In the opulent yet shadowed halls of the Marshbitter estate, Beethoven’s ‘Waldstein Sonata’ echoes through the air, filling the corridors with its haunting melody. But the music is shattered by a chilling discovery—John Marshbitter’s lifeless body in his private library. The weapon? A distinctive cobra-shaped candlestick, an artefact as enigmatic as the crime itself. The dead man’s mother secures the services of Dexter Drake, a master detective renowned for his razor-sharp intellect and unorthodox methods. As he tries to uncover the Marshbitter family’s hidden motives and clandestine relationships, Drake encounters a cryptic letter foreshadowing doom and a witness who may hold the key to the crime—the pianist, who never ceased playing, even as murder was committed just beyond the door. First published in 1928, ‘The Cobra Candlestick’ presents a world where danger lurks in the most unexpected places, and the line between innocence and guilt blurs with each twist.