by Mabel Swift (Author)
Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson face a perplexing puzzle when the Duchess of Rothbury asks them for help.
What should have been a routine portrait by the sought-after artist Julian Devaux turns into a baffling mystery. Instead of her own image, the Duchess' recently-delivered painting shows a mysterious man seated in her library-a man she swears she's never let into her house.
The Duchess is not only concerned about the stranger in the painting, she is also worried that her likeness might appear in someone else's commissioned portrait, and someone might be gazing upon her likeness at that very moment. Concerned about her reputation and social standing, she asks Sherlock and Dr Watson to look into the matter using their utmost discretion.
Holmes and Watson begin their investigation and soon discover that the Duchess of Rothbury wasn't the only one who received a peculiar portrait that day. But how are they all linked? And where has the Duchess' original painting gone?