was an attempt by Mark Twain to cash in on the popularity of the mystery story. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had recently “killed off” Sherlock Holmes and perhaps Twain felt he could fill the void with his own variety of mystery. In November of 1893 he began a story called

which was concerned with stolen diamonds. His major problem was that he lacked a plot. This problem was solved about a year later when he met Lady Hegermann-Lindercrone at a social event in Paris. She related an actual occurrence from the sixteenth century, which had served as the basis for another book,

(1824) by Steen Steenson Belcher. Believing that how a story is told was really more important than the actual plot itself, Twain had no problem borrowing…

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Citation: Loges, Max Lester. "Tom Sawyer Detective". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 October 2017 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8396, accessed 25 November 2024.]