and original stories ever published.

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