The Diamond Coterie

"The Diamond Coterie" by Lawrence L. Lynch is a late 19th-century detective story that begins in the wealthy town of W----, which has been upended by two scandalous events. The first is a shocking burglary where the famous Wardour diamonds, belonging to Miss Constance Wardour, are stolen, and the second involves the elopement of Miss Sybil Lamotte, a high-society girl, with a man named John Burrill, who has a questionable reputation. The story is told through the eyes of the collected Miss Wardour, who, with the help of Detective Mr. Neil Bathurst, tries to recover her stolen diamonds and solve the mystery of the town's tangled relationships. The start of the novel sets the stage for a complex investigation into theft and social intrigue within the elite circles of W----, filling the novel with suspenseful twists and turns.