[light wear to book at spine ends, vintage price sticket (J.W. Robinson Co.) on rear pastedown; jacket a little faded at edges and spine, tiny chip at bottom of front panel, about 1/2" paper loss at top of spine, a couple of other small nicks and tears]. One of several of this Danish attorney-writer's novels (many of them mysteries) to be published in the United States, this is the tale of a young man who discovers after the death of his father that "his only inheritance was a noble name, a mass of debts which fortunately were unknown to all but himself, and good credit." A man of letters (as they used to say) who wrote plays, histories, journalism, and even silent films, Rosenkrantz was a best-selling author prior to World War I, and is credited with establishing the crime novel as a literary genre in Denmark. An annual prize presented by the Danish Police College (Det danske Kriminalakademi) for the best crime novel published in Danish is named after him.