Just Sleep - Bedtime Stories for Adults · Bedtime Stories with Taesha Glasgow

The Duchess of Wiltshire's Diamonds - Classic Sleep Story

·57 min·5 clips

Simon Karn measures the Duchess's jewel case, plotting to steal her priceless diamonds.

This Just Sleep Podcast episode features a soothing bedtime reading of Guy Boothby's Victorian mystery story. Simon Carn is introduced as a fascinatingly dual character: to fashionable London society, he is a wealthy, hunchbacked Indian art collector named Simon Karn; secretly, he is also the celebrated private detective Climo, whose offices happen to be next door — connected by a hidden passage through a wardrobe. Carn's hump is a papier-mache prop that he removes when he puts on his detective disguise. The story opens with Carn's elegant arrival in London, introduced into aristocratic society by Lord Amberley, whom he had met in India. Within days he is invited to the Amberley dinner, where he meets the Duchess of Wiltshire and immediately targets her famous necklace of three hundred diamonds valued at fifty thousand pounds. He learns the necklace is kept in an exquisitely carved Benares jewel box and kept in a bank-vault between wearings. Over several visits he charms the Duchess into agreeing to lend him the jewel box — without the necklace — for the day of her upcoming ball, supposedly to illustrate it for an art book. He takes careful measurements of the box. He then presents the dimensions and design to Wajib Bakhsh and Hiram Singh, two brilliantly skilled Indian craftsmen in his household, who manufacture a spring-loaded false bottom mechanism: when the box is locked, hidden springs drive false quilted panels flat across the floor of the box, concealing whatever lies beneath, making the box appear empty. Carn tests the mechanism with a counterfeit diamond necklace and finds it works perfectly. On the morning of the Duchess's ball, he collects the real jewel case, spends the day having his craftsmen install the mechanism into the real box, then returns it personally to the Duchess at the ball with charm and an open-lid inspection to confirm no damage. The Duchess places the real necklace into the box herself that night, locks it, and the Duke secures it in the safe. The next morning the Duke unlocks the safe and takes out the box — but before delivering it to the bank, briefly leaves it unattended in his study, allowing Carn (presumably) to substitute the contents. That morning Lord Amberley arrives at Carn's house in distress to report that the Duchess's necklace has vanished, and notes that the case has been sent to Climo the detective — who is, of course, Simon Carn himself.

As heard by us

A calm, stately mystery reading that leans on detail and bedtime atmosphere.

This reading stays with the old story of Clemo and the Duchess's diamonds, and it cares more about mood than momentum. The pace is careful and unhurried, which fits the bedtime framing and gives the piece a calm, stately feel.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for an old detective story read to help you relax and drift off to sleep.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Just Sleep - Bedtime Stories for Adults