Publisher's Synopsis
For the story is not only a splendid bit of fiction, finely conceived and vividly wrought out, but it has the rare merit of appealing to the two classes that go so far towards making up the general reading public-those who, on the one hand, are attracted by the narrative, the mere outward presentation of a series of events; and those, on the other, to whom mere externals are as nothing, whose interest is aroused only when the marks of the dissecting-knife are plainly visible, and the mysterious workings of some beating heart or throbbing brain, of which these extrinsic actions are but the expression, are set forth. It is this happy combination of objective and subjective treatment, which makes of ' The Steel Hammer' a story worthy of Gaboriau," while at the same time it is a study of the human conscience which might have evolved itself from the mind of Balzac.The tale is founded upon a midnight murder in the Bois de Boulogne, but is built up out of the conflicting emotions in two human breasts, the vivisection of two women's hearts. The victim of the assassin is Pierre Mortier, who on the day of his death has fallen heir to an uncle's property. Jean Mortier, his cousin, has been cut off from the heritage without a penny. The two kinsmen are seen in the afternoon of the day when the will is read, leaving the office of the notary together, apparently in the midst of a heated dispute. In truth, the unhappy Jean is begging his cousin for a small share of the money to stave off his creditors. This Pierre refuses, and Jean threatens suicide...
